A couple sneak in under a fence to an abandoned US Army test site at night and discover a swimming pool. Naturally they go for a late night swim, unaware that the pool is filled with mutated piranha and so they're eaten alive. Later on a young woman is hired by one of the kids father to search for the couple. On her search she meets a man who lives up in the mountain close to the Army site and drags him along in her search since he's familiar with the area. They find the pool and drain it to see what's in it. Unfortunately they've now let the deadly Piranhas out in the river and they're headed towards a summer camp downstream.
This movie is a lot like Jaws in many ways, although Piranha has some comedy to it as well, something that (luckily) Jaws never had. It works just fine here though without ever getting too goofy.
There are a lot of creature movies out there and most of them are truly awful. Piranha is not one of those as it delivers what it promises without ever trying to hard to be something it's not. Like a lot of other movies has a tendency to do.
The mix between horror and comedy works very well here and one could also say it has some adventure elements to it too. It's a very good thing that it doesn't try to be a full-on horror movie as that would've never worked at all. There are no scares but the fishes are kinda nasty and some scenes are actually somewhat graphic. No real gore but a hell of a lot of blood.
Compared to Jaws, this one's not half as brutal but still works pretty well. There's especially one scene where a boy and his dad are in a canoe and the dad gets stuck with his hand under water. He's then attacked by the piranha and dragged down into the water, eaten alive infront of his son. It was a terrific scene that actually brought some real tension to the movie.
So what about the rest? Well the acting is totally ok, I didn't actually find one single person irritating and that's a good sign. It's nicely shot and the fact that it was made in 1978 makes it look older and somehow gives it a bit more feeling to it. I definitely prefer this over newer movies. It's also fast-paced with a simple, yet kinda interesting story. The score is ok, nothing you really think about and nothing you really remember when the credits roll though.
For people who are after a lot of gore and real scares, look elsewhere. But if you're up for something entertaining and a bit fun, then you might wanna give it a shot.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1978
DIRECTOR: Joe Dante
WRITING CREDITS: Richard Robinson, John Sayles
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 94 min
RATING: 6/10
Piranha Website/IMDB Click here
Piranha Trailer Click here
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