“Piranha” (1978)

Studio: New World Pictures
Starring: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Barbara Steele, Dick Miller
Directed by: Joe Dante
Rated: R
Running Time: 92 min.

Synopsis: Deadly man-eating piranha are invading a river in a small Texas town.

REVIEW

Chris Woods

Since the release of Jaws in 1975, the water has not been a safe place to go and has been the perfect setting for many horror filmmakers to create their terror. The 1978 film Piranha is one of those horror films that came out during the Jaws craze, but Piranha was not just a rip-off of Jaws, it had its own identity. Joe Dante, the director of the film and cult great Roger Corman, who produced the film, made a very cool entertaining and scary film that almost gave the great white a run for its money.

The movie is about an investigator, Maggie (Heather Menzies) who is looking for two missing teens in a small country town in Texas. She gets the help of a local, Paul (Bradford Dillman) who lives out in the woods, to help her search for the teens. They come across an old army plant where they use to conduct experiments. After finding the teens back packs and discovering some weird looking fish, Maggie is certain that something happened to the teens. The answer might lie in the pond outside. Maggie starts to drain the pond, but the doctor there on duty (played by Kevin McCarthy from Invasion of the Body Snatchers fame) tries to stop her. He is unable to and after the damage is done he informs him that there was a breed of intelligent deadly piranha in that pond and now they are released out in the river. Now the three have to warn a whole town, which include a summer camp off the river and a new water front park.

There is a lot to like about this movie. There were plenty of scares throughout the film and are done with great suspense. The scene in the beginning where the two teens stumble across the army plant and take a swim in the pond and eventually meet their fate by the piranhas is done very well and establishes the mood for the film. Another part that is a stand out is when Paul’s friend Jack (Keenan Wynn) is fishing on his dock with his legs dangling in the water and the piranhas attack. He is later found dead with his legs ripped off. This was a scene that always stuck out for me even when I first saw it years ago.

The film also does not take itself too seriously and ejects some humor in the mix. In my opinion this method could be disastrous when adding some comedy to a horror film, but for Piranha it works and most of the humor is done for comic relief and not mixed in during the scary scenes with the fish. Although there are a few parts in the film that are a bit silly that they could have done without, for the most part, the whole movie was done very well.

Piranha also has a number of genre favorites both in front of the camera and behind it. As I mentioned before Kevin McCarthy is cast as a crazed but likable doctor and does a great job at it. Barbara Steele has a small, but memorable role as a scientist who is trying to stop or covering up the piranha outbreak. Dick Miller, who was in many of Corman’s films in the 60’s like the The Terror and Bucket of Blood, plays a corrupt businessman who is in charge of the water park. Heather Menzies who plays Maggie was in Sound of Music and later starred in another animal gone wild film, Sssssss. Cult director and actor from Eating Raoul and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School fame, Paul Bartel plays the asshole head camp counselor. Others include Belinda Balaski who went on to star in The Howling, soap star Melody Thomas Scott who was also in The Fury and The Car, and veteran actor Keenan Wynn who has been in number of films ranging from Dr. Strangelove to Laserblast.

Some people behind the scenes of Piranha who are familiar genre names are, of course Roger Corman, who made many classic b-movies starting in the 1950’s. Joe Dante, who went on to director the werewolf classic The Howling, a portion of Twilight Zone: The Movie, and the 80’s classic, Gremlins. The writer of the film, John Sayles, also wrote many classic horror films of the 80’s like Alligator, The Howling and also directed films like the critically acclaimed film Lone Star.

Piranha is a film to definitely check out if you love great classic b-movie horror films of the 70’s and 80’s. There are also some great extras on the DVD, which include behind the scenes home movies, bloopers, and outtakes. There is a great featurette that has recent interviews from some of the cast and crew, plus there are deleted scenes from the film that was used in the television broadcast. So, check out Piranha and you will never want to go in any ocean, lake, river, pond, or pool ever again.