1) Piranha (1978)
The original, Roger Corman-produced film in the series is still, unsurprisingly, at the head of the class. Joe Dante (Gremlins) directs what’s ostensibly a Jaws rip-off that also borrows elements from the disaster movies of the era (a large cast sprinkled with Hollywood legends, including Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ Kevin McCarthy and Black Sunday’s Barbara Steele) and campy creature features (John Sayles, a future two-time Oscar nominee, wrote the script). After mutated piranhas are accidentally unleashed from an abandoned military facility—the remnants of “Operation Razorteeth,” a failed scheme to turn the Vietnam War tide by using the killer fish as weapons—the surrounding community (which includes a summer camp full of little kids; a newly opened resort run by Dante favorite Dick Miller; and a river the locals rely on for food, transportation, and recreation) soon comes under attack. Much like Jaws, it takes nearly the entire movie for anyone in authority to admit that there’s a deadly threat looming, which means that Piranha’s third act is basically one long gruesome (yet lo-fi; the budget on this is strictly B-movie) feeding frenzy. The plot doesn’t make a ton of sense and neither does the “science”—but it’s still an incredibly fun monster movie.
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