Amazon.com video review:
Roger Corman produced this shameless Jaws rip-off at the
height of the "nature gone wild" boom of American cinema and struck B-movie
gold. Scripted by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante, this
tongue-in-cheek thriller stars Bradford Dillman (doing his best Rip Torn
impression) as an antisocial mountain man and Heather Menzies as a rookie
detective who race a school of mutant piranha downriver. Dante and Sayles
provide the requisite blood and gore for this drive-in meat market: a kids'
summer camp and a waterfront amusement park await the little beasties.
Along the way, riverside retiree Keenan Wynn gets his ankles stripped
clean, camp counselor Paul Bartel is chomped on the cheek by a hungry little
bugger who takes to the air, and hordes of unlucky bathers are caught in
the center of a feeding frenzy. What differentiates this little gem from
the legion of similar knockoffs are the satirical swipes at military
arrogance and crass commercialism, Dante's energetic enthusiasm, and the
bursts of black humor: "Lost River Lake: Terror, horror, death. Film at
11." The culty cast also includes Invasion of the Body Snatchers's
Kevin McCarthy as the hysterical scientist guarding the creatures, horror
diva Barbara Steele as a devious government researcher, and longtime Corman
regular Dick Miller as an unscrupulous entrepreneur ("Sir, the piranha are
eating the guests").
The DVD features good-humored commentary by director Joe Dante and producer
Jon Davison, who also narrate the 10 minutes of good-quality home-movie
footage shot by Davison. There are also six minutes of outtakes. --Sean
Axmaker
