Whenever films hit big with the public, Hollywood is quick to smell success in the air. In the case of Roger Corman, the man was a virtual bloodhound. When Jaws became the monster hit of 1975, its success was something the likes of which even Hollywood had never seen before. It was the film that began the Summer blockbuster, and something Corman was quick to pick up on.
Roger Corman was infamous for producing movies that were veiled imitations of more successful films. Jaws inspired several imitators, and Piranha is probably one of the most blatant. It has a very similar plot. Instead of a shark, mutant piranha fish escape into the river and head for a bustling tourist resort. The owners refuse to shut down because its Summer season, and it isn't long before all hell breaks loose. Piranha is at least to be commended for not trying to hide its a ripoff. One of the opening sequences even has the heroine playing a Jaws arcade game!
Piranha was the sole directing debut of genre regular Joe Dante. Dante is a hardcore horror/SF fan, and every one of his films is jam-packed with affectionate references and cameos from the era. After enjoying some success with Piranha and then The Howling, Dante fell into the company of Steven Spielberg (luckily, he saw the funny side of Piranha), who produced for him the runaway success of Gremlins (Piranha is in many ways a warm-up to that film). Sadly, time has not been kind to Joe Dante. Since the big hit of Gremlins, none of his other films have attracted the same attention. With an increasingly sporadic career, Dante has almost disappeared completely as a key genre figure.
Dante was brought on as a hired gun for Piranha, but many of his trademarks are there. Occasional cutaways to horror movies in the background. Horror icons Kevin McCarthy and Barbara Steele make up part of the cast, and Dante regular Dick Miller makes his customary appearance. But first and foremost, Piranha is exploitation cinema. That demands a certain amount of killings, suspense and lots and lots of blood and gore. So it doesn't have the same personal imprint Dante has on his subsequent films.
For what was intended as a quick rip-off of a far more successful monster movie, Piranha emerges far better than one expects. Its no classic (a surprising number of people say it is) but as B-movies go, its better than most. Joe Dante knows his stuff and handles things like an old pro. And he's working from a decent script too, courtesy of John Sayles. Sayles writes two amusing heroes for the film, Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) and Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies).
Paul is a cynical misanthrope with a drinking problem and a daughter he hardly sees. Maggie is a sunny skip-tracer, looking for two teenagers lost on the mountain where Paul lives a hermetic existence. The two teens stumbled across an abandoned military base and went for a midnight swim in a pool. They had no way to know it was filled with mutant piranha. When Maggie forces a reluctant Paul to lead her there she drains the pool, unknowingly throwing out the piranhas with the bath water. Now its a race against time to stop the piranhas before they reach the resort and the summer camp where Paul's daughter is.
Although working from one of Roger Corman's typical cheapskate production budgets, Joe Dante economises it as much as he can and produces a taut, suspenseful chase/chomp adventure. They can't really show us the piranhas (except fleeting glimpses) because they just didn't have the money for that. But compared to a lot of the other ripoffs of Jaws, Dante uses the same thinking that Spielberg did - make the budget restrictions work for you. If you can't show the monster, imply one. Most of the time, all Dante has to do is show people paddling and that's enough to imply the piranhas as a presence.
Dante proves he's capable of generating fine suspense when he wants to. Like when Paul and Maggie are on a raft heading for dry land and the piranhas start chewing away at the lashings. Or the end sequence when Paul tries to kill the piranhas with pollution from a submerged smelting tank (with some excellent underwater photography) and they start attacking him from all sides.
Like any Dante film, even when making a horror movie, Piranha has a constant sense of humour. The film never takes itself too seriously, and John Sayles' script comes with lots of snarky one-liners. When Maggie asks Paul for a cigarette, he grumbles "I had to quit that. It interfered with my drinking." Or the blackly funny scene when Paul and Maggie are arrested and Maggie stages a jail break. She knocks out the guard with a piece of the toilet lid but the keys are chained to his pants. So she has to take them off! When she moves too slowly for Paul's liking he whines "I would have thought you could get a man's pants off quicker than that!"
All the cast give good performances. The grumpy Paul and the chirpy Maggie are a fun double act. The kiddie scenes come with a tolerable degree of sentiment. And Barbara Steele outshines everyone with her icy stare. Piranha manages to deliver the goods on all counts. It isn't quite the classic creature feature some people like to call it. That is putting it on too high a pedestal. But its a fun, breezy B-movie with a delightfully dark twist in the tale. And who couldn't love a film with lines like "The piranhas are eating the guests, Sir!"
Roger Corman was infamous for producing movies that were veiled imitations of more successful films. Jaws inspired several imitators, and Piranha is probably one of the most blatant. It has a very similar plot. Instead of a shark, mutant piranha fish escape into the river and head for a bustling tourist resort. The owners refuse to shut down because its Summer season, and it isn't long before all hell breaks loose. Piranha is at least to be commended for not trying to hide its a ripoff. One of the opening sequences even has the heroine playing a Jaws arcade game!
Piranha was the sole directing debut of genre regular Joe Dante. Dante is a hardcore horror/SF fan, and every one of his films is jam-packed with affectionate references and cameos from the era. After enjoying some success with Piranha and then The Howling, Dante fell into the company of Steven Spielberg (luckily, he saw the funny side of Piranha), who produced for him the runaway success of Gremlins (Piranha is in many ways a warm-up to that film). Sadly, time has not been kind to Joe Dante. Since the big hit of Gremlins, none of his other films have attracted the same attention. With an increasingly sporadic career, Dante has almost disappeared completely as a key genre figure.
Dante was brought on as a hired gun for Piranha, but many of his trademarks are there. Occasional cutaways to horror movies in the background. Horror icons Kevin McCarthy and Barbara Steele make up part of the cast, and Dante regular Dick Miller makes his customary appearance. But first and foremost, Piranha is exploitation cinema. That demands a certain amount of killings, suspense and lots and lots of blood and gore. So it doesn't have the same personal imprint Dante has on his subsequent films.
For what was intended as a quick rip-off of a far more successful monster movie, Piranha emerges far better than one expects. Its no classic (a surprising number of people say it is) but as B-movies go, its better than most. Joe Dante knows his stuff and handles things like an old pro. And he's working from a decent script too, courtesy of John Sayles. Sayles writes two amusing heroes for the film, Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) and Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies).
Paul is a cynical misanthrope with a drinking problem and a daughter he hardly sees. Maggie is a sunny skip-tracer, looking for two teenagers lost on the mountain where Paul lives a hermetic existence. The two teens stumbled across an abandoned military base and went for a midnight swim in a pool. They had no way to know it was filled with mutant piranha. When Maggie forces a reluctant Paul to lead her there she drains the pool, unknowingly throwing out the piranhas with the bath water. Now its a race against time to stop the piranhas before they reach the resort and the summer camp where Paul's daughter is.
Although working from one of Roger Corman's typical cheapskate production budgets, Joe Dante economises it as much as he can and produces a taut, suspenseful chase/chomp adventure. They can't really show us the piranhas (except fleeting glimpses) because they just didn't have the money for that. But compared to a lot of the other ripoffs of Jaws, Dante uses the same thinking that Spielberg did - make the budget restrictions work for you. If you can't show the monster, imply one. Most of the time, all Dante has to do is show people paddling and that's enough to imply the piranhas as a presence.
Dante proves he's capable of generating fine suspense when he wants to. Like when Paul and Maggie are on a raft heading for dry land and the piranhas start chewing away at the lashings. Or the end sequence when Paul tries to kill the piranhas with pollution from a submerged smelting tank (with some excellent underwater photography) and they start attacking him from all sides.
Like any Dante film, even when making a horror movie, Piranha has a constant sense of humour. The film never takes itself too seriously, and John Sayles' script comes with lots of snarky one-liners. When Maggie asks Paul for a cigarette, he grumbles "I had to quit that. It interfered with my drinking." Or the blackly funny scene when Paul and Maggie are arrested and Maggie stages a jail break. She knocks out the guard with a piece of the toilet lid but the keys are chained to his pants. So she has to take them off! When she moves too slowly for Paul's liking he whines "I would have thought you could get a man's pants off quicker than that!"
All the cast give good performances. The grumpy Paul and the chirpy Maggie are a fun double act. The kiddie scenes come with a tolerable degree of sentiment. And Barbara Steele outshines everyone with her icy stare. Piranha manages to deliver the goods on all counts. It isn't quite the classic creature feature some people like to call it. That is putting it on too high a pedestal. But its a fun, breezy B-movie with a delightfully dark twist in the tale. And who couldn't love a film with lines like "The piranhas are eating the guests, Sir!"
