PIRAHNA (1978)
a film by Joe Dante
starring Bradford Dillman, Barbara Steele, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller
written by John Sayles and Richard Robinson
a New World Pictures release MPAA rating: R (for bloody violence, nudity, adult language) on video: yes (Warner Home Video; may be deleted from their catalog)
genre: man vs. nature, sci-fi recommendation: very high for fans of campy humor and B-movie antics
Here's an infectiously entertaining little horror film that apparently did reasonably well at drive-ins and seedy little theaters worldwide (making higher profits than "Jaws", its obvious predecessor, in several third world countries). It's great, mostly because the people who were behind it are great too: Joe Dante is now a very inventive commercial/big budget director who later manned the helm of "Gremlins", "Innerspace", and this summer's "Small Soldiers", while John Sayles, one of the most original and fiercely independent filmmakers in recent history, went on to make classics like "Return of the Secaucus Seven", "Matewan", and "Lone Star".
And they got their start at the drive-in, with features like "The Howling" (1981), "Battle Beyond the Stars", (1980) and the seriously underrated "Alligator" (1980) - films that bear repeated viewings, simply as well-made and entertaining homages to the handful of B movies made by talented folks who used small budgets to their advantage and concentrated on their own skills as filmmakers to pick up the slack. Producer Roger Corman has a knack for finding people who fit this build. and when it came time to make "Piranha", he knew just where to go.
The film opens with action, and pretty much keeps its pace up throughout the film. A reporter named Grogan (Bradford Dillman) with a drinking problem meets up with Maggie (Heather Menzies), a skip tracer. Turns out they're both looking for the same missing person. Before you know it, a frenzied, delusional scientist (Kevin McCarthy, who had the lead in the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") has them rushing towards Lost River Lake. Turns out that the doctor was working on a mutant strain of super-fast, super-deadly piranha for use against Viet Cong troops, and thousands of his specimen were accidentally released into the water and are making a beeline for the Aquarena, a new timeshare vacation site on the reservoir. On the way, the killer fish will pass a summer camp along the river at which Grogan's daughter will be swimming. And guess what. NOBODY WILL BELIEVE THEM. Certainly not the police, who have recently pulled Grogan in on a drunk and disorderly charge. Certainly not Buck Gardner (the ubiquitous Dick Miller), the shyster owner of the cheap-ass Aquarena, who can't handle such bad publicity on his investment in its opening weekend. And certainly not Army personnel Col. Flaxman (Bruce Gordon), an unspoken investor in the Aquarena, or Dr. Mengers (Barbara Steele), a "fish expert" who knows more about the problem than she's led to believe.
Once you get past the actual pirahna effect (they look like clay triangles quickly scooting about in straight lines through cloudy water), it's actually possible to enjoy this thing. One of the things that stands out abut the film are the actual pirahna attack scenes. They're done on a budget, but that's beside the point - they're staged with a mix of panic, comedy, and doom that makes waiting for them extremely worthwhile. Once the pirahna get near people in the water, nobody is safe. Everybody gets hurt. Especially the children! When camp counselor Dumont (Paul Bartel) puts his face near the water, one of the fish actually jumps out and bites him. And the classic deadpan, delivered by a waiter on the investor's pontoon boat to the Dick Miller character: "Sir, it's the pirahna. They're eating the guests."
The ending is a little ridiculous, and some of the scenes are shot so tightly it's easy to recognize repeated images. But all in all, "Pirahna" delivers as one of the best low-budget horror films of the '70s, and you should go watch it today.
Copyright 1998 by Douglas P. Mosurak marumaru@andrew,cmu.edu
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