Piranha (1978)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1978
	Director: Joe Dante (The Hole, Small Soldiers)
	Actors: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies-Urich, Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller (Smaller Soldiers, Gremlins)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror, Thriller, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 24.07.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: When two hikers disappear, city-girl Maggie (Menzies-Urich) is sent to find them. She meets loner Paul Grogan (Dillman), accidentally releases fresh-eating piranhas in a mountain river and then rushes to warn the public while fighting against the authorities.
Review: From the first minutes the movie announces its influences: Jaws (released three years earlier) and Creature from the Black Lagoon. After a Documentary The Movie Orgy and an extravagant Hollywood Boulevard, this is only the third film by Joe Dante which will become later famous for more horror and/or family-oriented films like The Howling, Gremins 1&2, Inner Space, Small Soldiers or The Hole, but always showing hs love for Cinema like in Matinee. I loved watching Piranha again. It is a pure Horror / Slasher / Creature Movie from the 70-80's but which doesn't take itself too seriously. There is a good although predictable story and enough Drama so that you stay attached to the characters, but you can only laugh at the caricatured characters like Paul Grogan, Colonel Waxman or Buck Gardner played by the excellent Dick Miller who went on to be in many Dante movies. And there are plenty of light moments and sex jokes flying around. This spirit will be honored in the 2010 remake Piranha 3D by Alexandre Aja and its poor 2012 sequel Piranha 3DD. You can tell that the team had fun shooting the movie, all actors are very natural and Heather Menzies-Urich in particular plays well the sexually liberated woman. The movie is produced by Exploitation King Roger Corman (see Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel), the director had fun too, as well as special effects specialists Rob Bottin and Phil Tippett (fresh out of his revolutionary work on the small movie Star Wars). Every time time I watch this movie I wonder about the purpose of the stop-motion animated walking piranha, and I came to the conclusion that it was just Tippett having fun! The movie is kind of Anti-military but doesn't forget that it is the heroin who released the piranhas, not knowing what she was doing after trespassing a clearly marked military installation. In general it has a fast pace and doesn't let you down. A classic.
Rating: 8 /10