Sadly these days whenever most people will hear the title of Piranha they'll probably automatically think of the obnoxious and tacky "Piranha 3D", a movie that while I did find it fun in a brainless kind of way, it didn't have an ounce of the good old-fashioned charm and character that this flick had going for it. I mean how could anyone ever forget about the original Piranha? It's a classic and one of the best killer animal movies ever made. It's one of the pictures that really captured my imagination in a fun scary way when I was a kid and I still love it now, it's such an easy charming movie to sit through, and if you absolutely have to label it as such, then it's certainly a B-movie that's done tremendously well. I don't personally think it's all that much of a Jaws ripoff. Some people talk as if that's all it is.. Jaws had one big fish, this has many tiny fish that pose a far greater threat, the thing that's most similar to Jaws that I see is just the underwater shots of the piranha closing in on victims from below. Jaws chillingly killed one child, this movie had the gall to make the first bloodbath of its story an attack on a whole bunch of kids at once, and that took some serious "intestinal fortitude" back in 1978 when kids in movies were considered a lot more sacrosanct than they are today. I love the way the good guys actually fail to reach the summer camp in time to save the children, because it goes against what you'd typically expect to happen, and that was different and interesting to me. I find that there's a great sense of menace to the movie as well as a good comic timing, with the scary moments being more shocking because I was just chuckling at something a minute before, and I can take it perfectly serious as a picture and still have fun with it at the same time. I love the music score which gives it a lot of added atmosphere, to me it sounds very similar to the iconic theme from Carrie and it gives me the creeps. They do a good job of just making the water seem spooky and dangerous. I remember being bothered as a kid by how you never really see the piranha all that much at all, but now I think that it works out much better in that more subtle and shadowy way, with the mutant fish as a mostly unseen threat lurking beneath the darkness of the water, and the noise of them feeding is actually a little scarier than they are! I loved that sound, I don't know what they did to make it but it goes together with the underwater photography and the quick shots of the piranha relentlessly ripping at people to sell the effect of them fantastically. Something else I quite enjoy is that it had good characters that are fun to watch, even just the bit parts. I love the overly strict ridiculous blowhard who happens to be the boss of the summer camp and has no sense of humour and takes his job way too seriously, he's such a funny buffoon and is such an ignorant jerk but he does kind of redeem himself in the end, which is something that happens a few times in this movie.. I like Kevin McCarthy's regretful scientist who originally created the genetically engineered piranha, he's manic and energetic and his death while he clumsily tries to rescue a boy is genuinely sad, and nobody ever believes Kevin McCarthy about impending doom until it's too dang late! Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies were great together, they were both very likable and had such a fun cute chemistry that really carries the whole movie. She's very spunky and resourceful and was not at all above her 'feminine wiles' to get them out of tight spots, and while she was no airhead she did kind of cause everything that went wrong in the story in one way or another! And Dillman's character at first is just a good-natured honourable drunk who tags along but he becomes more of the hero the audience expects him to be as it goes on. Most of the film is just their race against time to stop the piranha from reaching the sea, which they ultimately fail to do as Barbara Steele reveals as the movie ends in a hilariously wink-wink moment as she huskily says to the news media in her lovely British accent that "There's nothing left to fear..." But of course it's really to you...the viewer! Everything we've seen has just been mere prelude to a much bigger fishy nightmare to come, and now blood's *really* gonna run and the oceans of the world will run red forever!!! As stupidly over the too as it is, I still find the ending to be more strangely eerie than funny. So to me it's a movie that's both funny and scary whenever it's trying to be either, and it really shows how good the animal attack movies of their glorious 70s heydays could be. Still brilliant fun, it's an easy 10 out of 10 bizarre bipedal peeping fish lizard creatures for me! x

Joe Dante along with screenwriter John Sayles, made two films I really love - The Howling and Alligator. The former is particularly great, with effects by Rob Bottin and some amazing yet brief stop motion animation by David Allen, The Howling has everything you want in a horror-comedy. Moving onto Piranha, there are some big pluses in this cash in on Jaws. 1)The stop motion animation of the little mutant in the lab. 2)Kevin McCarthy and Dick Miller in brief yet key roles. 3)One of my favorite lines from shlock cinema "Sir, it appears that the fish are eating the guests." The problem with Piranha is that it tries to get too serious when the climactic attack takes place. It just sucks all the amusement right out of it and bogs down the film. Whereas in The Howling, a keen sense of humor is maintained throughout, Piranha suffers from a turn toward the serious, and serious this film is not. All in all worth seeing even though I think the remake with Jerry McConnell directed by Alexandre Aja is superior.

This is a great horror film. It has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. 5.9 is underrating this awesome movie. Piranha II the spawning is scarier. But still this one of the scariest movies made before 1981. I give it 9 out of 10. This movie is a must see. The Jaws movie are better. But still this a great movie. This is scarier then The Shinning. And that is not easy to do. But it not scarier then the Jaws movies. Anaconda is also better. But still this a very scary movie. This is scarier then The Omen. I need more lines and I am running out of things to say. 9 out of 10 Great movie great movie great movie. See it.

I'm a huge fan of Joe Dantes work, even going so far as to buy every movie has directed. There's something about his style, especially the mixture of humor and lighthearted horror elements that always seemed to resonate well with me. Piranhas is a movie I had on my watch-list for quite some time but I was never able to find a copy of it with a good quality. By total accident I found the special edition Blu-Ray Edition of Piranhas. I was exhilarated and bought it immediately.So, how well does Dantes second feature film hold up after all these years? Surprisingly well! This has all the good stuff in it that you'd expect from a Roger Corman production. Blood, boobs, humor, fake looking special effects, its all there, but its all done with a lot of passion! I watched some bonus material of how the piranhas were made and discovered that Phil Tippet (now an Oscar winner for his work on movies like Star Wars) actually made the pesky little fish rats. I gotta say, after watching the bonus stuff, I had even more respect for the movie, for the sheer fact alone of how much work went into it. No wonder they all involved to Hollywood legends, these people are creative forces! Now, with all that said, its still amateur film-making. So don't expect next level Kubrick. The acting is at parts really good, especially from Bradford Dillman, and at parts really cringe worthy, just like it should be. The story is rather simple and I wont bother going into details, its just entertaining schlock with some great moments. I was surprised how serious it actually took itself. There were quiet some funny scenes but for the most part, its actually pretty dark. All in all, this movie really impressed me. I was entertained for the entirety of the film and there never seemed to be a dull moment. The underwater scenes still look great and the gore effect don't disappoint. Give it a try!