Killer Fish (1979)

Best movie ever!

A Disappointing Continuation

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Blistering performances.

After stealing a fortune worth of jewels a group of thieves hide their stolen loot in a box and throw it into a nearby lake. Proving the adage that "there is no honor among thieves" two of them decide to sneak out to the lake and retrieve it prior to the specified time. What they don't realize is that the mastermind behind the robbery named "Paul Diller" (James Franciscus) put some piranha in this lake a year or two earlier to protect it from just such an attempt. His plan works as the person attempting to swim toward the box is rapidly consumed. Later these same piranha also kill two more thieves as well. But protecting the treasure isn't the only thing Paul has on his mind. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that I found it to be better than I initially thought it would be as it managed to combine elements of a crime caper with that of a horror film along the lines of "Piranha" as well. Of course, having two attractive actresses like Margaux Hemingway (as "Gabrielle") and Marisa Berenson ("Ann") certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, I liked this particular film and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Killer Fish is set in Brazil & starts as a gang of thieves carry out an elaborate raid on a mining company & manage to steal millions in valuable diamonds, as the police search for them they dump the diamonds into a lake. Safely back at their hotel discussing their plans the thieves decide to wait 60 days before collecting the diamonds & splitting them, criminal mastermind Paul Diller (James Franciscus) remains calm but other's get impatient & feel that they may be double crossed. Two of the gang decide to fish the diamonds out of the lake for themselves but find that the lake is full of deadly Piranha & become fish food, all part of Paul's plan the other's eventually retrieve the diamonds but find themselves stuck when their boat sinks. Trying to hitch a ride back in a boat used for a nearby fashion shoot a fierce storm breaks a dam & the boat is damaged & left slowing sinking in the middle of the Piranha infested lake...Also know under the title Deadly Treasure of the Piranha this Italian, British, Brazillian & American co-production was directed by Antonio Margheriti under his usual Anthony M. Dawson alias on English language versions I have known about this film for some time & always thought it sounded quite fun but have never had to opportunity to watch it before but it was shown on cable telly over here in the UK last week so jumped at the chance to finally see it. Was the wait worth it? Yes & no, while I didn't hate it & it has it's moments I was a little disappointed by it. The script is more a crime thriller than a straight horror film, the Piranha are more of a subplot to the arguing thieves & fashion shoots than anything else. The whole film feels silly, virtually everything that happens is dumb or daft, the vicious storm that lasts for about thirty seconds, the idea that if your going to steal some precious diamonds do it as noisily as possible so as to attract as much attention as possible, Piranha that attack people ten seconds after they enter the water, silly character's who are so one dimensional it's scary, a boat with a hole in it that takes ages to sink until everyone is off it then it sinks in about five seconds & some really stiff dialogue from the international cast. At just under 100 minutes once the group get stuck on the lake in the sinking boat during the second half it picks up but the preceding half is dull & boring with only an explosive start to get you interested. Killer Fish is a bit of a mess really, the plot doesn't hold up at all & as a crime thriller it's fairly dull while as a horror film it fails to deliver the goods. Having said that Killer Fish has a few unintentional laughs, it moves along at a fair pace & it's a decent enough way to pass a couple of hours if your bored one lazy afternoon. Just don't expect anything amazing or particularly believable.Killer Fish looks a little cheap, while there are plenty of explosions & things get blown up the model work is often embarrassing, part of the problem is you can't miniaturise water so little droplets of water in reality look like the size of cannonballs compared to the models & just doesn't convince. I still don't understand why the gang of thieves need to deliberately blow so many things up at the start, why draw so much attention to yourselves? The Piranha attack scenes are badly edited, you know the sort of thing where we see some actor splashing around in the water then quick shots of a few Piranha, it's all rather choppy. There's not much gore here, there are a couple of skeletons, a few Piranha bites, a bit of blood & that's it.Filmed in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the locations are nice enough & I suspect most of the cast took a role in this for the free holiday. Lee Majors from The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-1978) & The Fall Guy (1981-1986) looks bored while the late James Franciscus is OK as the main bad guy.Killer Fish sounds better than it actually is, but then can't that be said about so many films? It passes the time & is silly & sometimes funny & has a few explosions in it & a few Piranha attacks but overall I didn't think it was anything special thanks to the dumbness of it all & a very poor set of character's.

As far as Italian rip-offs of American films go, this one is rather good. The film that is being re-imaged is, of course, Joe Dante's Piranha, and while the plot is clearly an excuse to cash-in; director Antonio Margheriti manages it to keep the film fun and interesting throughout. Margheriti is definitely a talented director; as shown by earlier films such as Danse Macabre and Seven Deaths in Cat's Eye, but he also has a tendency to take projects that are somewhat beneath him; films like this one. But even so, it has to be said that he does a rather good job, as he makes good use of his locations and the footage of the killer fish eating their intended victims is better than it was in Joe Dante's film. The plot focuses on a case full of pricey jewels that end up in a lake filled with deadly piranhas. These fish ain't no vegetarians, and they've been put there on purpose to guard the stones for one of the crooks. However, the case must be recovered, of course, and it's not long before all the major characters (which includes some fashion-related people) end up on a boat in the middle of piranha infested waters.The problem with this film is that the jewel thieves side of the plot is clearly and obviously just an excuse to have a film with piranhas in it, and the whole piranha plot is clearly just an excuse to cash in on Joe Dante's popular film...so it all feels a bit pointless. Still, nobody goes into a film like this to see a life-affirming piece of art, and so it's more important that the film is fun to watch, which it is. Some of the dialogue and events leading up the finale are more than a little bit dry, but there's usually just about enough else going to keep it from drying up completely. There's not a great deal of gore involved with this film, and most of the blood is soaked in water. The film waits a short while before anyone is killed, but this isn't a bad thing as the plot involving the jewel thieves isn't too boring. The cast isn't bad, with Lee Majors and cult star Karen Black doing well in the lead roles, and getting support from the likes of Antonio De Teffè. Overall, when it comes to Italian cinema; there are a lot of films that should be seen before this one - but if you're running out of stuff to watch, you could do worse than this.

Next to Joe Dante's minor exploitation classic, this is already the second "Jaws"-rip off that revolves on piranhas, but the comparison stops right there with the mutual choice of killer fish as the sea monsters. Dante's film is of course better and more relevant, but "Killer Fish" is a typical Italian exploitation product and thus delivers too many grotesque story lines, some neat gore and an unusual cast. Heck, I'm not even sure this film fully qualifies as a "Jaws"-rip off since the main plot involves a diamond heist instead of a besieged tourist resort. Although... it has that, too! A well-organized bunch of thieves successfully complete their diamond robbery and lower the loot to the bottom of the lake for safety reasons. After 60 days – if the police give up their search – they will collect the diamonds again and split. In order to guard his precious jewels, criminal mastermind Paul Diller infested the lake with ravenous piranhas that can regularly nibble from the double-crossing team members. Meanwhile, one of the crooks falls for a model with a speech-defect and a tropical hurricane busts a large dam, allowing the piranhas to spread themselves all across the touristy waters. Antonio Margheriti's "Killer Fish" suffers from a slightly tedious and hesitant opening half hour, but it get more adventurous once the first victim is devoured under the water. The piranha effects as well as the underwater cinematography are a bit disappointing but this film has an irresistible 70's charm, complete with cool soundtrack and stereotypical characters. Lee Majors is excellent as the macho with more hair on his chest than brains in his skull and Karen Black is a great shrew. Not as good as I hoped, but a fun piece of Italian trash nonetheless.