PopHorror Let's Get Scared
NOTE: This story was published during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being covered here wouldn’t exist. PopHorror fully supports the WGA and SAG-AFTRA and their efforts.
Can you believe Joe Dante’s Piranha was released all the way back in 1978? Let’s take some time to revisit the film for its 45th anniversary!
PIRANHA Synopsis
“When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort’s rivers, the guests become their next meal.”
Here’s a look at the trailer!
Opening with a (now) forebodingly familiar scene of two lovers sneaking into an abandoned government test facility for some late-night fun, it’s kind of poetic–a film often, and justly, derided as a “’Jaws’ rip-off” (the director said so himself) starts with a scene that will be ripped off, in some incarnation or another, by campy horror films for decades to come.
Never taking itself too seriously, and now considered a cult classic by many (myself included) Joe Dante’s (The Howling; The ‘Burbs; Gremlins…) second feature, Piranha, was one of the first films to ride the “danger in the water” wave begun by Jaws, and made a boatload of money for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures.
Featuring a cast of soon-to-be-familiar faces, many of whom will pop up frequently in Dante’s subsequent films, and some downright hokey special effects (although the Harryhausen-inspired mini-dinosaur has all kinds of charm) Piranha remains, 45 years after it’s release, a ridiculously fun watch.
Ditzy, but determined skip tracer Maggie (Heather Menzies; Logan’s Run) and backwoods boozer Paul (Bradford Dillman; Escape From The Planet of the Apes) lead the charge to rescue the kids at a nearby camp (and everyone else) after accidentally unleashing some genetically mutated “super predators” into the local river. Along for the ride is the soon-to-be deceased Dr. Hoak (veteran character actor, and stereotypical asshole portrayer, Kevin McCarthy; The ‘Burbs), standing in the way is the bumbling US Army, the sinister Dr. Mengers (screen legend Barbara Steele; Black Sunday), and a whole river full of hungry piranha!
Piranha is definitely the precursor to the “blackly comic” style, and endearing wit, that will become Dante’s signature. The great cast of characters, who go on to make colossally bad decisions, are what makes Piranha tick. Famous, or infamous(?), at the time for the ballsy move to put young girls and children directly in harm’s way, one could make the argument that Piranha paved the way for the slasher films that followed a few years in its wake.
There’s a lot to love: obviously plastic fishies, melodramatic performances, Dante’s mainstay Dick Miller (Mr. Futterman!!!), Belinda Balaski (The Howling), and, in a rare film appearance, Melody Thomas Scott (who would land in the soap world via The Young and the Restless the very next year, and NEVER leave!) as nubile camp counselors that are one step ahead of their gloriously over-the-top camp director Mr. Dumont (Paul Bartel; Chopping Mall), and a goofy Huck Finn inspired raft escape that has to been seen to be believed, all wrapped up in a super campy package that holds up extremely well today.
You can definitely see the development of Dante’s style, which he’ll use to great effect with The Howling, Gremlins, and The ‘Burbs, often with the same cast, so sit back, pop in the Blu-ray (available in a great special edition from the folks at Shout Factory) and have a blast watching one of the truly superior Jaws ripoffs! It holds a special place in the (cold, black) hearts of many horror fans! Don’t say we didn’t warn you…
Piranha is available on physical media from many fine retailers and can be found on various streaming platforms.
