Piranha

In the wake of "Jaws" came countless man vs. nature flicks with everything from bees to grizzly bears to frogs coming out to get man back for his crimes against the ecology (and don't forget "Night of the Lepus" in which huge bunny rabbits munched on hapless victims!) This film is considered one of the best imitators, primarily because of its tongue-in-cheek approach and it's deliberately campy writing and casting. Menzies is a hotshot missing persons expert who goes in search of two young hikers who have disappeared. She enlists the aid of hermit-like Dillman who lives near an abandoned government testing facility where the hikers were last suspected to have been. When they come upon a murky tank and believe the bodies could be at the bottom, Menzies releases the contents, unwittingly unleashing a school of vicious, genetically-altered piranha onto an unsuspecting river full of camp kids and park revelers. From there, it's a race against the clock to get to Dillman's young daughter who is about to enter a camp relay race in the water downstream. The film is deliberately peppered with actors who've made their mark in either horror or suspense films and it makes no pretenses about its lack of originality (though it does manage to come up with some despite itself!) Dillman (sporting an atrocious come-and-go Southern accent) and Menzies have a surprisingly decent rapport with each other with a few amusing scenes tossed in amongst all the panic. McCarthy pops up as a terrified scientist who knows his plans have gone awry. Wynn has a cameo as a gruff, but likable neighbor of Dillman's. Steele plays an ominous scientist in cahoots with Army colonel Gordon to keep the whole situation under wraps. Bartel is the persnickety camp counselor and Miller is the smarmy amusement park owner, both of whom disbelieve that there's any danger. Despite it's minuscule budget and rather homemade effects, the film does generate a bit of eye-opening gore and more than a little discomfort as these tiny fish nibble away at anything in the water. If "Jaws" caused people to avoid the ocean, this film could make people think twice about cloudy rivers and lakes! The murkiness of the water only adds to the horror of it all as the bikini-clad tourists and innertube-wielding kids can't begin to see what's coming. It's just a sting, then a nibble, then blood everywhere! Some of the effects are tacky and amusing, but there's a certain level of true fear as well. If one likes this genre to begin with, it will probably be a pleasure to watch. Others may be less enthralled.

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."

This was a peculiar rip-off to classic ¨Jaws¨ by Steven Spielberg; Piranha (1978) got much success as well, directed by Joe Dante and stars Bradford Dillman ,Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, Barbara Steele . Concerning an insurance investigator called Maggie (Heather Menzies) and her local guide, Paul (Bradford Dillman), search the Lost River Lake area to find two missing teenagers. When stumbling upon an abandoned army camp run by mad doctor Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy) who has been developing a mutant strain of fish, they then release by accident in the river some flesh-eating piranhas that were bred to use in the Vietnam war. The piranhas are heading straight to a nearby summer resort's lake and its guests just in time for spring break. As the piranhas attack and local police and our protagonists must work together to stop them. Piranhas make their way downstream to various swimming holes and resorts and in their own way wreaking havoc. There's Something in the Water. Don't Scream...Just Swim!. One perfect killer !. This summer, how fast can you swim? A hideous death lurked unseen in the river..!. They came downriver in their thousands. Their teeth could strip a living man to the bone in seconds. They're Here...And They're Hungry. Lost River Lake was a thriving resort - until they discovered...They're here...Hungry for flesh! Who can stop them?. Something you can't see...something you can't feel...until it's too late!. Then... you were shocked by the great white shark - Now... you are at the mercy of 1000 jaws!

Spoofy terror movie features the now-obligatory Dante film in-jokes in the background. It's a passable film with a creepy creation of tension, thrills, underwater terror, exploitation and lots of blood and gore , but being paced in tongue-in-cheek, B-style. The plot is well-known: an accident frees thousands of vicious piranhas from an abandoned military facility, causing bloody events with lots of gory scenes. The man-eating piranhas are released after a sudden accident and set free into a summer resort; they are delivering the goods as the guests become their next meal. John Sayles' witty script plays the action for laughs rather than chills, stealing wholesale from the plot of 'Jaws', while filmmaker Dante piles on the cinematic in-jokes and cheap FX. In fact , the piranha attacks images deliver emotion and tension united to a thrilling score by Pino Donaggio who heightens the suspense. And a breathtaking final attack on the 'Lost River Lake' causing loathing and extremely bloody massacre that took time to shot ; however, no cuts were demanded by the MPAA in spite of extreme bloodletting and gruesome frames. There are lots of scary and horrifying set pieces with plenty of gore, blood, amputation, removal of limbs that were professionally made by special makeup effects supervisors. Appearing here and there various familar faces giving sympathetic acting, such as: Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, Barbara Steele, Belinda Balaski, Melody Thomas, Barry Brown, Paul Bartel and Richard Deacon.

Followed by ¨Piranha II: the spawning¨ (1982) by James Cameron with Tricia O'Neal, Lance Henriksen, Steve Marachuk; an early Cameron exercice in gore tech that's a step down from original. Many years later, ¨Piranha 3D¨ (2010) by Alexandre Aja with Steven R. McQueen , Jerry O'Connell , Jessica Szohr , Kelly Brook , Riley Steele; producers and director pay tribute to Jaws (1975) and Piranha (1978) with various cinematic remarks , including a poster in the style of Jaws (1975) film franchise, with the monster at the bottom of the sea , and the potential victim on the surface high above sea. And ¨Piranha 3DD¨ (2012) by John Gulager with Danielle Panbaker , Matt Bush, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd , Gary Busey , Clu Gulager and special mention for David Hassellhoff.

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-

Not many movie-makers do parodies better than Joe Dante – the director who brought us The Howling (a werewolf movie parody), Gremlins (a monster movie parody), Innerspace (a Fantastic Voyage parody), The 'Burbs (a neighbours-from-hell parody) and Piranha (a Jaws parody). This 1978 comedy-horror is one of Dante's early movies, but despite that he shows an assured touch and gets generously tongue-in-cheek performances from his cast of horror veterans. While the film is never a truly great rival to the awesome Jaws, it is a fun and entertaining homage that has much going for it. Easily the strong point of this film is the gruesome make-up provided by whiz-kid Rob Bottin, but more will be said of that later.

A couple of teenagers go missing while trekking through the woods. Private eye Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies) goes searching for them, and discovers a burnt-out hermit Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) living on the mountainside who offers to help her in her hunt. McKeown and Grogan stumble upon a secluded military research centre where crazed scientist Dr. Hoak (Kevin McCarthy) is busily conducting experiments to create a strain of piranha fish able to survive in rivers and oceans, and always eager to devour anything in their way. The plan is to release these super-fish in enemy rivers, thereby making the entire river system too dangerous to use. McKeown and Grogan mistakenly release the piranhas into the local river, and realise that anyone using the river for recreation – including the bustling summer camp miles downstream – are now in desperate danger. The army is brought in, but instead of helping to solve the terrifying situation they seem more concerned with covering up the whole business. In particular, General Waxman (Bruce Gordon) has cause to keep the existence of the piranha secret, as he has invested his savings in the summer camp and doesn't want to scare away his paying customers. In a race against time, Grogan and McKeown try to release poison into the river to prevent the piranhas from devouring everyone in sight and proceeding to the ocean…..

Piranha is fast-moving, gory fun. It's nice to see Dillman in a heroic leading role after so many years of playing the supporting bad guy in numerous films. Menzies is fine as his partner-in-adventure, and there are great supporting roles for horror legends like Barbara Steele (as a military scientist), Dick Miller (as a cowboy entertainer) and Keenan Wynn (as Grogan's doomed buddy who lives at the riverside). As I said earlier, Rob Bottin provides some bloody make up effects that make some of the half-eaten victims look pretty yucky. The gently mocking script is by John Sayles, and is full of humorous references to earlier books and films along the same theme. The finale in which the holiday-makers fall foul of the piranha fish is packed with blood and guts, and should definitely appeal to gore-hounds. Even though the film keeps its tongue in its cheek, there are still some dumb moments along the way that mar credibility even on this level. For instance, Grogan spends much of the closing scenes underwater being attacked by the piranha…. earlier in the film we were made to believe that the piranha devoured their victims in literally a few seconds, but they seem to make ludicrously hard work of attacking Grogan while he's in the water (in fact, he surfaces after several minutes in the firing line with just a few bites, which seems somewhat fortuitous!!) Piranha is enjoyable, though, and should be well received by genre addicts.