Piranha: The Biting Chomping Classic

• 

Piranha was directed by Joe Dante, written by John Sayles and produced by the great King of the B's Roger Corman (he was the executive producer). This film, being named after a rather nasty fish, clearly was meant to cash in on the great success of Steven Spielberg`s Jaws. Just like Jaws, it is about killer fish who attack swimmers. Instead of one shark our protagonists have to deal with dozens of piranhas.

The full story sounds somewhat like this. A mad scientist created mutated piranhas for the military. The idea was to use them in the Vietnam War. Now, as they aren't being used for their original purposes, they are a threat to the people of a small town. There is a little more to be told about the story. It starts with teenagers being killed off by the piranhas and there is also a subplot about the lead`s daughter (he is a father). You can probably tell by my, kind of vague, summarization that this is a typical creature-feature. That being said, you should still give Piranha a chance. This movie is directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins) and he really did a great job.

In one of the most memorable scenes, our two main characters enter the mad scientist`s laboratory. Inside the laboratory we see a small stop-motion creature. This pays homage to legendary artist Ray Harryhausen. The movie also shows an arcade game based on the movie Jaws in an early scene. Joe Dante once said, that he saw Piranha as some kind of a Jaws parody and this clearly shows in scenes like the one with the arcade. What I'd also like to acknowledge, is that the underwater sequences look great. This is a movie with some fantastic scenes. I really like the look of the piranha attack-scenes and most of the gore is really good. The worst you can say about the lesser scenes is that they look typical for a Roger Corman production.

Next to Joe Dante as the director, we also get other great names. Rob Bottin worked on the special effects (which a great for this kind of movie) and Barbara Steele is part of the supporting cast. Most of the acting isn't that great, but it sure is entertaining. Actually this is what you can say about most of Piranha.

So this movie isn`t just another Jaws rip-off. It is quite an enjoyable b-movie. And if you are someone who enjoys a creature-feature, you should probably give this one a watch.

Reviewed by Franz Krauel