1000 Jaws

After Jaws was released in 1975, people were terrified of swimming in the ocean with the fear of a giant monster waiting to feed on their flesh. With the success of Jaws came tons of Jaws ripoffs including Orca, Tentacles, Devil Fish, Up From The Depths and in 1978 Joe Dante gave us one of the better films giving us just another reason to fear the water...Piranha.

This was Dante's third film and as we all know he would go on to direct such classics as Howling, Gremlins, Rock n' Roll High school, Twilight Zone the movie and the burbs. Even as an early entry to Dante's catalog, Piranha showcases the talent of a young director and the promise of great films to come.

The film opens with a couple of young backpackers, David and Barbara who stumble upon a military base that looks to be abandoned. When they discover a reservoir next to the base they make the bad decision of going for a swim, soon they are attacked by an unseen underwater predator that rips them to pieces in seconds. Barbara's parents hire an investigator named Maggie (Played by heather Menzies) to find their daughter and her traveling companion. Maggie travels to the area the two backpackers were last seen. Maggie soon meets local Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) who is living in a cabin in the woods of the large mountainous range. He claims to know nothing about the backpackers but agrees to take her to the military facility. Once they arrive at the facility they discover the pond and inside they find a laboratory that seems to be a genetic testing area for animals. There is a strange creature living in the building that seems to be the product of a genetic test gone wrong, this little creature looks hilarious and the effects are done with stop-motion animation of which so many films of the primitive years of special effects used for creatures like this before the ease of CGI effects. Paul and Maggie decide to drain the pond and in the process they discover the bones of the two backpackers. They also meet up with Dr. Hoak (Kevin Mcarthy) who tells them that the piranha in the pond were developed by him for use in the Vietnam war, but once the military canned the operation, Hoak remained at the base to continue the research with the mutant fish. Hoak then tells Paul and Maggie when they drained the pond they released scores of flesh devouring piranha into open water. This begins the series of attacks on men, women and kids swimming in the area, in vicious attack scenes in which the victims are shredded to the bone by the fish with the razor teeth. The underwater shots are well done and make the viewer feel as though they are being attacked. The attack scenes are also very gory including a man getting his feet chewed off and a man eaten in half. Paul and Maggie are on a race to stop the killer fish before they reach the summer camp where Paul's daughter is.

Shot for 660,000, Piranha is a low budget film that is a lot of fun proving you don't need a big budget to make a fun summer movie. The acting at times is a bit cheesy but in a way works within the film. Barbara Steele makes an appearance as Dr. Mengers. Universal Studios attempted to sue New World for spoofing Jaws, but when Stephen Spielberg saw the film and loved it Universal dropped the lawsuit. This was Rob Bottin's first movie he did special effects for, later he would go on to create special effects for many classic film including what many consider a special effects masterpiece, the remake of the Thing. Piranha has become a cult film and has quite a large fan base, and deservedly so.

There is a good DVD of Piranha which includes all kinds of extras like making of featuretts and commentary with director Joe Dante.

Piranha is far from a perfect film but it is so much fun. There are so many Jaws ripoffs, some good and some bad, and Piranha really stands out as a must see if you are a fan of "Water Terror" films. There was a part two called Piranha: The Spawning, steer clear of this poorly made sequel. The final word is you should check out Piranha if you are a fan of low budget horror films that don't take themselves too seriously.

Rating: C+

Review by Jason.