Piranha

Has anyone seen Piranha, released in theaters as Piranha 3D? I watched it for the first time tonight when I saw that it was on Spike. I know, I'm a little behind. 

The Piranha From the Movie

I thought that the movie felt a lot like typical SyFy movies in that it had an unrealistic plot (I mean seriously? How would prehistoric piranhas survive only to randomly show up in a lake and go on a killing spree?), poor script writing, and plenty of blood and gore in an attempt to distract from the first two issues. 

For anyone who hasn't watched Piranha, it is about a lake community, Lake Victoria, Arizona, where an earthquake occurs and releases prehistoric Piranhas into the lake. Like any typical movie about a danger in the lake, ocean, etc., the local sheriff attempts to close the lake, but her efforts are thwarted by college students crowding the lake for spring break. Needless to say, a lot of people die because of the townspeople refusal to close the lake. 

The piranhas in this movie are way bigger than a piranha today, but I guess that is why they are 'prehistoric' in this movie. At the end of the movie, a local pet store owner, Mr. Goodman, informs the sheriff, who has just rescued her children from the piranhas, that the piranhas attacking the people on the lake are only babies. At this point, the mother piranha attacks one of the divers who is on the boat with the sheriff. That is where the movie ends. 

A Piranha From the Amazon

There wasn't much of a plot to this movie. It seemed all the writers and director were concerned with was how many deaths could occur in the film, how much blood and gore they could show, and if they could set the movie up for a sequel. Which they did and was released in 2012 as Piranhas 3DD. 

This movie got me to thinking about our sudden obsession with making a movie worthy only of the SyFy movie channel mainstream. The other movie like this that comes to mind is Shark Night 3D. 

Shark Night is a movie a lot like Piranha. It is about a group of teens who head to a lake and are attacked by sharks who have somehow been placed in the lake. Later in the movie, we find out that one of the girls' ex boyfriends put in the lake because he was inspired by Discovery Channel's Shark Week to film people being eaten by sharks. Once again, this film has poor writing and mainly only cares about blood and gore. There isn't much of a plot other than: sharks in a lake kill people. 

So, what do you guys think about making these types of movies mainstream? 

Links:

Piranha IMDb

Shark Night IMDb