Customer Reviews

Piranha [VHS]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Joe Dante's Piranha is a very humorous spoof and a fine homage to Steven Spielberg's classic Jaws. Though plagued with poor acting from Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, and Keenan Wynn, this is definitely not the type of film that you would ever take seriously. The inside film jokes and cinema references add a lot of intelligent spice to the film's proceedings, but it is the cheesy yet effective special effects by Phil Tippett (Robocop) that make Piranha a must see for mosnter movie buffs. Watch out for the obviously fake piranha as they make a spectacular bloddy debacle of a children's summer camp. The DVD edition of Piranha has many elaborate features including a Joe Dante commenty, a making-of-documentary, film bloppers, and other theatrical trailers of Corman films. P.S. Joe Dante would later go on to direct such horror classics as The Howling and Gremlins.

Where would we be without the venerable Roger Corman? Lovers of B-movie madness would likely have a lot more time on their hands to read books, interact with family, or take part in generally otherwise fulfilling life experiences had old Rog chosen a different career path. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, Corman sat out in Hollywood for three or four decades making low budget exploitation films. He also tried to cash in on every movie fad in modern cinema. And I do mean EVERY fad. You see, Roger had a dream to take an idea and make a profitable picture out of it that would entertain the masses. The problem was that someone else invariably had the idea first. Thus Lucas's "Star Wars" allowed Corman to unleash "Battle Beyond the Stars" on an unsuspecting public. Car chase movies saw Roger replying with "Grand Theft Auto" and "Eat My Dust." I could go on and on. There wasn't anything Corman couldn't do with someone else's idea. Perhaps the best example is "Piranha," a 1978 ripoff of Spielberg's "Jaws." This film made our man a lot of money, which allowed him to make even more spectacular ripoffs for years to come.

The flick starts with a couple of kids breaking into some sort of rundown fish hatchery for an evening swim. Something in the water kills them. End of movie. Seriously, something rather nasty does do away with the two idiots. We then see an insurance investigator by the name of Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies on loan from Julie Andrews) heading out to discover what happened to these two dolts. She rather quickly hooks up with an embittered alcoholic with a penchant for flannel named Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman channeling Grizzly Adams) who lives in a cabin down by the river. Somehow or other Maggie convinces Paul to head over to the fish hatchery with her. Sure enough they discover that something sinister has been going on there under the aegis of Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy). How do we know this? Because there's lots of nasty looking scientific stuff lying around all over the place. Anyway, Hoak eventually lets our two heroes in on a little secret: the government paid him a bunch of money to create a breed of piranha as part of some weapons program. Personally, I'm for anything that keeps communists out of our swimming pools, lakes, and rivers.

While all this nonsense goes on we know the piranha have escaped from the hatchery (thanks Maggie and Paul!) and are preparing a full-scale assault on the human race. A few locals fall prey first, but the real threat is the summer camp and an aquatic park downriver. Just to ratchet up the emotional element of the film a bit, we also learn that Paul's daughter is currently attending the camp. Oh dear! It's a race against time as Paul and Maggie set out with the twitchy Dr. Hoak in tow to stop the madness. As for the folks at the camp and the park, they haven't a clue as to what's about to happen. The only concern at the camp is the fascistic machinations of Mr. Dumont (Paul Bartel), a guy who takes great joy in ordering kids into the water and snooping on the foxy female counselors. At the water park, the owner plans on making a bundle on opening day and couldn't care less if a battleship full of exposed nuclear waste sailed into harbor. You can pretty much guess what happens in the last part of the film. Screaming, blood in the water, and a lot of out of shape Americans in unflattering bathing suits thrashing around on the beach in agonies. Fun!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry with this one, folks. Lots of people adore this film, and I probably would to if I'd seen it as a wee lad. I didn't, and I'm not that impressed. The swarms of piranha zipping through the water look so like the pieces of plastic they are that it's tough not to snicker. It's even worse when we see them up close chattering away on an exposed leg or belly. We're definitely looking at cheesefest central on a buck and a half budget here. At the same time, I did find a lot to like about the film. Seeing veteran horror babe Barbara Steele popping up from time to time as a government scientist named Dr. Mengers was a nice surprise, although she's largely wasted in the role. Kevin McCarthy plays frazzled well, and the script requires him to morph into a sniveling wimp for most of his screen time. Heck, we even see Richard Deacon (Mel from "The Dick Van Dyke Show") in a small role as Maggie's boss. Can't beat that. The talent behind the camera is moderately impressive too considering the budget. Joe Dante directed this flick, and John Sayles wrote the script. Both men went on to greater success, Dante with "Gremlins" and Sayles with "Eight Men Out," "The Howling," and several other mainstream movies.

Extras on the disc include a commentary track, extra footage, bloopers, and a few other odds and ends. Corman apparently took this film, or at least a similar concept, to television in the mid-1990s. If so, I haven't seen that version and thus cannot make a comparison. If the remake, or retread, or whatever it is looks and sounds like this movie, more laughs await us. Corman continues to churn out pap at an alarming rate, and has even recently inked a deal with Disney that will release his entire catalogue on DVD and keep it in circulation until the sun burns out. I've dogged on Corman quite a bit, but I do appreciate his films. If nothing else they are entertaining, and this one definitely works most of the time.

A justifiable cult classic, PIRANHA boasts an impressive pedigree. Oscar nominated screenwriter John Sayles; director Joe Dante (Gremlins); and some fine character actors: Bradford Dillman, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, Paul Bartel, Barbara Steele. The attacks are vicious and quickly paced so you don't pay too much attention to the cheesy special effects. There's satire about the military as well. There are some good suspense sequences, and I almost forgot: Body Snatcher's Kevin McCarthy is on board as the misguided scientist. The best of the subsequent spinoffs, PIRANHA is a great little horror classic.

Jaws (1975) frightened a whole generation of people out of the water. Why? Because of the very real elements within the film, being that there are sharks in the oceans, and occasionally they do attack people. Do they ever get as large as the one in the film? Possibly...regardless, the fear was real enough...fast forward to 1978...prolific B movie director/producer Roger Corman, in an effort to capitalize on the immense popularity of the film Jaws, released Piranha, directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Innerspace, The `burbs) and written by John Sayles (The Howling, Wild Thing), which, while didn't elicit the response anywhere near that of the film it borrows from, still provides us with a great deal of entertainment (genetically altered super fish just didn't come across with the same level of realism as a giant man-eating shark).

The film stars Branford Dillman, who, along with his extensive television credits, appeared in scores of films like Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and The Swarm (1978), to name a couple. Also starring is Heather Menzies, who appeared in films like The Sound of Music (1965), SSSSSSS (1973), along with various television shows throughout the 70's. Rounding out the cast are Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Paul Bartel, Barbara Steele (Caged Heat and Shivers), Melody Thomas Scott, and character actors Dick Miller and Keenan Wynn.

The film opens at night with two victims, er...I mean backpackers in a hilly area (somewhere in Texas, as we find out later), who happen to come across a seemingly deserted facility surrounded by a large fence, and signage stating `Military Testing Facility' and `Keep Out' (it seemed pretty clear to me, as I could read it, but these two knuckleheads completely missed it, bringing to mind the old adage, `if it was a snake, it would have bit you'). Anyway, lunkhead number one and lunkhead number two, looking for a place to camp for the night, decide this looks promising, and make their way past the fence to find a large, in-ground cement pool. Do you think it contains piranha? And do you also think said piranha are hungry? I do, on both counts, especially given that it's the title of the film. Anyway, they decide to go swimming and quickly discover the pool contains more than water. We also learn the facility isn't entirely deserted...

Apparently someone cares about these two now missing backpackers, enough so to hire private investigator Maggie McKeown (Menzies) to look for them. While initiating her search in the general area, she find a shack occupied by Paul Grogan (Dillman), a divorced, reclusive, mass alcohol consuming (every five minutes he's swilling from a canteen, but never actually seems to get drunk) outdoorsman type, who she basically enlists to aid her, despite his protests, in her search. They find the deserted military facility, which was once some sort of breeding farm for fish, and decide to drain the large pool in hopes of finding clues. As they throw the switch, they get attacked by a wily old man (his name is Dr. Robert Hoak, played by McCarthy) as he freaks out learning that the fish have been released into the river system. The manage to subdue him, and he speaks of his experiments, specifically his genetic experiments for the military in creating a super breed of piranha, meant for use during the Vietnam conflict, but since the war ended, the program was terminated, but apparently no one told Dr. Hoak. So now the highly aggressive and carnivorous super fish are in the local river system. And they're hungry...and breeding...

For a B movie, this tends to one of the better ones I've seen. Even here you can see that Dante has talent in directing, despite what I am sure was probably an extremely tight shooting schedule (Corman always kept this aspect tight). Sayles provides a better than average script for this type of outing, and the actors present enjoyable performances. I do tire of the whole `government and/or big business conspiracy' cliché that is so often used in films of any type to move the plot along, as it tends to indicate a lack of imagination (just look at some Steven Segal movies, specifically On Deadly Ground (1994) and The Patriot (1998), for a couple of examples). I especially liked the scenes with Keenan Wynn speaking of how much the river gives him, and also the scenes with Dick Miller, who plays the sleazy real estate agent and proprietor of Aquarena, an entertainment water park that recently opened along the river. He's got one of the more memorable scenes in the film when his assistant approaches him about piranha in the waters, and he asks, "What about the godd@mn piranha?!", to which the assistant replies, "The piranha...they're EATING the guests, sir". Paul Bartel also makes a great appearance as an uptight director of a summer camp located on the river (do you think a big part of their program involves swimming?). The special effects are quite good (no CGI work here) and there is a good helping of blood and underwater scenes with the fish tearing flesh off hapless victims.

Presented here is an excellent looking full screen print (Dante claims this is the original aspect ratio of the film, but the titles appear to be in wide screen format). Special features here are copious, including a commentary track by director Dante and producer Jon Davidson, original theatrical trailer, a blooper reel, a short `Making of' documentary, cast biographies, a reproduction of the original Theatrical Marketing Guide, an eight page booklet titled `The History of Roger Corman, and trailers for some of Corman's other films including Grand Theft Auto (1977) and Humanoids from the Deep (1980), among others. If I learned anything from Piranha, it's that if you are warn authorities about mutant piranha loose in a populated waterway, you're better off crying toxic waste, as they not apt to believe the piranha thing.

Cookieman108

As a kid growing up on all the classic monster films on TV, this low-budget Roger Corman creature feature was always one of my favorites. As a teenage video collector in the 90's, I found this to be nearly impossible to find on VHS. Now as an adult in my early 20's, I own not only the video but have recently picked up the DVD and what a trip down memory lane, this "special edition" was for me.

"Piranha" is Corman's answer to "Jaws", a bad genre film that takes joy in being a bad genre film. When a private investigator goes looking for two missing kids at an old army test, she unwittingly releases a school of mutated killer piranha into the town's river system. With the help of a local mountain man, the two try to warn everyone from the military to a local resort. As is always the case in these films, the military has another agenda and they don't want the truth revealed.

Over the years, "Piranha" has earned a reputation as a true cult classic. With a great script from John Sayles, an amazing musical score from Pino Donaggio, and tremendous performances from underrated actors like Dick Miller, Keenan Wynn, Paul Bartel, and horror legend Barbara Steele, "Piranha" is the ultimate "nature goes wrong" B-movie.

My only real complaint about this DVD is that it is presented in a full-frame format (though the opening credits are finally presented in widescreen as the other way cuts the names pretty badly). Well, that and the fact that they didn't include any of the added footage from the original network TV version. Those complaints aside, it is good to hear director Joe Dante (who went on to direct "Gremlins") and producer Jon Davison reminisicing on the filming of this movie. Not to mention, the added value of seeing lots of never-before-seen footage from the making of the film. If you loved this movie growing up or are just a fan of the classic "creature feature" titles, this is a must-have.

Yes, I know John Sayles wrote this, and there ARE some good moments both in the action and characterization areas, but in the end, I'm afraid "Piranha" isn't a very good film. Way too many opportunities are missed that could have resulted in good scenes and interesting situations-- and, no, I'm not just talking about the goofy camp counselor interrupting his two nubile young employees just as they were about to disrobe for an impromptu midnight swim! But I'm recommending this DVD for two reasons: 1) Though the movie isn't very good, it certainly isn't boring, and 2) Joe Dante & Jon Davison's commentary track is terrific, loaded with anecdotes and inside information about Roger Corman's world of low-budget film making. This is yet another DVD (see also "Battle Beyond the Stars" and "Humanoids From The Deep") where the movie itself is one of the smaller attractions of a very entertaining disc!

Piranha: Movie Review

Grade: B

One of the title's in the "Roger Corman Classics" DVD collection, Piranha is a great movie, but it has its fair share of flaws.

Directed by horror legend Joe Dante, Piranha is "my homage to Jaws", say's Executive Producer Roger Corman, who would later go on to produce other great horror films, such as Humanoids From the Deep and Carnosaur, along with it's sequels, Carnosaur II and Carnosaur 3: Primal Species. They're all fun, but they both have their problems, just like Piranha.

Set in the rivers and surrounding area of Lost Lake, Piranha starts with two unhappy campers. Lost, they take a trail up into an old military facility that is seemingly abandoned. They decide to go swimming, but as soon as they hit the water something...eats them. So Maggie McKeown, a lady whose job is to locate missing people is called in, and she and Paul Grogan, the local drunk, set out to the base where the two campers where last seen. That's when they accidently set them loose...A school of man-eating, intelligent, genetically-altered, voracious Piranha are heading downstream...toward a local summer camp and a just-opened resort.

The acting was surprisingly good, much better than other films of the time. Heather Menzies (Maggie) and Bradford Dillman (Paul) put effort into their characters, distinguishing this movie from other `70's horror films. (Except for Jaws, of course.)

But there's a lot more to the movie, and it's not just a horror film; at times it morphs into a comedy, with the characters cracking one-liners and saying the most ridiculous of lines. ("Horror, terror, death. Film at eleven." Or: "It's the fish sir. They're eating the guests.")

Yet Piranha, even though its plot sound's simple at first, leaves a lot of questions unanswered in the end. When our main characters are in the military base, just before they let the fish out, I would like to know just what the scientist was doing with fish. Weird creatures are being held in that laboratory, and one of them even gets out, wandering around and watching the characters. But then it disappears, and we never see it again. What's up with that?

And towards the end of the movie, how did the Piranha get so fast? (*Spoilers*) They reached the ocean in no time. The radio announcer was still telling what happened at the resort, and they were already there, at some unknown beach.

I would say that's what the sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning is for, but I saw that one before this one, and it explains nothing.
(It's actually one of the worst movies I've ever seen; the first is way better than the second.)

But who knows: in March (I think...) Alexandre Aja, director of some truly fantastic horror films like P2 (Widescreen Edition) and the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes (Unrated Edition), is set to release the third Piranha...in 3-D!!!!!

So for know I'm waiting-waiting until 2010, for some answers, and, hopefully, the best Piranha yet.

Joe Dante and Roger Corman went all out in taking advantage of the Jaws craze with this bit of B film madness and gore.

The hunt for two backpackers leads a detective and a drunken mountain man to a deserted Army post where weird experiments have taken place. A bit of stop motion animation was fun to see, as little creatures are scurrying or cooing at who these humans are. This is never expanded on and that's too bad. I would have liked to see what happened to these animals when the adventure began.

Well, our dynamic duo stupidly let the piranhas loose into the river system by draining the basin where they were housed. And double dummy scientist comes out of nowhere and wrestles with them with murder in his eyes. If he explained that draining the basin would let dangerous fish loose, then they would have stopped and calmly explained their situation. But then we would not have much of a movie!

Per the commentary, Roger Corman would check the rushes and say, "More blood. More blood!" And boy did he get it!

The little fish have big teeth and the editing is done in such a way that the sticks holding them and the underwater crew are not noticed. It is a bit cheesy but interesting how they did all that with such a low budget and tight schedule.

Be impressed with the blooper reel, Roger Corman's and Dante's interviews and trailers and ads for more of his crazy B Film madness. Plenty of semi-nudity, lots of blood and gore. What else could you ask for? Dante went on with Gremlins, several other stars to soap opera greatness.

Other B Corman Films of Note:

Death Race 2000 (Roger Corman's Cult Classics)
Forbidden World (Roger Corman's Cult Classics)
Starcrash (Roger Corman Cult Classics) [Blu-ray]
Humanoids from the Deep (Roger Corman's Cult Classics) [Blu-ray]

Somehow this B horror movie manages to be entirely ridiculous, and yet still entertain. Piranha walks the thin line between intentionally campy and seriously trying to scare. And it does so better than most horror films. I think the grainy films of the 70's just work better for horror. When everything's crisp you actually have to have good acting, good script, and good effects.

This film has a mediocre amount of all three of those. The piranha (genetically altered by the government, MUTANT piranha, I mean) are never really seen clearly, so their realism isn't that big a deal. The plot revolves around some campers that go missing and a woman sent to find them. She somehow immediately decides they must have disappeared at the old abandoned military facility and breaks through the locked gate to get in. Then she decides to drain their pool to see if the bodies are there, unknowingly releasing mutant piranhas into a quiet Texas river.

What ensues is one of the sillier horror/action(?) escapades ever on the screen. The two heros travel down the river on a makeshift raft to warn everyone of the piranhas and make sure that the dam doesn't get opened, releasing the piranha on to a children's summer camp.

Of course, the piranha know when anyone is in the river at any point throughout and will be there to nibble them apart in a matter of seconds. Anyway, the film never bores and the gore is pretty believable. It's also got the gratuitous breast flashing expected in early horror movies, and the open ending.

The best part of the DVD is the blooper reel. If I had my way, every movie would have a blooper reel. This one is especially good, because they're from the 70's. How many blooper reels are 30 years old?

Piranha is a well directed, fast paced, tongue in cheek, homage to Jaws. A young Joe Dante shows his directing talents, and Rob Bottin, (fx-effects-then only 17), shows his early talents too. Rob later went on to The Howling, The Thing, etc. a genius. Dante, directed The Howling, and Gremlins, both films have so many hidden tributes to other films I can't count them all. Now back to this film, based on the unprecedented success of Jaws, sooner or later ripoffs come. But this isn't a ripoff, characters differ hugely, unlike Grizzly(read my review), and humor is splattered throughout, where Jaws was in the whole, intensely serious. The effects are pretty darn convincing, you learn to actually relate with the characters, and hey, it's a Corman film, king of the B movies, and his best, hands down. This is a cult classic, remade identical for T.V. with William Katt, which sucked. Not a heck of a-lot of scares, but very fast paced and keeps ya glued to the screen. Looks great on DvD, the visuals are very bright and clear.....and that piranha sound is enough to leave you a little on edge. Enjoy the film, don't expect Pacino performances or awards, but instead, what a group of young, talented, dedicated, people set out to do, a fun film.