Piranha

Original movie poster.

B-movie lovers of drive-ins, old school horror flicks, parodies & exploitation will certainly dig this 1978 classic produced, Fortunately, or unfortunately, by the legendary Roger Corman who, as we all movie freaks should know, sat out in Hollywood for three or four decades making low budget  a la exploitation style films. He also tried to cash in on every movie fad in those days current blockbuster cinema. You see, Roger had a dream to take an idea and make a profitable picture out of it that would entertain the masses. The problem was that someone else invariably had the idea first. A good example of this is Mr. George Lucas's "Star Wars" which allowed not only Corman but thousands of film directors to create their own space fantasy version slightly based on the original idea. Corman had its own space fantasy adventures with movies like "StarCrash", "Galaxy of Terror" & "Forbidden World" to name a few. There wasn't anything Corman couldn't do with someone else's idea. Perhaps the best example is today's flick "Piranha," a 1978 ripoff of Spielberg's "Jaws." This film made our man a lot of money, which allowed him to make even more spectacular ripoffs for years to come.

The good guys, Hermit boy and Pry Eye blonde.

Remains left by the now free captive Piranhas.

The not so mad scientist soon to be judged by its own creations.

The movie begins with a couple of kids breaking into some sort of abandoned fish hatchery for an evening erotic swim. "Something" in the water kills them good. Se We then see an insurance investigator named Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies) heading out to discover what happened to these two unfortunate night swimmers. She rather quickly hooks up with flanneled hermit Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) who lives in a cabin down by the river. Somehow or other Maggie convinces Paul to come with her to look for the missing teens, and that leads way to the abandoned fish hatchery. Sure enough they soon discover that something sinister has been going on there under the aegis of Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy). How do we find out about this? Because there's lots of nasty looking scientific stuff lying around all over the place. Anyway, Hoak eventually lets our two heroes in on a little secret: the government hired him to develop a breed of piranha as part of some biological weapons program.

A man and its noble destiny.

Scientists & the Military make up for a mean combination.

Luckily this girl's afraid of the water.

Summer camp gone wrong.

Fatality!

The real big deal begins right after our two heroes drain the fish hatchery pool to find the missing teenagers, inevitably causing the hatched piranha breed have to escape through the water to feed off on a full-scale assault on the human race. A few locals fall prey first, but the real threat is the summer camp and an aquatic park downriver. Just to ratchet up the emotional element of the film a bit, we also learn that Paul's daughter is currently attending the summer camp! Oh boy! It's a race against time as Paul and Maggie set out with Dr. Hoak in tow to stop the madness. As for the folks at the camp and the park, they haven't a clue as to what's coming for them. The only concern at the camp is Mr. Dumont (Paul Bartel), a guy who takes great joy in ordering kids into the water and snooping on the foxy female counselors. At the water park, the owner plans on making a bundle on opening day and that's their only concern. You can now predict mayhem it's on its way for sure. Screaming, blood red water, and a lot of  victims thrashing around on the beach in agonies. The swarms of piranha zipping through the water look so like the pieces of plastic they are that it's tough not to snicker. It's even worse when we see them up close chattering away on an exposed leg or belly but I guess that's something that will not scare away a good B movie fan anyways.

Exploitation was the thing of the 70's so here.

Janie Squire in her little acting role.

A movie poster variant.

At the same time, I did find a lot to like about the film. Seeing veteran horror actress Barbara Steele popping up from time to time as a government scientist named Dr. Mengers was a nice surprise, although she's largely wasted in the role. Kevin McCarthy plays frazzled well, and the script requires him to morph into a sniveling wimp for most of his screen time. Heck, we even see Richard Deacon (Mel from "The Dick Van Dyke Show") in a small role as Maggie's boss. Can't beat that. The talent behind the camera is moderately impressive too considering the budget. Joe Dante directed this flick, and John Sayles wrote the script. Both men went on to greater success, Dante with "Gremlins" and Sayles with "Eight Men Out," "The Howling," and several other mainstream movies. 

Here's the original movie trailer plus the "Piranha 3D" re-make trailer in case you feel you have enough bucks to waste.

So here's the lame remake trailer:





By the way, "Piranha" has been re-released to shiny HD Blu-Ray format as a part of the newly restored Roger Corman's Cult Classics collection.

Classics gone HD.

See you some time soon for another great B-Movie review!