Piranha(1978) Movie Review 251

Piranha is a 1978 horror movie directed by Joe Dante who has been responsible for such classics as Gremlins, Innerspace and of course, The Howling. It stars Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies.

The movie begins with two backpackers who wander into a government testing site. They decide to go into a pool and get attacked by something in the water. What could it be??? An insurance investigator called Maggie(Menzies) is looking into the disappearance of the two backpackers and she wants answers. She meets a local drunk called Paul(Dillman) and she wants him to help her to find them. He agrees reluctantly as he is a bit of a loner. He knows the local area really well so he is her guide. They look around the testing site and they find a backpack. They realise that there is someone living there after looking around for a while. They bump into a strange man who tries to attack them. They manage to overpower him and they take him with them back to Paul's place. He tells them about the piranha that were in the pool and as Maggie emptied it, the piranha are headed for the local waterways and the river. They aren't sure what to think, but they eventually realise that he is telling the truth.

He is a doctor and he was working with the fish during the Vietnam War and they were to be used to kill the enemy. When the project was shut down, he kept some of them and now, they are heading for the river.

Paul, Maggie and the doctor have to try and stop the mutant fish from reaching the ocean. The fish start to swim and they attack the locals. Maggie and Paul stop them from reaching the ocean, they think. Everything is fine again...Or is it? The movie ends with some of the piranha swimming in the ocean...

This was an entertaining horror movie. I liked it and I would recommend it. It has been remade in 2010 and my review of that is here...I am giving it a 6/10.