Tricia O'Neil ("The Gumball Rally") stars as Anne Kimbrough, a scuba diving instructor for a fancy seaside resort. Also an expert on marine life, she's suspicious when divers start getting eaten. However, she couldn't have predicted what the culprits turn out to be: some sort of mutated piranha / grunion / flying fish hybrid, which naturally don't have to confine themselves to the sea. Periodically they attack various chumps in enjoyably gruesome ways. Anne works with both her husband Steve (Lance Henriksen), a police chief whom we must assume is estranged from her since she never refers to him as an "ex", and a hunky stranger-in-town, Tyler (Steve Marachuk, "Eyes of Laura Mars").
Extremely humble beginnings for James Cameron! The story is that he shot footage for about a week for executive producer Ovidio Assonitis ("Tentacles"), who became dissatisfied with what he was turning out and fired him. Assonitis then proceeded to film the balance of the movie himself. The sorry screenplay receives a pseudonymous "H.A. Milton" credit, but Assonitis, Cameron, and Charles H. Eglee all contributed. It's an unfortunate melange of bad writing and bad dialogue, and a collection of dopey characters, some of whom are of course on the make.
It's really too bad; with a premise like that, and a story that references the Joe Dante original, this should have delivered more fun. But the attack scenes are just not that frequent, and everybody involved takes the material just a little too seriously. At least Dante and John Sayles had a real sense of humour about their material.
Much of the cast is just plain amateurish, with Henriksen barely managing to retain his dignity. (Of course, he would work with Cameron again on "The Terminator" and "Aliens".) O'Neil doesn't have much of a presence as the heroine. Genre buffs will note the presence of Ricky Paull Goldin (Scott Jeskey in the remake of "The Blob") as O'Neil and Henriksens' son, and Captain Kidd Brewer, Jr. (who acted for Cameron eight years later in "The Abyss"). Stunning English babe Carole Davis ("If Looks Could Kill") has an amusing role as a conniving user.
The movie isn't a total loss; at least it racks up a respectable body count by the time it's over.
Creature effects and gore by the great Giannetto De Rossi.
Five out of 10.
Extremely humble beginnings for James Cameron! The story is that he shot footage for about a week for executive producer Ovidio Assonitis ("Tentacles"), who became dissatisfied with what he was turning out and fired him. Assonitis then proceeded to film the balance of the movie himself. The sorry screenplay receives a pseudonymous "H.A. Milton" credit, but Assonitis, Cameron, and Charles H. Eglee all contributed. It's an unfortunate melange of bad writing and bad dialogue, and a collection of dopey characters, some of whom are of course on the make.
It's really too bad; with a premise like that, and a story that references the Joe Dante original, this should have delivered more fun. But the attack scenes are just not that frequent, and everybody involved takes the material just a little too seriously. At least Dante and John Sayles had a real sense of humour about their material.
Much of the cast is just plain amateurish, with Henriksen barely managing to retain his dignity. (Of course, he would work with Cameron again on "The Terminator" and "Aliens".) O'Neil doesn't have much of a presence as the heroine. Genre buffs will note the presence of Ricky Paull Goldin (Scott Jeskey in the remake of "The Blob") as O'Neil and Henriksens' son, and Captain Kidd Brewer, Jr. (who acted for Cameron eight years later in "The Abyss"). Stunning English babe Carole Davis ("If Looks Could Kill") has an amusing role as a conniving user.
The movie isn't a total loss; at least it racks up a respectable body count by the time it's over.
Creature effects and gore by the great Giannetto De Rossi.
Five out of 10.