Piranha (1978) New World/Horror-Comedy RT: 92 minutes Rated R (violence, bloody images, nudity, some language) Director: Joe Dante Screenplay: John Sayles Music: Pino Donaggio Cinematography: Jamie Anderson Release Date: August 3, 1978 (US) Cast: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, Barbara Steele, Belinda Balaski, Melody Thomas, Bruce Gordon, Barry Brown, Paul Bartel, Shannon Collins, Shawn Nelson, Richard Deacon, Janie Squire. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *** ½
From the creative mind of B-movie producer Roger Corman comes Piranha, a blatant rip-off of the mega-successful Jaws. Neither the film nor the filmmaker makes any apologies for this and why should they? Who says that Spielberg has a monopoly on the “man vs. nature” subgenre anyway?
Besides, Piranha is 100% tongue-in-cheek (one character is even shown playing a Jaws video game!), so one could argue that the filmmakers made a spoof of the Jaws-subgenre of horror movies, and it would be a valid argument. Even the opening sequences are similar, with the malicious underwater beasties attacking a young girl swimming in the nude.
A young couple backpacking through the woods come across a seemingly abandoned military facility and sneak onto the property. They decide to go skinny dipping in a pool located on the premises then something attacks them and pulls them under the water.
Insurance investigator Maggie McKeown (Menzies, The Sound of Music) sets out to find the missing teens and hires drunken local Paul Grogan (Dillman, The Enforcer) to be her guide through the wooded and mountainous terrain. They also come across the aforementioned military compound and break into the place to investigate after finding evidence of the teens’ presence next to the pool. When Maggie goes to drain the pool, a crazy man jumps out and attacks her in an attempt to stop the water from draining into the river. Grogan manages to subdue the man who turns out to be Dr. Robert Hoak (McCarthy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), a scientist who was working on a secret project (Operation: Razorteeth) for the government.
In short, he was genetically engineering a new and even deadlier species of piranha, one that can survive in cold water. It was supposed to be a biological weapon intended to ensure victory in North Vietnam, but, as with many secret projects, it got shut down though some of the fish survived. Now they’re loose and headed directly for a summer camp and a newly opened water park/resort located downriver. No plot spoilers here- you know damn well that the piranha will invade both places and cause complete bloody mayhem.
Grogan has a personal stake in the situation, as one of the campers is his young daughter Suzie (Collins, A Tiger’s Tale). She’s deathly afraid of the river and whatever might be living in it which seems reasonable considering what’s about to happen.
A military team, led by Colonel Waxman (Gordon, The Untouchables) and Dr. Mengers (Steele, Silent Scream), shows up and tries to contain the situation. They don’t want anybody alerting the media about what’s going on. It turns out that Mengers is a former associate of Hoak and Waxman is a silent partner in the new resort owned by greedy rich jerk Buck Gardner (Corman regular Dick Miller). They have Grogan and Maggie arrested and held in jail until they can “resolve” the situation. That leads to a jailbreak and a mad dash to warn the people at the camp and the resort of the rapidly approaching danger.
All of this means lots of fun for the audience as Piranha is an absolutely enjoyable exploitation picture, the kind of flick for which Saturday afternoon matinees were made. Joe Dante (The Howling, Matinee) really knows his way around a campy horror flick, and he makes this movie fun for everybody. It helps that he had a great screenplay from John Sayles- yes, that John Sayles! The same guy who would later direct critically acclaimed independent features like Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), Baby It’s You (1983), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), City of Hope (1991), Passion Fish (1993), and Lone Star (1996). He also wrote scripts for other B-movies like Alligator (1980), Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and The Howling (1981)—paycheck movies that helped him finance his own projects. His well-written screenplay pays homage to the conventions of the B-movies of the ’50s and ’60s, complete with many scenes of rubber fish attacking large groups of screaming idiots.
Apparently, the bigwigs at Universal Studios felt that New World really crossed the line with Piranha and attempted to sue the low-budget studio. But they dropped the lawsuit after Jaws director Steven Spielberg took in an advance screening and loved the movie. A knock-off approved by the original’s director? Now that’s high praise!
And the movie really is a lot of fun. It has a great sense of humor. Dante understands the types of characters that typically populate this kind of movie—the hero and heroine, the mad scientist, the military figure, and the greedy rich guy. They’re all one-dimensional characters and spoofed here for maximum enjoyment. There’s also a grizzled mountain man (Wynn, Laserblast), a couple of hot camp counselors- Laura (Thomas, The Car) and Betsy (Balaski, The Food of the Gods)- and a super-anal camp director (Bartel, Hollywood Boulevard).
If the actor playing Maggie’s supervisor at the beginning of the movie looks familiar, then you must have watched a lot of TV in the ’60s and ’70s. It’s Richard Deacon, whose credits include Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Mothers-In-Law.
McCarthy does great as the mad scientist who created the monsters. He takes the stock character and raises it to a new level of camp. In fact, all of the actors seem to understand that Piranha is supposed to be a campy movie. They make no effort to turn in Oscar-worthy performances.
And let’s not forget the wonderfully cheesy special effects. It’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from schlockmeister Corman (a term I use as a compliment) and New World Pictures. It’s one of their best movies and also one of the best of the many Jaws knock-offs. It’s just a fun little movie that you won’t mind watching on a quiet summer evening at home.
But I have to ask- will it ever be safe to go back in the water?
