Tweet
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: 8/03/2009
Director: Joe Dante
Cast: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Keenan Wynn, Paul Bartel, Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
One of the better Jaws rip offs to follow in the wake of Spielberg's blockbuster smash, Piranha is one of a few pictures to really demonstrate director Joe Dante's penchant for mixing humor and horror effectively. The picture is set in a small Texas town where we begin by watching a pair of teenage backpackers break into a military research facility that appears to be abandoned. Why? To skinny dip, of course, though once they jump into the ominous looking pool they soon realize they've made a grave mistake. When they don't make it home, a skip tracer named Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies) is sent to investigate and winds up harassing a local mountain man named Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) until he agrees to help her find the missing hikers. They make their way to the same military installation where, when they try to drain the pool to look for bodies, they're attacked by a strange scientist named Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy).
They subdue their attacker and unwittingly unleash an advanced species of piranha that can survive in fresh or salt water regardless of temperature into the river which feeds into a lake. Residing on this lack are a brand new resort, opened by a local business man (Dick Miller) and a children's summer camp run by a strange man named Mr. Dumont (Paul Bartel). Of course, Grogan's young daughter is at this camp, and so the race is on to get everyone out of the water before it's too late. Meanwhile, the military is moving in to try and cover things up, lead by a rival scientist named Dr. Mengers (Barbara Steele).
Loaded with blood, boobs and Lone Star Beer product placement, Piranha is a lot of good B-movie fun. The cast make the most of the material, playing it all completely straight despite the fact that, as the extras reveal, they were all pretty aware of how ridiculous it all was. We're in on the joke as we watch the movie but Dante does remind us that this is, first and foremost, a horror movie by frequently showing off some fairly strong attack scenes. Surprisingly enough, quite a few of these involve kids being nipped at by the ferocious razor toothed beasties, something that's still uncommon in a lot of movies. The script throws in some plot points that don't really go anywhere (a romantic connection between Steele and McCarthy is mentioned and never elaborated on) but for the most part it's pretty lean and to the point and the film certainly moves at a great pace from start to semi-predictable finish. You just know the ending is going to leave itself open for a sequel (it does and there was one, made by none other than James Cameron).
The effects work is generally pretty successful and while some of the older optical effects do show their age and make up appliances are frequently visible as just that, there's a nice little mean streak to the movie evident in scenes where an aging recluse has the skin chewed off of his legs right up to his knees or the scene where Dumont is attacked by a piranha brazen enough to jump out of the water and bite him on the face. A lot of well shot underwater scenes make the film seem a lot more expensive than it actually was and help to build tension for much of the film's run time while the Texas locations coupled with a memorable score courtesy of Pino Donaggio wrap it all up with a nice low budget bow. Nudity, gore and killer fish are always a good combination - the many Italian Jaws rip offs prove this as fact - but rarely do they come together as well as they do here and Piranha remains a pretty stellar slice of B-movie heaven.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Piranha looks excellent in this AVC encoded 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen high definition transfer taken from the IP and presented in its original aspect ratio. The upgrade in color reproduction and clarity when compared to the New Concorde disc, which was fullframe, is noticeable immediately. There's a much deeper and richer level of detail and texture throughout the film and the colors look considerably more robust and natural without ever looking artificially boosted or fake. There are some shots that look noticeably grainier than others and if you want to look for it you'll see the occasional speck of print damage here and there, but really, who cares. Piranha looks as good as you'd realistically want it to. The underwater shots benefit a lot as the higher bit rate and enhanced resolution result in a much cleaner and far less murky image than we've seen on home video before.
The only audio option on this disc is an LPCM 2.0 track, in English. No alternate language options or subtitles are provided. This isn't going to be a demo worthy track but it's clean, clear and easy to follow. There aren't any problems with the mix, the levels are well balanced and dialogue is always perfectly audible.
Extras are plentiful and interesting, starting with a commentary track featuring director Joe Dante and producer Jon Davison. This track was originally included on the New Concorde DVD release but it's a good one that's worth revisiting (or if you haven't heard it, checking out for the first time). Dante and Davison are very open about the Jaws influence, acknowledging it and elaborating on it and they also discuss the film's sense of humor. There are some great stories in here about the effects work and about the location shooting and it's a track that never really plods or slows down but instead finds a good rhythm and winds up being quite enjoyable to listen to.
Up next is an exclusive nineteen minute featurette called The Making Of Piranha that features brand new interviews with Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Belinda Balaski, and a bunch of the guys who worked on the effects and creature design for the movie. There are some great stories here about how Corman's only feedback regarding the dailies was 'needs more blood' as well as how taping multiple fake fish to one's body with gaffer tape can result in skin loss. Corman's notorious reputation for frugality in filmmaking is expanded upon here when the film's budget and financial backing is discussed. All interviewed here speak about the film quite affectionately and while it does cover some of the same ground as the commentary, getting input from the cast members and from the effects crew makes it pretty invaluable and equally as interesting.
Shout! Factory have also wrangled up some interesting excised material including a collection of bloopers and outtakes from the shoot. Also carried over from the New Concorde release, this material is amusing enough that you'll want to check it out at least once and in a roundabout way it gives us some interesting behind the scenes footage as well. There's some more behind the scenes footage included in its own section, again, carried over from the New Concorde release. There are also some alternate scenes from the network television version of the film included here. These are mostly just slightly different and more TV friendly bits but it's nice to see them included for the sake of completion.
Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the film (available in a standard version and in a Trailers From Hell version with commentary from Jon Davison, a collection of radio and TV spots, trailers for a few other Shout! Factory Corman releases, a great collection of behind the scenes stills from Phil Tippett's personal collection, a second still gallery featuring a wealth of promotional materials, awesome animated menus and chapter stops. Inside the keepcase is a full color booklet of liner notes from Michael Felsher detailing the film's history and influence. There's also some very cool reversible cover art included. If there's one completely anal nitpicky complaint to make here, it's that the Blu-ray doesn't include the bad ass lenticular sleeve that the standard definition DVD does.
The Final Word:
By carrying over the extras from the previous release and adding some welcome new supplemental material, Shout! Factory have made this release pretty much essential. The high definition widescreen transfer is a true thing of beauty and the film itself is just as much fun now as it was decades ago. This is just a truly excellent release all the way around and anyone remotely interested in the film should snatch it up immediately.