Movie Info
Movie Name: Piranha
Studio: New Line Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movies
Release Date(s): August 3, 1978
MPAA Rating: R
Hey…I know this didn’t work for Rose on Titanic…but can you let me on?
Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies) has been hired to find two missing hikers in the Lost River Lake and Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) has been hired to help her. When Paul and Maggie drain a pool at an abandoned secret lab, they accidentally unleash genetically-engineered piranha into the local river. Now the piranha are headed down river toward the ocean and everything in their path is in danger…and if they reach the ocean, nothing will stop them!
Directed by Joe Dante, Piranha is a horror comedy which satirizes films like Jaws. Written by John Sayles, the film was released to positive reviews and a strong box-office and gained a cult following over the years.
Bad hiding places from piranha…rubber floating tubes…
I can remember renting Piranha and watching it over and over again with my friend. We didn’t necessarily understand the satire portion of the film, but the movie’s horror side still is strong enough to carry it for viewers who don’t. The movie might have started out as a mocking of Jaws, but it evolved into its own film.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong in an “animal attacks” horror movie happens in Piranha. You have the fish eating everything in their path and more and more potential food sources popping up which culminates in a camp and water park. It is both ridiculous and pretty horrific…leading to a weird balance that helps make the movie enjoyable.
The cast is also rather strong. Both Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies are solid and likable leads. Dante added a lot of genre faces to the movie including Kevin McCarthy as the mad scientist, Keenan Wynn as one of the piranhas’ early victims, Scream queen Barbara Steele, and other character actors like Richard Deacon, Paul Bartel, and Bruce Gordon all show up. Dante favorites Belinda Balaski and Dick Miller also make appearances with John Sayles in a cameo as a guard.
Piranhas really should eat more of the head instead of just wasting it.
While the art for Piranha promises a larger than life fish attacking swimmers, the piranha are largely fish on sticks. It is goofy but accompanied with the “piranha sound”, it actually can be pretty effective…the water bubbles, the blood flows, and horror starts. It is cheap but effective.
Piranha doesn’t take itself too seriously and that is why the film works and stands out among the other “animals attack” films that were released after Jaws. The movie boils down to horror and laughs and with a decent cast and look, it succeeds and holds up. The movie was remade for Showtime in 1995 this film (literally) spawned a sequel in the James Cameron directed Piranha II: The Spawning in 1981. Piranha received another semi-remake in 2010 with Piranha 3D.
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