Review by Stephanie Scaife
Piranha may be more familiar to many as the Alexandre Aja 2010 remake in which Jerry O’Connell’s penis is chomped off by one of the titular creatures and spat out of the screen at you in 3D, or even its reprehensible follow up Piranha 3DD, but the original 1978 Roger Corman production actually has a lot more going for it than you’d think from first glance. Firstly it’s directed by a very young Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling etc.) with a screenplay from John Sayles, which immediately elevates it above your usual schlocky B-movie, and what we get is an utterly nonsensical but nevertheless watchable comedy horror romp.
Heather Menzies stars as Maggie, a plucky private investigator sent to track down two missing teenagers who have disappeared during a hiking trip to Lost River Lake. Along the way she teams up with Paul (Bradford Dillman), a local drunk who is reluctantly goaded into become her tour guide of the local area. Together they come across a military testing facility where Maggie finds a necklace belonging to one of the missing hikers. As military testing facilities are want to be in such films it’s all very suspicious, with its jars and tanks filled will all sorts of freaky fishy specimens. Thinking that the teens may have drowned, Maggie drains the lake within the facility, unaware that she’s just unleashed a hoard of super intelligent weapon grade piranha into the local river network! Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy) is the scientist behind these fishy mutations, a Vietnam War project known as Operation Razorteeth, and after realising Maggie’s mistake they embark on a mission to destroy the piranhas before they reach the local water park and summer camp. Of course, I’m sure you can figure out what happens next…
Piranha is definitely a cut above the usual production line Corman cash in, and although it is a blatant spoof/homage/rip-off (delete as appropriate) of Jaws, it has its own merits. Of course it could never reach the level of its primary influence, Jaws being one of the best films ever made in my humble opinion, but Piranha takes a frankly ridiculous idea and makes it good fun. It steers clear of too many rubber fish shots and relies largely on fast editing, sound effects and suggestion alone, which works for the best as when you do see the piranhas they are clearly on the end of sticks being twizzled around by some poor prop guy in a diving suit; thus essentially and unfortunately stopping the film from have any genuine scares. However, there are a host of decent performances, particularly from Dante regulars Dick Miller as the water park owner determined to cash in on spring break, and Paul Bartel as the tight-assed summer camp leader. Piranha is a pure popcorn movie that insists you switch your brain off and just go for the ride, but it remains with good reason a cult favourite and was clearly a calling card for Dante to hone his skills and eventually go on to bigger and better things.
The Blu-ray quality is mixed, with the picture sometimes looking great and other times looking no better than on old VHS. The sound quality too was sort of hit or miss, but the piranha’s infamous “chattering” sound remains particularly creepy and is noticeably accentuated here. The Blu-ray does however come with a host of excellent special features including a fascinating commentary, a new making-of and some original behind the scenes footage.
Piranha is released on Blu-ray on January 28th, from Second Sight.