Piranha (1978)


Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...a bunch of little fishies start nipping at your toes.  And your legs.  And your arms and fingers.  Even your bum bum.  These little creatures are piranha.  They are the primary antagonist of the film, you guessed it, Piranha.

The basic idea is that a specially bred school of Piranha gets loose in a town or county’s water system and wreaks havoc upon the people living or vacationing in the area.  It’s a fairly basic story.  It’s similar to Jaws which is why I used the Jaws 2 tagline.  People in water, something in the water attacks the people, people start to die.  What sets this movie apart is that Joe Dante directed it.  Sure, Spielberg is a master of direction and he did Jaws, but Spielberg is no Joe Dante.

I would say that the direction of Piranha is excellent.  Joe Dante manages to build up to each death with magnificent skill using sound, small reveals, escalating character fear, and timing.  The honing of skills in this movie helped Joe Dante with his later great, Gremlins.  Both movies are different monsters in and of themselves but come down to the same core.  Can you create a scary/creepy film for audiences to watch?  I’d say both were successes.

This has really turned into “Joe Dante...durr...I like Joe Dante...durr...Dante!”  That’s because this movie does not have great acting or writing.  The story is basic.  You pretty much substitute in some piranha for a shark and tweak a few character bits.  The acting is...this is a Roger Corman produced film.  Take that as you will.  It is acceptable but nothing special about the acting.

This is a rather short one.  I didn’t have much to talk about for Piranha.  I enjoyed the movie.  It isn’t above and beyond anything I’ve seen before but it did point towards some things to come in horror and movies in general.  It also had a sequel and two remakes.

Man, this overview kind of sucks.  I wouldn’t want to read this one.  Sorry whoever read this far.  And to think I started it so well too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Time Watches: March 2019

Image
I’ve been writing these first-time watch posts for a long time. They are a chronicle, month by month, of the movies that are new to me. They could be theatrical releases or they could be older movies that I’m finally getting around to. Either way, they’re fresh to my eyes, never having gone through them before. With that comes pleasant surprise, a great experience, disappointment, or frustration. There could be many more emotions as well. These posts share my emotions from having watched the movies with whoever decides to read them. I fell behind on these posts a long time ago and have been trying to work my way through them to eventually catch up. This post will cover March 2019 and the movies I saw for the first time over the course of that month. Any rewatches will not be a part of this post. If they aren’t first time watches, they don’t count. March was a month full of all kinds of movies. There were good and bad, like usual, and a variety of genres, also like usual. Th...
Read more

Is "Real Steel" Like "Over the Top"?

When I was going through my weekly movie binge a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon two movies that I had never seen before that tackled a very similar story.   It was an odd thing to have happen because I didn’t know of any similarities between the two movies.   The first was Real Steel, a movie about a man who participates in robot boxing while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   The second was Over the Top, a movie about a man who participates in arm wrestling while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   Similar?   I think so. Let’s begin with Real Steel.   I watched this one because, why the hell not?   I quite enjoyed the movie and by the end I was rooting for Hugh Jackman’s character to help his robot, Atom, to a victory.   The thing to point out about Real Steel is how good the visual effects were.   I wasn’t expecting too much going in, but I thought they masterfully crafted each robot in a way that...
Read more

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 8: The Power Stealer

Image
Last time we sat down with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , Tommy was going through some serious stuff.   His powers were running low because Lord Zedd was targeting him.   He felt hopeless.   His friends were comforting him.   There was also a Robo Goat trying to take a powerful sword and use it against the Earth.   There were fights all over the place and an emotional hook that was unmatched in any episode that wasn’t in a multi-part arc. This episode, there might be follow-up to the Tommy storyline.   It would be nice to see more of the struggle with his powers.   Right now, that’s the one throughline that has been playing out.   II hope this episode continues to have some sort of meaning to the overall story, instead of being a self-contained and meaningless.   The show needs to grow and evolve, with a storyline that builds to something significant.   Having episodes that keep the story at a standstill is boring.   ...
Read more