Piranha

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The sophomore effort for director Joe Dante, a future protege of Steven Spielberg, this low-budget, high-camp horror spoof of Jaws (1977) features several chiller stars of yesteryear. Insurance investigator Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies) is dispatched to find two missing teenage hikers near Lost River Lake. She hires surly backwoods drunkard Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) to serve as her guide. Searching the area, they find an abandoned military facility. The only resident is Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy), former head of a top-secret project to breed piranha for use in the Vietnam War. The project was closed down years ago, but Hoak has continued raising a deadly strain of the flesh-eating fish. When Hoak is knocked unconscious, Maggie and Paul accidentally release the piranha into a local river, which leads to the lake where a children's summer camp and a newly opened tourist resort will provide plenty of fish food for the hungry predators. Maggie and Paul race to warn the locals, but their pleas fall on skeptical ears, such as those of resort owner Buck Gardner (Dick Miller) -- until the piranha reach the swimmers. Piranha (1978) was co-written by John Sayles, making his motion picture debut. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: PCM Stereo
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Alternate Wide Screen)
• Features:
  • Audio commentary with director Joe Dante and producer Jon Davison
  • Behind-the-scenes footage
  • "The making of piranha" featurette with new interviews from Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Belinda Balaski and many more bloopers and outtakes
  • Piranha trailer with commentary by producer Jon Davison - courtesy of trailers from hell
  • Stills gallery with photos and posters from around the world
  • Behind-the-scenes stills gallery featuring photos from Phil tippett's personal collection
  • Additional scenes from the network television version radio and tv spots
  • New world trailers

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Bradford Dillman - Paul Grogan
       Heather Menzies - Maggie McKeown
       Kevin McCarthy - Dr. Robert Joak
       Keenan Wynn - Jack
       Dick Miller - Buck Gardner
       Barbara Steele - Dr. Mengers
       Barry Brown - Trooper

• Director:

  Joe Dante

• Producer:

  Jon Davison, Roger Corman, Chako van Leuwen, Jeff Schechtman

• Screen Story:

  Richard Robinson

• Screenwriter:

  John Sayles

• Screen Story:

  John Sayles

• Cinematographer:

  Jamie Anderson

• Composer (Music Score):

  Pino Donaggio

• Editor:

  Joe Dante, Mark Goldblatt

• Production Designer:

  William Sandell

• Art Director:

  Bill Mellin, Kerry Mellin

• Executive Producer:

  Roger Corman, Jeff Schechtman

• Special Effects:

  Jon Berg

• Stunts:

  Conrad Palmisano

• Second Unit Director:

  Dick Lowry

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Conrad Palmisano

• Sound Special Effects:

  Richard L. Anderson

REVIEW:

• This Roger Corman-produced cult favorite towers over its competition in the arena of Jaws imitators because it manages to deliver the goods that horror fans expect in effective style while also subtly spoofing the genre. The film benefits from a smart John Sayles script that is populated with appealing, believably quirky characters and overflows with quotable dialogue (the single best line arrives when an assistant tells his resort-owning boss "The piranhas are eating the guests, sir"). Director Joe Dante keeps the action moving at a rapid pace and knocks out a string of impressive set pieces in the process, including a nerve-jangling scene where a group of campers are attacked by the piranha and a suspenseful finale where the hero tries to open an underwater tank of poisonous waste to kill the piranhas before they get to him. Dante also works in plenty of subtle visual humor (for example, a beachgoer reading a copy of Moby Dick) and gets strong performances from his cast, including Bradford Dillman's stoic turn as reluctant hero Grogan and horror film icon Barbara Steele's icy performance as a quietly menacing scientist. All in all, Piranha is an intelligent blend of scares and wit that shows the genre-bending skills Joe Dante would soon develop to perfection on hits like The Howling and Gremlins. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi