Film Review: Piranha (1978)

Film Review: Piranha (1978) | Ecency

(source:tmdb.org)

Success of Spielberg's Jaws inspired many filmmakers to try to exploit it by making their own films with a similar general premise. One of the most successful among them was Roger Corman, the legendary producer and king of B-films. His expertise in exploitation cinema resulted in Piranha, a 1978 horror film directed by Joe Dante, whose success later manifested itself in a sequel and two remakes.

The plot begins one night in Texas when a hiking teenage couple stumbles onto an abandoned military installation. Curiosity leads them to go inside, where they find a large pool and decide to engage in skinny dipping, which results in their gruesome deaths caused by something in the water. Their disappearance is investigated by female private detective Maggie McKeown (played by Heather Menzies), who is reluctantly aided by local alcoholic recluse Paul Grogan (played by Bradford Dillman). The two of them find the installation, where they meet Dr. Robert Hoak (played by Kevin McCarthy), a former government scientist who explains that he used to be part of Project Razor Teeth and designed genetically modified piranhas intended to be deployed in the rivers of Southeast Asia in order to stop guerrillas during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, Maggie and Paul have inadvertently released water from the pool into the river, and now hordes of ravenous fish are swimming downstream and threatening a summer camp attended by Paul's daughter Suzie (played by Sharon Collins), as well as visitors to the spectacular water park which is about to be opened by the ambitious entrepreneur Buck Gardner (played by Dick Miller).

Although made with a small budget and apparently little ambition, Piranha features names that would later become quite respected. Director Dante later became a protégé of Spielberg (who had previously expressed his satisfaction with the film). The script was written by John Sayles, who would become one of the more renowned filmmakers of the 1980s and 1990s. Special effects were handled by Phil Tippett, who would later work on high-budget productions such as Jurassic Park. The actors, on the other hand, were somewhat less well known, and that includes Broadway veteran Bradford Dillman in a very fine performance as an alcoholic character who convincingly transforms into a hero and wins the audience's sympathies. Among the cast, some of Corman's veterans stand out, like Dick Miller in his version of the mayor's character from Jaws and 1960s horror star Barbara Steele as a sinister government scientist whose seemingly reassuring words at the end point to an inevitable sequel.

Dante directs his film with great skill, putting limited resources to very good use. This includes scenes featuring the piranhas, which are never properly seen and whose murderous rampage is effectively displayed through rapid editing, rubber props, good makeup and a lot of fake blood. He also infuses a lot of dark humour into the film, which is enough for Piranha not to be taken too seriously, although he breaks some of the taboos of horror films during a scene in which children are attacked and seriously injured by carnivorous fish. Aware of the need for maximum exploitation content, Dante adds some car chases and even nudity to the film, although much less than Alexandre Aja in his 2010 remake. Dante's greatest achievement, however, is the good editing, which not only allows the plot to proceed smoothly and be contained within 90 minutes of running time, but also prevents the audience from realising that Piranha was actually unfinished. A scene at the beginning features a small but menacing-looking bipedal creature which would, under the rules of a regular horror film, become one of the major characters in the film; Corman, unfortunately, didn't allocate a budget for that, so the creature simply vanishes from the film without any relevance to the plot. Most of the audience, however, wouldn't care much about this detail, and that points to Piranha being a rather effective genre film.

RATING: 6/10 (++)