 | MOVIE #1,876 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.12.24 Dante’s follow-up to Hollywood Boulevard, a B-movie satire, is an actual B-movie: an ‘animals attack’ riff in the wake of the massive success that was Jaws, his first solo directorial effort. Although, at this point when we refer to B-movies and Dante, it should be noted that there’s little to distinguish beyond where the money is coming from and what amount. Like with Jaws, there are built-in limitations to having an underwater monster/villain, in this case genetically-mutated killer piranhas. There are some lovely stop-motion (land) creatures at the lab in the first act of this. These little guys are completely unconnected to the story but they look awesome, and the difference between creature/killer animal design in the water and these dudes on solid ground is stark… |
I’m not saying the piranha attack stuff looks bad — they did the best with what they could — but it’s all about the quick edit, more or less. Dante, who edited this and got his start as an editor, has a particular knack for it.
Also, when the film hints that a group of kids at a summer camp might be the next victims of the swarming killer fish, I did not think they would actually follow up on said thread but that’s exactly what transpires in the final act of Piranha. Insane. Totally enjoyable low-budget flick from the golden age of those pictures.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,875 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,877 ⫸
⫷ MOVIE #1,875 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,877 ⫸
Piranha is a 1978 American horror film directed and co-edited by Joe Dante from a screenplay by John Sayles, based on a story by Richard Robinson and Sayles. The film stars Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Steele, and Dick Miller. It tells the story of a river being infested by lethal, genetically altered piranha, threatening the lives of the local inhabitants and the visitors to a nearby summer resort. It was released on July 28, 1978.
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