Piranha 3-D The Movie

Piranha 3-D Movie Reviews from Aug 20, 2010

The film more closely evokes the B-movie spirit that gave birth to stereoscopic cinema than any of its contemporaries

Robert Levin
Critic’s Notebook

Like a Troma production with a bigger budget and a better-known cast, but just as much gore, gratuitous nudity and disregard for good taste.

Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

Exactly the kind of cheese I love!
Chris Bumbray
JoBlo’s Movie Emporium

…because “Piranha 3D” unabashedly embraces exploitation, I would like to cut it some slack… The problem is that it isn’t even good exploitation.
Steve Biodrowski
Cinefantastique

The new Piranha 3D lived down to my absolute lowest expectations and I say that with nothing but gleeful affection.
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

Delivers exactly what you’d expect: gushers of blood, ripped flesh by the kilo, and acres of bare booty and boobs (some of them real).
Kurt Loder
MTV

Too much Jersey Shore, not enough piranhas.
Gina Carbone
Seacoast Newspapers (NH/Maine)

Guilty pleasures belong to August, 3D belongs in the grindhouse… and when the authorities tell you to get the hell out of the water, you really, really should.
Rob Vaux
Mania.com

As for the gore, well, if Aja couldn’t deliver that, it would be like Al Gore being at a loss for words.
Jim Slotek
Jam! Movies

A non-stop buzz machine that runs on boobs and blood, offering everything you’d ever want to see in a movie whose logline is ‘Thousands of prehistoric piranha attack Spring Breakers.
Devin Faraci
CHUD

The definitive film for this latest 3-D era: It exploits sex and gore the same way studios are exploiting moviegoers with 3-D ticket prices.
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm

Forget about ‘Avatar’… Kelly Brook is the reason 3D was created.
Drew McWeeny
HitFix

Hands down and body parts floating, the most irresistibly sick movie in years is Piranha 3D, which should be retitled Piranha 3D, Double-D and C for all the topless cuties director Alexandre Aja feeds the fish and audience.
Steve Persall
St. Petersburg Times

Unapologetically gleeful about doling out the cinematic junk food that you’re looking for when you sit down to devour something called, well, Piranha.

Scott Weinberg
FEARnet

Delivering all sorts of bloody goodness, Piranha is Alex Aja’s best film since High Tension… It’s damn fun, and off the hook bloody.
Brad Miska
Bloody Disgusting

Piranha 3D comes finally arrives in theaters amidst the dog days of summer, just in time for you to be sick of the sun and ready to see all those happy people in bathing suits get eaten– bite by tiny bite.

“Piranha 3D,” out Friday, August 20th, is set on “Lake Victoria” – a fictional popular tourist destination where spring breakers find themselves attacked by vicious fish. But city officials in the region where the film was shot, Lake Havasu — which borders Arizona and California – are fearful that moviegoers might recognize the vacation spot in the horror film and be led to believe piranhas actually exist in local waters. Source: Los Angeles Times

If promises of 3D evisceration, vomiting and sex aren’t enough to lure audiences into theaters in August’s movie dog days, perhaps a grand gesture of self-awareness is. The cast of “Piranha 3D,” Alexandre Aja’s remake of the 1978 Joe Dante schlock classic, is up on Funny or Die offering their arguments as to why their film should be on the Academy’s radar come the fast-approaching Oscar season.

Synopsis: In Lake Victoria Arizona, a tremor causes the lake’s floor to open, setting free scores of prehistoric piranhas… They’re back! Every year the population of sleepy Lake Victoria explodes from 5,000 to 50,000 for a single, wild weekend – the 4th of July, a riot of sun, drunken fun and sex-crazed mayhem. But this year, there’s something more to worry about than hangovers and complaints from local old timers. Lake Victoria sits in the crater formed by a prehistoric volcanic eruption, and when earth tremors tear open a crack in the lake floor, all hell breaks through. Piranhas – a million ravenous, razor-toothed monsters, unchanged since the dawn of time. Unstoppable killing machines acting blindly under one primeval impulse: to hunt down anything that moves and strip it to the raw, bleeding bone. In seconds.

Across the country millions of people have been to the theaters to watch James Cameron’s Avatar. They have also got the chance to see the trailer for Alexandre Aja’s Piranha 3D! Most of them are unaware that Cameron had a chance to helm a version of Piranha.

This Friday, Piranha 3D, the year’s biggest B-movie masquerading as a late-summer blockbuster, opens nationwide. But unlike the straight-to-TV hokum that airs weekly on the SyFy Network, Piranha 3D boasts a surprisingly famous cast (Adam Scott! Elisabeth Shue!? Christopher Lloyd?), and some expensive 3-D effects work. The film’s exuberant Parisian director, Alexandre Aja, is also no bargain-bin helmer: His 2003 French horror flick, the gripping, blood-drenched High Tension, paved the way for American thrillers Mirrors and The Hills Have Eyes. But Aja has never done anything quite like this. The director spoke with Vulture about the difficulties of lake-bound shooting, following in James Cameron’s footsteps with the Piranha legacy, and threading the needle on an action-adventure-horror-comedy.

How exactly did this movie happen?
After High Tension, I was looking for my first English-speaking movie, reading scripts. I received one script, about six years ago, that was called Piranha: Lake Havasu. [It had] a very fun story line: an earthquake released a deadly piranha during spring break in Arizona. The script was written as a comedy. I had so much fun reading it, I couldn’t help think about what I could do if I brought character development and suspense and tension and make it not a comedy, but a real suspenseful movie with some comedy moments. Time passed. But two years ago they re-approached me and asked how I was feeling about the project. I was really excited to write and make it as well.

It’s surprising that the studio originally came to you with a comedy — High Tension isn’t exactly a comedic masterpiece.
I was misunderstood — High Tension was a comedy! [Laughs.] No, you’re right, it was not at all a comedy, it was very dark. I think they approached me because they knew that making a straight comedy with piranha would be just a spoof. They needed it more like Jaws. And in the vein of a more serious movie.

Joe Dante directed the first Piranha, Cameron worked on the second one. They’re both really accomplished filmmakers, but piranha movies seem like a strange entry point. It doesn’t have prestige, necessarily, but it seems to attract talent.
It’s a very strange franchise — so many talented people have been involved. Somehow, it keeps giving a chance to young people who are really, really inventive that can work with a very limited budget. I’m very lucky to put my name among those names. Joe Dante and James Cameron are major inspirations. But my Piranha is not inspired by the original Piranha, it’s more like a Gremlins for adults, with some Indiana Jones action-adventure.

There’s a report that you used 7,000 gallons of blood on the set. Is that accurate?
More than that. That’s what Eli [Roth] said when he arrived. I don’t want to give you a wrong number, but — did you say 7,000? Multiply by ten. It was somewhere around 80,000. We were using very dense blood and we had to put that in the water. The amount of blood we had to pour in the lake was around that number.

Is that some sort of record?
It may be the most blood ever used, and it is violent and graphic somehow, but it’s never, I hope, disgusting or over-the-top. I didn’t make this movie to use that much blood. Because 20,000 kids getting attacked at spring break is a lot of blood in the water. I just respect the medical rules: one gallon equals one person.

Why did you decide to go 3-D?
It became an obvious choice: To create an even bigger immersion for the audience inside the water, with piranha coming at you, flying at you, we needed 3-D. It was a very quick, five-minute phone call to Bob Weinstein. Shooting on the water made the real 3-D shoot impossible. The reflection of the sun on the water creates a different lighting, which breaks 3-D. So we had to change to conversion, which is still amazing because you have full freedom. We started converting in November, and when we stop talking I’ll still be working. Conversion has a bad rep because of the marketing, but it’s a good process.

There’s been a lot of talk on the web about the wet T-shirt contest and the 3-D.
Yeah, we have a lot of 3-D, not only on the fish side, but on the bikini-girl side, too. We’re delivering.

The cast is incredible, and varied. How did you get so many people of note involved in this movie?
I didn’t want to do this movie with unknown people. Every actor should bring something else to it. It’s a popcorn movie. I wanted to do some postmodern casting. I wanted Elisabeth Shue because she’s not only coming with her acting skill, but she’s also bringing part of the pop-culture-movie story with her. And the same with Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Lloyd, and Ving Rhames. And even the same with the new generation — Jessica Szohr, Steven R. McQueen, or Adam Scott. Kelly Brook is some kind of icon in the U.K. They bring some friendly faces that you grew up with or know well.

Why do you think this sort of thing isn’t done more often for films like this?
The studio really helped me. For example, to get Richard Dreyfus, with the Jaws connection, to come back and play the same part and being in the opening scene — it was Bob Weinstein who managed to convince him and explain how great it would be for fans around the world to see Matt Hooper coming back.

Are you nervous about audiences getting what you’re going for?
Sometimes when [a movie’s] supposed to be serious and there are funny moments, they don’t know if they’re supposed to laugh. That’s a strange feeling. The Gremlins spirit is the best way to describe. It’s not jokes; it’s dark humor meeting a real situation. You can laugh and be scared in the same movie.

From acclaimed  director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Mirror) comes the new action thriller PIRANHA 3D, in the latest and greatest 3D technology and is currently scheduled for release on March 19, 2010. This movie is a remake of the 1978 film Piranha, but it looks like we’ll be experiancing more bloodshed with this one than with the original movie. New 3D worlds add depth and look more natural. It provides a sense of “being there”.  The viewer becomes more emotionally involved and behaves and acts as they would in the actual situation. So  when PIRANHA 3D hits theaters in March it may quickly become one of the most viewed 3D horror films of 2010. Once you see the ravenously hungry fish tearing apart innocent victims you’ll never go into the lake again.

The movie takes place during spring break in beautiful, tourist-friendly Lake Victoria (which is actually Lake Havasu Arizona). Every year the population of sleepy Lake Havasu explodes to well over double it’s normal population for several wild weekends – the 4th of July and Labor Day weekend, a riot of sun, drunkenness and sex-crazed mayhem. But this year, there’s something more to worry about than hangovers and complaints from local old timers. Lake Victoria sits in the crater formed by a prehistoric volcanic eruption. The lake may look peaceful, but beneath the placid waters of this painterly lake lurks a deadly menace. When a sudden underwater tremor in Lake Victoria cracks the lake floor open, a prehistoric strain of man-eating ravenous fish are set free which causes people to disappear. The panic begins to build.  This once peaceful place becomes a hell of torture and death for anyone in the water. This vacation hotspot turns into an all-you-can-eat buffet for these unstoppable killing machines acting blindly under one primeval impulse: to hunt down anything that moves and strip it to the raw, bleeding bone. In seconds. An unlikely group of strangers must unite together to battle the hideous piranha.  Our heroine, local cop Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) and her staff are seriously outnumbered. With time running out and the aquatic carnivores taking over, she must risk everything to destroy swimming predators, save the lake and prevent her family from becoming fish food.

The screenplay is based on a story by Richard Robertson. The script was  written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan of the Feast and Saw series, as well as Chuck Russell (director of “Best the Child”, “The Blob”).  Chuck rewrote the script, using elements from the spec script “Killer Fish” by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger plus the original’s script by John Sayles that Joe Dante directed the first time around. Alexandre Aja was selected to helm the film. Production on the film was scheduled to begin late 2008, but was delayed until March 2009. Director Alexandre Aja  stated “it’s such a difficult movie, not only because of the technicality of it and the CGI fish, but also because it all happens in a lake. We were supposed to start shooting now, but the longer to leave it the colder the water gets. The movie takes place during Spring Break and, of course, the studio wanted it ready for the summer, but if you’ve got 1,000 people who need to get murdered in the water, you have to wait for the right temperature for the water, for the weather, for everything.”

Producer Mark Canton has some enthusiasm for the project: “We want to take people back to a horror classic which was an enormous success in its day but which will benefit from updated technology.”

The Director

Alexandre Aja (born 7 August 1978 in Paris, France) is a French film director who rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension (known as High Tension in the US, and known as Switchblade Romance in the UK) His real name is Alexandre Jouan-Arcady and his pseudonymous surname is formed of the 3 first letters of his full name.

Aja, who is Jewish, is the son of French pied-noir director Alexandre Arcady and French cinema critic Marie-Jo Jouan. His wife is Moroccan filmmaker Laïla Marrakchi. He made his directorial debut at the age of eighteen with the short film Over The Rainbow, which received a Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm Award nomination for best short film. In 1999 he directed Furia, a movie based on Julio Cortázar’s short story Graffiti. Haute Tension, released in 2003 in France and 2005 in the USA, placed Aja on the map for the horror movie genre. A recent project is a horror film entitled Mirrors, about a mysterious mirror that brings out the worst aspects of people whenever they look at themselves in it.

In 2004, Aja was named to the Variety – Ten Directors To Watch list. He is a member of the so-called Splat Pack, a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in “Total Film” magazine for a new wave of directors making brutally violent horror films.

So now he directs Piranha 3-D, the horror movie about prehistoric piranhas in Arizona which is Dimension Films’ remake of Joe Dante’s classic from 1978.

In an interview with MTV News, he expressed a desire to pay his respects to his heroes (mentioning Dante, Cameron, Tobe Hooper, and Wes Craven). Aja hopes to employ the latest 3D technology in a groundbreaking way. “Something I’ve been trying to do for almost ten years now is trying to make movies where the audience is not watching a story or watching some actors but where the audience is crossing the screen and getting on the other side of the mirror, if you will, and lives the nightmare of the screen with the protagonist. When James Cameron said that he wanted to go back and reinvent 3D technology, I always thought with my writing and producing partner that it would be the best tool to create the best horror movie. When people are a version of the audience inside the movie, what is the best thing in 3D to create the full-immersion? I think it’s only logical to use the horror genre for 3D to become even more efficient.”

Aja admitted that had he had to pass up a lifelong dream of meeting Cameron when scheduling conflicts forced him to turn down a set-visit to meet with his lifelong hero. “I got invited on the set of [Avatar],” Aja explained, “but I had to location scout and couldn’t attend… It’s like the biggest shame of my life. It was just impossible. I was so pissed off.”

I look back on Piranha extremely fondly from my youth, and have vivid memories of the swarms of fish racing towards the camera as innocent victims splashed and larked about upstream, blissfully unaware of their fate, so the idea of a remake immediately puts me on the defensive (though I admit the concept lends itself very well to the 3D format).
From his back catalogue, it seems Aja is a quite hit and miss, but he genuinely seems to have respect for the source material and will hopefully put everything he has into this movie.
Aja should “supply enough gore to cause a slump in the sushi industry.” Better gore than the economy. Aja’s Mirrors failed to exploit a concept last summer that was done much better in 1988’s ominous Poltergeist III. With Piranha 3D, this could the cross-over hit he needs to become a go-to man for higher profile horror/genre gigs.

Elisabeth Shue

Shue is playing the role of Sherrif Julie Forester, a take-charge authority figure in the community of Lake Victoria – where the action/ankle-biting takes place. She’s the mother of Jake (one of the central characters in the film – the shy teenager who gets to prove his worth when human-eating fish threaten his family and friends), Laura and Zane. Shue teams up with a Geological Service diver (Adam Scott) to try to save the local lake – and her family- from an outbreak of hungry fish.

Full name, Elisabeth J. Shue born October 6 (some sources cite June 10), 1963, in Wilmington, DE (some sources cite South Orange, NJ); daughter of James (a lawyer and real estate developer) and Anne (a bank executive; maiden name, Wells) Shue.

Her first movie role happened in 1984, when she co-starred in The Karate Kid as the onscreen girlfriend of Ralph Macchio. She continued with Adventures in Babysitting (her first starring role), She also appeared in Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III as Jennifer Parker.

Although often recognized for her girl next door image, Shue starred as a prostitute in the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas with Nicolas Cage. The role earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was also nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Actress, and won the Best Actress awards at the Independent Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the National Society of Film Critics Awards.

Adam Scott

Comedy star Adam Scott  is making the jump to horror movies,
He is playing the role of Novak who is a USGS geologist who encounters the killer fish while diving in the lake.
Adam Scott (born April 3, 1973)  is perhaps best known for his role of Palek in the HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me, Party Down, Knocked Up  and the supporting role of Derek Huff in the 2008 comedy Step Brothers, starring with Will Ferrell as his biological brother and John C. Reilly.

Richard Dreyfuss

Oscar winner and Jaws star Richard Dreyfuss has won a part in the  schlock-tastic Piranha 3-D as well.  Dreyfus will reportedly play a role (cameo?) that pays homage to his marine biologist character in the original “Jaws.”

Richard Dreyfuss (Richard Stephen Dreyfus, born October 29, 19470 is  known for starring in a number of films, television and theater roles since the late 1960s. He is probably best known for his roles in Jaws, The Goodbye Girl, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Always, Mr. Holland’s Opus, and most recently, the 2008 bio-pic W.as former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney.

Ving Rhamess

Irving Rameses “Ving” Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is a Golden Globe-winning American actor.

He plays a cop in this movie. He is known for his bald head and distinctive baritone. Ving Rhames was a stalwart supporting actor throughout the 1990s, most notably in the role of crime boss Marsellus Wallace in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). In 1998 Rhames had the lead role in the film Don King: Only in America. His other films include Bringing Out the Dead (1999, with Nicolas Cage), Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Dawn of the Dead(2004).

Chritopher Lloyd

Christopher Lloyd, the mad, crazy doctor from “back to the future”  has joined the quickly growing cast of Piranha 3D. He  will star as Mr. Goodman, an expert on piranha.  “Doc” bites it in this one as good guys finish last.

Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is a three-time Emmy Award-winning American actor known for his gruff, eloquent voice. He is well known for his portrayals of iconic characters such as Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Reverend Jim Ignatowski on television’s Taxi.

There are several actors who can be instantly identified to a single character role. For Lloyd, single character recognition is impossible. He has captivated both critics and audiences alike with his winning portrayals of quirky, off-beat characters; portrayals that have taken him to untold dimensions.

Jerry O’Connell

He is starring as Derrick Jones in the movie

Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Connell (born February 17, 1974) is best known his roles in the TV series Sliders, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, Ben in Obsessed and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan.

Dina Meyer

Dina Meyer is playing “Paula” is going to be victimized by man-eating prehistoric piranhas.

Dina Meyer (born  December 22, 1968 or June 15, 1969.) is best known for her roles in Starship Troopers and the Saw films.

Jessica Szohr

According to Variety, “Gossip Girl”’s Jessica Szohr has been added to the Piranha 3D cast, playing a local girl enjoying spring break in her small town when all hell breaks loose.
Jessica Karen Szohr (born March 31, 1985) is best known for playing Vanessa Abrams on Gossip Girl.

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The Lake Havasu News ran stories about the production of Piranha 3D and announced an open casting call for April 18, 2009. The paper said “anyone interested in being cast as an extra in “Piranha 3D,” should e-mail a full body photo, close-up photo, and contact information. The casting company was quoted as saying “they would really like to encourage people interested to show up in their swimming suits — girls in bikinis, boys in swim trunks, although it is not necessary” and “stressed the importance of enthusiasm for the extras, stating they are looking for people who will really act drunk during the party scenes, and who would really act like they are dying when they die in the film.”

“We are looking for hundreds of locals to appear in Piranha 3D,” said Chris Davis with Good Faith.  “A lot of people will have a chance to be on camera,” he said. Good Faith Casting and its owner, Faith Hibbs-Clark, was the only authorized casting director in Arizona working on the remake of Piranha.
The crew looked to pull 1500 extras from the Arizona universities to fill those spots.
Director Alexander Aja wanted the big fish manslaughter scene to look like there were tens of thousands of people on the lake. As the movie takes place during spring break, many of the extras needed to fall in 18-25 age range, or at least look like they did.
“What better way to enjoy another spring break, than to come to one of the most popular spring break destinations, Lake Havasu City, and get paid for it,”  Davis said.

…The Extras and boat owners showed up in Thompson Bay on 1st of June.  Good music, sexy girls, flirting guys, a hot atmosphere, what else does a young party crowd need. Some of the girls had no bra and only pasties on their nipples. They made a hot Arizona day feel even hotter. The crew cruised the lake on jetskis and Zodiac rafts helping background performers and principals get placed on the boats. There were even floating honey buckets (restrooms) in the middle of the lake.  Lake Havasu City got an injection of enthusiasm and cash (By some estimates, millions of dollars) and everybody was talking about the movie.
The frenzied production work continued for three weeks before crew and cast were dramatically trimmed down. Working long hours from 6am to 7pm. the extras earned $7.25 per hour, plus got fed. Some of them were even upgraded speaking roles which brought them substantially more money.

In addition to pay there were also discounts on lodging, two catered meals per day, and raffles for various prizes, including gift cards for an electronics store worth as much as $1000. All in all it wasn’t a bad gig for the young extras.