The film is directed by my favorite modern horror director Alexandre Aja. If you haven't seen his film High Tension stop reading this review and go see it. Its so intense and well shot, superb horror. The film stars Marty McFly's girlfriend, Tom Cruises black friend, some kid, Will Ferrell's mean brother Derek, Matt Hooper, a pornstar, and mutha fuckin Doc Brown!
What a movie this was. As stated in interviews with Aja during the films development and leading up to its release he wanted to make a film he would want to see as a 13 year old kid. The kind of movie you're parents wouldn't want you to see. The kind of movie you would have to sneak into the theatre or get your older sibling to buy you tickets to see. The kind of movie you rent from the video store and watch with all your friends on a Saturday night. And by god he did exactly that. I remember as a kid and early teen my favorite movies to rent were horror and creature features, Friday the 13th, Children of the Corn and other movies based on Stephen King, Carnasaur (hell yeah bitches!), The Birds, Aliens, Arachnophobia, and of course the Baconfest Tremors. That was my bread and butter. People getting eaten by animals is just entertaining. I really can't explain it. It just is. I still like watching all the SyFy original movies in the genre. Just watched Lake Placid 3 the other night, absolutely terrible yes, but still entertaining enough. Now we have Piranha 3D which stays true to all the cliche's of the creature feature genre with great talent behind and in front of the camera. What does that make? A bloody fun ride that's what.
The film starts out with a fantastic cameo by Richard Dreyfus playing the same role he did in Jaws. Minding his own business and fishing out in the middle of the lake a tremor occurs and breaks open a gap at the bottom of the lake. What comes out of that gap you ask? Sharks? No. Octopuses? No. Sharktopuses? No. Piranhas, and lot's of them. You can guess what happens to our old fisherman. It rhymes with "sweeten arrive". We are then introduced to our main characters, Elisabeth Shue as the tough Sheriff of the Lake Town Julie Forester, her son Jake the 17 year old kid trying to get the girl Kelly who has the overbearing jock boyfriend, and Jerry O'Connell as the Girls Gone Wild inspired entrepreneur Derrick Jones of Wild Wild Girls along with his posse of scantily clad ladies. We see that it's spring break in our little lake side town and shit is going crazy, lots of college kids here to party. The lake is littered with boats as it looks like one of those floating trash islands but only with 100,000 thousand dollar speed boats and bikinis. Sheriff Julie Forester tells her son Jake to stay away from the festivities as he must baby sit his two cute as a button precocious kid siblings all weekend because she'll be busy patrolling the college kids. Jake then encounters Jerry O'Connel and his ladies and is enlisted to be a location scout for his Wild Wild Girls movie. Guess what he chooses to do... Then of course the shit starts to hit the fan. And by shit I mean lots of Piranhas and lots of eating.
Sound familiar? Yeah of course, it's Jaws, but in a lake with Piranhas. The creature feature genre has tried and true elements that this film again adhere's to. Small town, big event, an over worried sheriff, teenagers who don't give a fuck, cute little kids, out of towner scientists, and something that wants to eat them all. These are just the basic ingredients. Sure all pizza's are essentially dough, sauce, cheese and toppings, but it's how you put them together and how you bake it is where the magic comes out. Here is where you have all those essential horror elements but constructed in a way that still keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. You know the rules of the game, and this film delivers and then some. What takes this film above you're general creature features and made for SyFy movies is that you can see the love and work put into it, and the tone is spot on where everyone is having fun with the genre expectations.
The gore displayed on screen here ridiculous and gnarly. Viewer be seriously warned. Definitely NOT for the kids. Definitely NOT for the squeamish. The 3D is used well to display the schlock onscreen very similarly to My Bloody Valentine 3D. It's not trying to be an "immersing experience" to draw you into the story. It's exploitation through and throughout and having a blast with the medium.
It's a sad day in America when you see a rated R horror film today that does not have any nudity. The recent Friday the 13th remake had a decent amount which was one of the only good things going for it. This film more than makes up for all the wussy horror films of the past decade. There is an nude underwater ballet sequence between the gorgeous English model Kelly Brook and American adult film star Riley Steele that is well worth the price of admission for any male or lesbian or anyone who really just appreciates good underwater cinematography.
Really this is only enjoyable on a "brain turned off" level. The main problem here is that the best characters are not the main ones. We have the two most engaging characters of the overacted soft core porn director Jerry O'Connel and his mysterious lady played by Kelly Brooke, and then the wonderful cameo's by Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss. Adam Scots character of Novak is a pretty cool guy as a seismologist who was definitely underused. His delivery throughout brought a good "matter of fact"ness to the entire film. Our three leads of Jack, his mother, and Kelly are pretty boring and one note. It would have been nice to see some more range and depth with them. The other main problem I had with the film was the ending. It really just pissed me off. I won't spoil it, but it pretty much just ends the movie at the exact moment after Plot Point Two. Plus the ending shot is in all the TV spots so you see it coming. Stupid Stupid Stupid.
By far the best thing about this movie is seeing Christopher Lloyd on the big screen. It's really physically impossible not to smile as he delivers his lines during his couple scenes in this film. He's like you're favorite Uncle who's full of crazy stories and is a blast to listen to. Though I wish he was in the film a little more it was just cool as hell seeing him as a raving scientist. (fun fact: they are going to re-release Back to the Future in theatres this October for its 25th Anniversary!)
If you like creature features this is a must see. If you can't deal with boat loads of gore take a rain check. It's a bloody fun ride from beginning to end with some definite flaws. Go with some buddies and drink some beers before you go and you'll have a wicked swell time.
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