Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

bowmanblue It's been a week since I watched the 1978 horror film 'Piranha' and, as I sit down to type, I'm struggling to remember what it was about. Yes, there are killer fish. And they ate people – that much I'm sure. However, besides those two most basic of plot points, I can't seem to think of much else. But I did like it – while I watched it anyway. In fact, I think it was the second time I've seen it, but then it might have got a bit blurred with the more recent remake. Anyway, from the little that is still with me…A swarm of – slightly mutated – killer piranhas gets accidentally released from a Government testing lab and go on the rampage down a stream (luckily they're limited to inflicting carnage on people who have strayed into the water – if you're interested, the sequel takes care of the question, 'What if piranhas WEREN'T limited to JUST the water!). And, what follows pretty much checks off every horror cliché in existence.Character have sex... and then die – check. Evil military – check. Dastardly British villain – check. Beautiful heroine who never succumbs to nudity – check. Official who won't believe what's really happening and puts money before public safety – check. And so on. Then there's the gore. You may be expecting a film about swarms of killer fish to be loaded with the red stuff. Well, it is. The water turns red on many an occasion. However, that doesn't really mean you see anything. Maybe due to budget limitations, 'red water' serves as a way of showing hideous death without ever really showing much of what's really happening.So, all in all, 'Piranha' is pretty underwhelming. And yet I felt quite satisfied while watching it. If you're looking for a cheap 'Jaws' knock-off and don't mind seventies low-budget horror which is there simply to fill an hour and a half in your life, well, here it is. Enjoy. And then forget. In fact, I think I've now completely forgotten which movie I was talking about to begin with! At least the fish don't have wings... you'll have to check out the sequel for that little nugget of gold.

Python Hyena Piranha (1978): Dir: Joe Dante / Cast: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller: While Jaws is an underwater thriller masterpiece. Director Joe Dante presents a miniature version that involves rows of razor sharp teeth. Piranhas are accidentally released and they swarm down river devouring anybody who falls into the water. Thankfully Dante allows for some interesting characters and humour. Bradford Dillman plays Paul Grogan who is perceived as a drunk, which complicates any attempt to warn authorities. Heather Menzies plays Maggie who arrives on the scene to find answers to the disappearance of two backpackers. Viewers are given the answers to this in the film's opening sequence. The chemistry between Dillman and Menzies holds strong due to humour interaction. Kevin McCarthy steals moments as a scientist who contained the piranhas for an experiment that was intended as a war weapon. McCarthy plays a character perceived as being out of his mind until he risks his life to save a boy stranded upon an overturned canoe. Other characters are not as well drawn but well cast with actors like Keenan Wynn and Dick Miller. The piranhas are amusing but a scene where children are mauled in the water is not so fun to watch. It is gruesome but somewhat fun in presenting a less imposing creature than in Jaws, and instead shrinking the viscous scale. Score: 8 ½ / 10

MechaWingZero Piranha is the best example I have seen of precisely how to do a rip off. It may sound like an oxymoron to call a rip off impressive, but this is what accurately describes Piranha. Today, we have the Asylum, a direct-to-DVD company which gives us so-called "mockbusters" that completely lack the heart and fun of a film like this. Instead, those are merely dull "just-going-through-the-motions-to-make-a-small-amount-of-money" displays of ineptitude.There are several things to strongly commend this movie for, like the fact that the lead characters are likable so that you care what happens to them (unlike in some horror films), the way it is very self-aware and has small tributes to Jaws, the campy sound effect of the school of fish, the excessive amounts of blood that is shown in a comic manner, and how it is genuinely comedic and yet not a pure spoof in the way that films like Scary Movie are. Basically, the film comes just close enough to Jaws to be an obvious attempt to cash in on its success, and yet also stays just far away enough from Jaws that one isn't bored by a repetition of the same story all over again.I also feel that this film did something well that I don't typically see in creature feature films. And that is that it maintained a good balance between the screen time that the piranha attacks had, and that the background story about the people and the origin of the problem had. I say "piranha attacks" because admittedly, the fish themselves are hardly shown close-up at all, but it didn't really feel as if I was missing anything by not seeing very much of their fins. Usually, the scenes involving the creature itself are short as well as far and few in between, while I am bored with all the meaningless dialog (a good example of this is "Demon of Paradise" where I was thinking "When do I get to see the monster?"). But in this movie I did not have that disappointment. As a matter of fact, the scenes where the human characters are talking actually interested me and had me curious what would happen next. It is very rare for me to enjoy these types of scenes.See this movie if you like B movies, by all means. However, if you aren't a fan of that type of cinema, Piranha probably won't convert you. We all have different tastes. I know people who simply don't enjoy a schlocky low budget B movie, even if it's great at being what it is. As for me though, I'll take this little exploitation film over Jaws, because it's just more fun.

atinder I not seen this movie for a really long.As I have Seen 2010 remakes so many times, that love that movie like mad. However this was still great, I thought it would feel dated now before I saw it again but it's did not feel dated at all. A lady is looking for two teenagers, who killed night before as broke in to place with pool that contains Piranhas, while searching for teens they release the Piranha in the lake and soon people are been bitten to death I really enjoyed the whole movie, there was nice bloody moments and there good gory moment as well in this movie, bite looks looked really nasty. The make effect was really good, the Piranha looked really good, the effects at the start were a little fishing with some of odd creates in lab.The acting was really good of most of the cast. 7 out of 10