Movie Review: Piranha (1978)

Originally published 28 Feb 2018 on Odyssey at https://www.theodysseyonline.com/retro-review-piranha

"Jaws rip-off is technically impressive but not that fun to watch."

"Piranha" is a 1978 B-horror film from legendary producer Roger Corman. The movie was clearly made to cash in on the success of the 1975 blockbuster smash, "Jaws", swapping out one large killer fish for hordes of smaller ones. Despite being a blatant rip-off made for a quick buck, there is some amount of ingenuity behind the production. It is not enough to save the film, but the talent of the crew who would eventually go on to more respected work (the film's director, Joe Dante, would go on to greater acclaim with other creature features like "Gremlins" and "Small Soldiers") is quite evident.

The film's story is simple: during the Vietnam War, a secret government program developed a breed of mutant piranha to disrupt the Vietnamese ecosystem. The war ended, and the program shut down. The fish were supposed to be killed off, but some survived, breeding into large hordes, that of course eventually escape into the local river system and begin making their way downstream. It is then up to a plucky skip tracer (Heather Menzies) and a crusty backwoods recluse (Bradford Dillman) to save the day before the razor-toothed fish devour their way through a nearby summer camp and lakeside resort.

Not surprisingly, "Piranha" borrows many of the same techniques as "Jaws" in its presentation of its aquatic villains. The editing of the piranha attack scenes is actually quite brilliant if not a bit cheap. The film goes to great lengths to avoid showing the piranhas whenever possible, relying on shots of victims thrashing in the water and underwater point of view shots. This is perhaps for the best, because the few times we do see the killer fish, it is quite apparent that they are just puppets on sticks. Nonetheless, the editing is quite impressive: even though the trick is obvious, you buy it because it sold with conviction. When the piranha fish attack the protagonists' raft in the river, it is quite obvious there are no puppets in the water and someone is just pulling apart the log raft from underneath. However, due to the combination of sound effects and rapid cutting, the illusion actually works and you can almost buy into the scene. The film's editor, Mark Goldblatt, would later go on to edit action classics like "Commando" and "Terminator 2", and sequences like this and the resort massacre hint at the Oscar-nominated talent he would build later on in his career.

Unfortunately. technical smarts alone cannot save a film. The film has a scrappy determination, but the tone is confused. "Piranha" cannot decide whether or not it wants to be a horror-comedy or a serious film, and so it falls into a strange valley of tongue-in-cheek attitude that leaves feeling more like a fake movie that characters in a movie would be watching. The premise plays out straightforward, delivering its goofy exposition about secret government fish programs with stone-faced seriousness, but then other times the movie veers into comedy, like the scenes at the summer camp and the resort.

Perhaps it is the inclusion of Corman regulars Paul Bartel and Dick Miller in the cast that proves distracting, as both actors generally have a flair for the comedic in their roles. Perhaps it is that Joe Dante would eventually go on to direct more comedic films later on in his career, and "Piranha" was his testing ground for horror-comedy. Regardless, the little gags here and there (a woman is clearly seen reading "Moby Dick" on the lakeside before the piranhas attack the resort) leave the film in a strange state of not quite self-parody but not quite-self serious.

There is a lot to admire about "Piranha", especially given its outwardly crass commercial trappings. It is best viewed as the training ground of a crew of talented individuals who would hone their skills further on other, better films later in their careers. This is an interesting curiosity to view as a piece of work in the fledgling careers of Joe Dante, Mark Goldblatt, and even special effects technicians Phil Tippet ("Robocop", "Jurassic Park") and Rob Bottin ("The Howling", "The Thing").

Unfortunately, as an entertaining B-movie, it fails to deliver because it cannot commit fully to either being a comedy or a straight horror film. If you are really desperate for a killer fish movie, this is hardly the worst film you could watch, but you are certainly better off just sticking with "Jaws".

Rating: 5/10