Piranha

Piranha (1978), directed by Joe Dante, Shout! Factory 4k remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including original theatrical stereo, two commentary tracks, and English subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078087/

Video encoded in two-pass 9 500 kbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected.

Note : It's not quite Joe Dante's directorial debut, but it's his first real movie, infamously produced by Roger Corman in the wave of ripoffs that came after the success of Jaws. But it's not a bad movie at all, with charismatic (if debilitatingly alcoholic) characters, a tight, if somewhat unbelievable plot, and some decent, occasionally somewhat explicit gore effects.

What stands out the most, though, is how unrelentingly mean-spirited it is. Sure, Jaws had that Alex Kintner, the kid who gets eaten with his floatie raft and all, but great as the scene with the mom is, we don't really see much. Piranha, on the other hand, serves of up a full banquet of a kids' summer camp swimming competition to the ravenous little fuckers, a whole bunch of kids are just eaten alive, and that's not even the climax. No one's safe here, and whoever survives, is sure to be completely traumatized. No wonder it's a classic, despite its small budget (which it stretches to the max, I have to say.) 60s horror queen Barbara Steele also makes an appearance.

This remaster looks pretty good, maybe a little grainy, but nice punchy blood reds and sharp detail. Both commentary tracks, one with director Joe Dante, the other with star producer Roger Corman, are very entertaining and worth checking out.

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