PIRANHA (1978)

This is the original "Piranha" Produced by Roger Corman. Like many of Roger Cormans films Piranha follows closely on the heels of the success of a major studio film, in this case "JAWS".  I honestly can't remember if I'd seen this one back in the day (well my day anwyay) but I'd seen the remakes and they were pretty cool, mindless fun... High on the gore, some great CGI effects and plenty of exploitational violence and nudity. Now its time to see how the orginal compares to this.

The plot itself revolves around investigative journalist, Maggie and a local, Paul she meets who are investigating the dissappearance of two teenagers (who have been eaten by piranahs) they break into an old army testing lab and find some strange experiments in the dormant labs. At this point I have to say the creature effects on this are pretty cool. They meet an old doctor who was still lurking in the lab who informs them they've inadvertantly unleashed the experimental piranahs into the water stream. Besides the odd camper that uses the river their major problem is stopping the infestation before it attacks a summer camp upstream and a big budget water park due to open within days of the piranah being unleashed.

One by one the vicious little fish attack and devour anyone that is unfortunate to stick any limbs into the infested water streams...  I have to say after watching this one, my opinion of Roger Corman is a lot higher than it was before, this film is quite well shot and executed. The movie flows well and is overall rather enjoyable. The horror effects and gore are at quite respectable (but not extreme) levels and it doesn't look cheesy. 

Over all, I was quite impressed with this offering from Mr. Corman! 

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