Piranha

The 1978 Roger Corman produced picture Piranha was about…well, piranha. Killer fish escape a government research lab and kill hapless vacationers, fishermen, and scientists. The film could have been real hokey if not for writer John Sayles and director Joe Dante. The two of them would become very successful in Hollywood with the release of The Howling. The cast is full of familiar faces such as Kevin McCarthy, Paul Bartel, Dante regulars Robert Picardo and Dick Miller, and Barbra Steele. The effects are cheesy but that's part of the fun. I believe that they made the best movie about menacing fish that they could. It has just the right mix of comedy and terror and it's entertaining. The Jaws video game was a nice touch too.

"They're eating the guests, sir."

Piranha is cheesy 70s/80s creature films at their very best! It has everything - evil military generals, obligatory lake celebrations, scientific experimentation gone wrong, horrible dialogue, low-budget effects, and more. It's clear as you watch the film that Piranha was heavily influenced by Jaws, with the city ignoring the warnings of the dangerous underwater creature, the very similar movie poster, and much more. Steven Spielberg has even named it his favorite Jaws rip-off movie. This low-budget gem was a zeitgeist of creature horror cinema of the decade that didn't allow bad effects, poor acting, or no money to stop them from making their movies. The remakes in the 2000's just used this movie as an excuse to show a lot of nudity, and while there is a little nudity in Piranha (1978), it is much briefer than its predecessors. Pirahna (1978) focuses on letting the army of hungry fish gnaw on its helpless victims. This goofy little creature flick launched the career of director Joe Dante, who later collaborated with Steven Spielberg himself to make Gremlins - a real creature masterpiece! Piranha is no Gremlins, but it sure is a fun start to Dante's creepy creature-filled career.

Better than expected.

Having seen the 2010 version of Piranha (and the 2012 sequel, which was even worse) I really didn't expect much from this, the 1978 original. Turns out it's not bad, and better than I expected.

Starts very well - setting the scene, developing the plot and characters. There is a genuine feeling of intrigue and engagement. You keep thinking "How are they going to stop this?".

From a point, however, it does degenerate into a B-grade creature feature, with action, body count and gore being the main drivers. It also feels like a bad ripoff of Jaws.

However, for the most part it is reasonably enjoyable and worth the watch.

RELEASED IN 1978 and directed by Joe Dante, "Piranha" chronicles events when genetically-enhanced piranha are accidently released into a river system in central Texas, which threaten kids & counselors at a Summer Camp and vacationers at a lake resort. A spirited skip tracer (Heather Menzies) and a backwoods drunkard (Bradford Dillman) team-up to save the swimmers. Kevin McCarthy and Barbara Steele play military scientists who experimented with the escaped piranha.

While "Piranha" is sort of a "Jaws" (1975) knockoff, it's different enough to not be a rip-off: The story takes place in a river system deep in the mainland and not the ocean; the 'monster' consists of teams of little vicious fish rather than a huge Great White Shark; the beach sequences involve quaint campground-like beaches rather than major ocean beaches; unlike "Jaws," there's a focus on alluring young women, although "Jaws 2" (1978) delivered the goods in this area as well; there's more of a sense of adventure and even suspense; and the tone mixes-in amusing elements with the horrific mayhem.

As inferred, the picture is highlighted by several quality females with curvy Belinda Balaski (from "The Howling") and cutie Melody Thomas Scott (from The Young and the Restless) featured in prominent roles. Moreover, voluptuous Janie Squire has some worthy screen time in the prologue. There are superb women in the periphery as well. Interestingly, the 2010 quasi-remake, "Piranha 3D," took the sleaze route with loads of nudity, but the women are ironically hotter here, not to mention the film's all-around more entertaining.

THE MOVIE IS LEAN and filler-free at 93 minutes and was shot along a river near San Marcos in the heart of Texas, Northeast of San Antonio. WRITERS: John Sayles and Richard Robinson.

GRADE: A-

Scientists developed a variety of piranha which can live in fresh and salt water. Then the government project closed down, and they poisoned the water. But the fish survived, and eat Keenan Wynn.

It's a dumb-sounding idea for a film, one of the many movies that came out after the success of JAWS. Surprisingly, it's a funny spoof of the movie, from the posters based on the mega-hit's poster, to director Joe Dante having two-legged reptiles running around, to a silly pastiche of the beach scene. Writer John Sayles was so disgusted that he thought about giving up on film, returning to novels Instead, he took his earnings and made RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN, and Steven Spielberg thought it was so funny, you talked Universal out of a lawsuit and hired Dante.