{"id":11175,"date":"2025-02-20T18:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T23:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11175"},"modified":"2025-02-20T18:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T23:04:11","slug":"barracuda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/02\/20\/barracuda\/","title":{"rendered":"Barracuda"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Barracuda<\/strong> (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Republic Pictures\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Harry Kerwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Wayne Crawford and Harry Kerwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Klaus Schulze\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: H. Edmund Gibson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Wayne Crawford, Jason Evers, Roberta Leighton, Cliff Emmich, William Kerwin, Bert Freed, Bob J. Shields, Scott Avery, Barbara Keegan (as \u201cBobbie Ellyne Kosstrin\u201d), Jerry Rhodes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll bet you think Barracuda<\/strong> is just another Jaws knock-off, don\u2019t you? I can certainly understand why you would. That\u2019s what the poster implies. It shows a bikini-clad girl being menaced by a teeth-baring barracuda. The tagline reads, \u201cYou Can Almost Hear the Screams! As the water below becomes a churning deathbed of flashing tearing teeth!\u201d It even carries a warning similar to Jaws: \u201cDue to the shockingly realistic nature of the barracuda attack scenes, parental discretion is advised.\u201d It has all the earmarks of a blatant Jaws rip-off. Boy, are you in for a shock!<\/p>\n

\u00a0A better tagline for Barracuda<\/strong> would be \u201cGOTCHA!\u201d It does have killer barracuda in it, but they\u2019re just a small piece of a bigger picture. There\u2019s more going on here than swimmers being attacked and town officials worrying about the summer tourist trade. Killer aquatic creatures weren\u2019t the only big thing in the 70s. How about a little government malfeasance to go with the chomp-chomp? Yep, there\u2019s conspiracy afoot and there are those who would rather it didn\u2019t get out. But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Barracuda<\/strong> [aka The Lucifer Project] starts off like a Jaws rip-off with two scuba divers being mutilated by barracuda. They\u2019re just down there taking in the beauty of the underwater world when the vicious fishies attack. The real story begins above the surface in Palm Cove, a small coastal town renowned for its lobster. Marine biologist Mike Canfield (Crawford, Jake Speed) shows up with a group of college students to take water samples. It seems that a chemical plant is polluting the ocean. Papa John (Freed, Hang \u2018Em High) sends his goons to chase the trespassers away. He also has Mike detained by the local law for slugging one of them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fortunately for Mike, the sheriff Ben Williams (William Kerwin, Blood Feast) is a nice guy. He\u2019s not one of those corrupt pot-bellied meanies that are typically in charge of law and order in small towns. He not only has his attractive daughter Liza (Leighton, Stripes) bring his prisoner breakfast, he allows him to go to see the town doctor Elliot Snow (Evers, The Brain That Wouldn\u2019t Die) about a gash on his leg.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mike manages to sneak a few water samples out of Palm Cove. He discovers traces of chemicals he can\u2019t identify. He returns to town to aid Williams in figuring out what\u2019s going on in this once peaceful town. Another diver has a run-in with the barracuda. A bunch of half-eaten fish washes up on the shore. Some of the townspeople start behaving aggressively. Obviously, there\u2019s something in the water, but what?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to go ahead and answer that last question. This is where the government comes into it. It turns out Dr. Snow is conducting top secret experiments (i.e. The Lucifer Project) involving hypoglycemia, a condition that causes hostile or aggressive behavior. Papa John\u2019s plant is producing the chemicals that have tainted the town\u2019s water supply and poisoned all those who drink it. It\u2019s affecting the fish as well, especially the [pause for dramatic effect] barracuda. So what\u2019s the reason for such experiments? In case of another war, the government doesn\u2019t want protestors or a peace movement. They want the public to welcome a war. Now you know. Scary…. I mean, silly, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Naturally, there\u2019s a tenacious local reporter (Shields, Thunder County) nosing around threatening to blow the lid off the whole situation. While the good guys try to find a way to shut down the experiments, the bad guys try to shut down the heroes. Yeah, I forgot to mention. There\u2019s a bunch of menacing men in suits (possibly brought in from Santa Mira, CA) sneaking around town keeping an eye on things. They claim to be developers, but we know that\u2019s total BS. We know what a government spook looks like.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I honest wasn\u2019t surprised to learn Dr. Snow was a mad scientist in the guise of a kindly small town doctor. Jason Evers played a similar role in the classic 1962 turkey The Brain That Wouldn\u2019t Die. In it, his character keeps his dead fiancee\u2019s head alive in a laboratory while searching for the right body for a transplant. That\u2019s another goofy one that I intend to review at some point. I knew the minute I saw Evers in Barracuda<\/strong> that his character was up to no good. The actor doesn\u2019t disappoint with his performance either. He plays unbalanced quite convincingly. In the context of B-movies, he\u2019s Olivier.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Harry Kerwin (God\u2019s Bloody Acre), Barracuda<\/strong> is hilariously bad. It\u2019s American made yet has the feel of an Italian-made rip-off with its electronic, faux-Tangerine Dream score by Klaus Schulze, bizarre plot and loopy acting styles. It also comes with dopey dialogue and out-of-place characters like Papa John\u2019s dimwitted son Bubba (Rhodes, Whiskey Mountain), quite possibly cloned from Buford T. Justice’s son Junior in the Smokey and the Bandit movies. We also get a fat, lazy deputy (Emmich, Halloween II) whose specialty is sleeping on the job.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Crawford was a busy boy on Barracuda<\/strong>. He not only stars, he also co-wrote the script with H. Kerwin and directed the underwater sequences. He\u2019s not much of an actor. He definitely doesn\u2019t give off a hero vibe. His character is this likable, wimpy sort who looks like he\u2019s losing his grip the deeper he delves into the situation. Playboy model Leighton deserves credit for attempting a performance. It\u2019s a weak attempt, but still. On the upside, she\u2019s hot. W. Kerwin, the director\u2019s brother, is okay as the lawman who only wants to do right by his town. Freed is criminally underused as the greedy plant owner.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The special effects are cheap, cheap, CHEAP! The barracuda attacks are truly a wonder. They\u2019re nice and bloody, but you can\u2019t help but notice the blood is the same color as Hawaiian Punch. As for the creatures, you call tell they\u2019re fake. It\u2019s obviously a crew member moving a hand puppet of a barracuda head in and out of the shot. However, there is a cool scene where a dog playing fetch with its owner brings back a human head that washes up on the beach. BTW, nothing happens to the pooch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Barracuda<\/strong> is completely, utterly nonsensical. I love how H. Kerwin tries to do it differently than the typical Jaws knock-off although to be fair, it\u2019s really more of a knock off of Piranha (the best of the knock-offs) with its ecological slant. Still, it\u2019s in good company with the likes of Orca (a Dino D production!), Tentacles (made in Italy), Killer Fish (a crime caper in disguise), Alligator (Henry Silva POWER!) and Claws (killer grizzly bear). The fact that it\u2019s not a major studio production works in its favor. H\u2019 Kerwin and Crawford had free reign to do whatever they wanted and what they did is totally and completely bonkers. The marriage of killer fish horror and conspiracy thriller is a marriage made in some alternate version of heaven. It\u2019s badness of the highest order.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barracuda (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Republic Pictures\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Harry Kerwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Wayne Crawford and Harry Kerwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Klaus Schulze\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: H. Edmund Gibson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Wayne Crawford, Jason Evers, Roberta Leighton, Cliff Emmich, William Kerwin, Bert Freed, Bob J. Shields, Scott Avery, Barbara Keegan (as \u201cBobbie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror","category-weird-ones"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Barracuda-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11190,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11175\/revisions\/11190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}