A joyous, smart Jaws rip off where Roger Corman made the smart decision of giving the job of directing to uber passionate Joe Dante, then they had the luck (or rather Frances Doel's talent spotting) of getting John Sayles to rewrite the script. Sayles' writing really was the X factor here - logical (where the piranhas go and why), giving the actors something to play (Bradford Dillman's drunken loner who no one believes, Heather Menzies' plucky skip tracer, Paul Bartel's pompous camp owner, Dick Miller's greedy resort manager, Barbara Steele's enigmatic scientist, Kevin McCarthy's mad scientist), some progressive social commentary (the fish were developed as a weapon in the Vietnam war, the military corruptly sold land to the resort... which is good as it gives them motive to keep it secret) and humour.
While the movie is tongue in cheek it "goes there" - a young boy sees his father eaten in front of his eyes, kids are killed at camp, a nice counselor is killed at camp. The death toll is high and nice people die.
The low budget is artfully disguised - lots of close ups, limited use of the piranhas, setting it in the bus - but the production values are high (lots of scenes on water, extras at the resort and camp). The boobs feel obligatory eg Heather Menzies flashing (I assume that's a body double).
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