Seemingly idyllic Lost River Lake Resort has a problem on its hands: an aquatic militia of ferocious, genetically enhanced piranha are escaping from a top-secret army lab and let loose on a feeding frenzy on the local inhabitants. It’s up to a reluctant pairing of a small time investigator (Heather Menzies) and one of the town’s residents (Bradford Dillman) to save the day. Sound familiar? It should. Piranha is a hilariously self-conscious homage to such "nature gone haywire" films that dominated the seventies cinemas such as Jaws and it’s myriad sequels and competitors. While Piranha may owe much to Spielberg’s groundbreaking film for its requisite shocks and gore, Piranha injects most of its compact 92 min running time with a pleasantly high frequency of belly laughs and many amusing film buff jokes courtesy of the film’s director (Joe Dante-in his first feature film). The result is a refreshingly briskly paced and often very funny horror spoof that, unlike many genre clones and knockoffs, has a life all it’s own and an increasing ability to showcase both graphic horror shocks and schlock with equal aplomb.

Greatly contributing to the schlock department is a wonderful array of cult and genre character actors. Paul Bartel (Eating Raoul, Private Parts) turns in a consistently ticklish performance as an especially rigid summer camp counselor (who insists upon ruling his seemingly innocuous kids summer camp with an iron fisted hand). Dick Miller shines in a typically low-key but nonetheless hilarious character role as a down-on-his-luck Texan who will try anything to get his new aquatic carnival and restaurant up and running (he’ll be damned if those piranhas will ruin his grand opening, even if they do start eating the guests!). And of course there is Barbara Steele (still looking ravishing after setting the Euro-horror movement ablaze with Black Sunday some 18 years ago) as a mysterious Army scientist who may very well be tied to the deadly piranha. And finally, it truly is a treat to see fellow sci- fi legend Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) moping around as a scientist who worked on the deadly piranha. Oh, I almost forgot that screen legend Keenan Wynn (who has starred in some 170 films) plays a delightful old town man.
Despite its humorous elements, Piranha also works quite well as a horror picture. The piranha themselves are indeed vicious creatures, eager to tear flesh (accompanied onscreen with the expected splashes and baths of blood) and annihilate any organic life form that may stand in their way. And speaking of gore FX, none other than Rob Bottin (The Thing's effects) got his big break in this film to showcase his undeniable talent for prosthetic limbs and convincing (if dated) gore effects. While Bottin did provide the effects for 76’s King Kong, he finally gets a (well-deserved) screen credit here! With so much talent on board, it’s no surprise that Piranha has become a bona fide cult classic, deftly blending hilarious dialogue with shocking gore.

DVD EXTRAS
-"Making of PIRANHA" feature
-Bloopers and outtakes
-Original Theatrical Trailer
-Cast biographies
-Audio Commentary by Joe Dante and Jon Davison
-Chapter selections/scene index
-Reproduction of original Theatrical Marketing Guide (insert booklet)
-"The History of Roger Corman" (8 page insert booklet)

MAIN CAST
Bradford Dillman....Paul Grogan
Heather Menzies....Maggie McKeown
Kevin McCarthy....Dr. Robert Hoak
Dick Miller....Buck Gardner
Keenan Wynn....Jack
Barbara Steele....Dr. Mengers
Paul Bartel....Dumont

MAIN CREW

Written By .....John Sayles, Richard Robinson (II)
Directed By....Joe Dante

DVD RATINGS (out of 5)

Picture 5/5

This is really as good as PIRANHA will ever look. The colors are rich and sharp, with no bleeding or smearing. The remastering job has been a godsend for this film, as there are virtually no specks or bits of film damage whatsoever. The blacks are very solid and the picture is correctly shown fullscreen.

Sound 4/5

The sound on this disc is also excellent. While it suffers a point for no 5.1 Dolby remix (this is certainly a film that could use one!) the 2.0 stereo recording more than gets the job done with a dynamic sound and a good balance between the two channels.

Extras 4/5

Again, a very nice job. The two booklets that accompany the disc are well done. While the "History of Roger Corman and New Horizons" may not be much (it seems to be a glorified advertisement and doesn’t contain much groundbreaking info) the theatrical marketing guide booklet is fun and contains some interesting extras. There are the usual bloopers and outtakes and theatrical trailers too. The cast biographies are fairly detailed and the menu screen and interface are done with class, with Pino Donnogio’s score looped with a CGI animation of a Piranha. Very Nice. But the best attraction is the Dante/Davison commentary. This is a fun commentary and often very amusing as these guys obviously love what they do and have some fond and interesting memories to share.

Overall 5/5

This is a class dvd. The extras are well-thought out and fairly plentiful, and such essentials as image quality and sound are well above average. I highly recommend this dvd (and film)!

FILM TAG LINES

"Lost River Lake was a thriving resort-until they discovered…PIRANHA!"

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

The only US release that I know of was the Warner Bros. VHS release in the early 80’s.

MOVIE FACTS

The decapitated head in the climatic aquatic festival scene is none other than Rob Bottin’s! He had it made up for a scrapped scene in which he would make an appearance and then speedily be dispatched of by the piranha! At least it got some use!

OFFICIAL SITE

www.simplyweb.net/piranha I don’t believe this is the official site, but it IS very comprehensive!

***UPDATE*** 8/28/02: This dvd is CUT. The scene in which Keenan Wynn’s legs are gnawed off is shortened. The complete sequence is present in the oop Warner Bros. VHS.