Piranha *** (1978, Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, Barbara Steele) – Classic Movie Review 6372

With the story and screenplay written by John Sayles, director Joe Dante’s 1978 monster movie Piranha is a cult favourite. It is still probably Sayles’s most amusing film to date, though obviously not best – he went on to make Matewan (1987), Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996) .

Piranha is a hokey but well-targeted horror spoof, very evidently inspired by Jaws, in which Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies free by mistake a crazed scientist’s experimental killer flesh-eating piranhas that spawn in fresh water.

Sayles’s sparky, tongue-in-cheek screenplay also has some nonsense about a government plan to use them against the Vietnamese. But the movie is mostly a success because of the verve and pace of director Dante’s handling, making it by turns creepy and funny.

Don’t expect high production values, smart special effects or classy acting, but Piranha is very entertaining nonetheless. It also stars Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller and Barbara Steele.

Also in the cast are Belinda Balaski, Bruce Gordon, Paul Bartel, Barry Brown, Shannon Collins and Shawn Nelson.

Roger Corman executive produced. He called it ‘my homage to Jaws.’

Co-producer Jeff Schectman went on to produce a sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning, in 1981, directed by James Cameron no less.

It is shot by Jamie Anderson and scored by Pino Donaggio.

Dante recalled: ‘You have to work five times as hard to get your pictures to be as mediocre at New World. The second day we were shooting on Piranha, they cut the budget. There were days during filming when I thought “God. My name is going to be on this thing. I’ll never work again.”’

It cost a mere $600,000, and took $6 million in the US and a total of $16 million worldwide.

It runs 94 minutes, with the extended TV version at 106 minutes.

Dante recalled the noise that the piranhas make underwater is the sound of dental drills. The piranhas were created by attaching rubber puppet fish to sticks. It is one of the first jobs for legendary effects and makeup artists Rob Bottin and Phil Tippett.

Piranha 3D followed in 2010, directed by Alexandre Aja, who went on to make Crawl (2019).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6372

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