Entertaining B-movie fun from Italian director Antonio Margheriti, here going for an international approach with a leading American cast and location filming in Brazil and Rio De Janeiro. Otherwise it's business as usual as Margheriti keeps things moving nicely along with his trademark miniature effects work as the B-grade cast go through the paces and look to be enjoying themselves. The special effects are pretty poor, it has to be said, and the film is episodic in nature with some parts much more entertaining than others. However it ends with a rousing finale in which the entire cast find themselves on the middle of the piranha-infested lake in a sinking ship and macho heroics and dastardly traitorous tricks rule the day. I always enjoy such plot contrivances as this and time spent waiting for the next expendable to get munched makes for an enjoyable viewing experience.
Once again Margheriti practises with mixing up the genres. At heart this is an adventure film and as such is full of colourful exotic locales and attractive actors and actresses. However, other genre elements often come into play. There are romances and human drama between the principal characters. The opening of the film, complete with a full-scale planned robbery, is straight out of an old crime flick. Then halfway through, elements of the disaster movie surface with the arrival of a tornado (a really poorly animated one, it has to be said - it'll have you gasping and reaching for the rewind button) which rips through the scenery destroying everything in its path, setting things up for the taut finale on the sinking boat. And of course, considering director Margheriti's pedigree, there are the expected horror elements on view too.
Lots of people get eaten by the piranha, it goes without saying, dying in pools of blood and gristle and screaming. We get to see partially-eaten skeletons resting on the ocean floor in genuinely macabre underwater explorations and the piranha themselves - the animation isn't half bad, it has to be said - as they rip great chunks out of their victims. The characterisation is rather poor, it has to be said, with all of the major players just one-dimensional stereotypes - Lee Majors as the rough hero, James Franciscus as the bad guy. The exception to this rule is Karen Black, who has fun playing a multi-layered criminal torn between her love for Majors and joining Franciscus in his plan to get the loot. Although she times overacts to an embarrassing extent, overall Black's presence can be regarded as a plus thanks to her interesting character.
Majors of course was in hot demand at the time due to the success of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and he makes for a dependable square-jawed hero with plenty of eyebrow-raising. No revelations on the acting front but at least he has plenty of heroics to get his teeth into. The supporting cast of pretty ladies like Margaux Hemingway and Marisa Berenson is easy on the eye, whilst James Franciscus has the role of the great unscrupulous bad guy and plays the part with relish. Although made on an obvious low budget, some of Margheriti's miniature effects work hits the mark, especially in the sequence in which a dam breaks as the result of the tornado and the flood waters crash down into the valley, all good stuff. And the last twenty minutes of excitement is enough to make you forgive KILLER FISH for the flaws in the story that have come before and the occasional lapse in interest. A flawed and minor film, yes, but there's enough here to satisfy the appetite of the thrill-seeking genre fan.
Once again Margheriti practises with mixing up the genres. At heart this is an adventure film and as such is full of colourful exotic locales and attractive actors and actresses. However, other genre elements often come into play. There are romances and human drama between the principal characters. The opening of the film, complete with a full-scale planned robbery, is straight out of an old crime flick. Then halfway through, elements of the disaster movie surface with the arrival of a tornado (a really poorly animated one, it has to be said - it'll have you gasping and reaching for the rewind button) which rips through the scenery destroying everything in its path, setting things up for the taut finale on the sinking boat. And of course, considering director Margheriti's pedigree, there are the expected horror elements on view too.
Lots of people get eaten by the piranha, it goes without saying, dying in pools of blood and gristle and screaming. We get to see partially-eaten skeletons resting on the ocean floor in genuinely macabre underwater explorations and the piranha themselves - the animation isn't half bad, it has to be said - as they rip great chunks out of their victims. The characterisation is rather poor, it has to be said, with all of the major players just one-dimensional stereotypes - Lee Majors as the rough hero, James Franciscus as the bad guy. The exception to this rule is Karen Black, who has fun playing a multi-layered criminal torn between her love for Majors and joining Franciscus in his plan to get the loot. Although she times overacts to an embarrassing extent, overall Black's presence can be regarded as a plus thanks to her interesting character.
Majors of course was in hot demand at the time due to the success of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and he makes for a dependable square-jawed hero with plenty of eyebrow-raising. No revelations on the acting front but at least he has plenty of heroics to get his teeth into. The supporting cast of pretty ladies like Margaux Hemingway and Marisa Berenson is easy on the eye, whilst James Franciscus has the role of the great unscrupulous bad guy and plays the part with relish. Although made on an obvious low budget, some of Margheriti's miniature effects work hits the mark, especially in the sequence in which a dam breaks as the result of the tornado and the flood waters crash down into the valley, all good stuff. And the last twenty minutes of excitement is enough to make you forgive KILLER FISH for the flaws in the story that have come before and the occasional lapse in interest. A flawed and minor film, yes, but there's enough here to satisfy the appetite of the thrill-seeking genre fan.