Piranha! Uh...no, not that one. Oh...no, not that one either. Wait...no, not that one...or any of those sequels. Before there were those more famous piranha films of Roger Corman or Joe Dante...or even James Cameron (the Titanic guy) made one...there was the 1972 not-quite-a-masterpiece film that starred one of the great heavies of the past 60 years...William Smith. Yep...in this one he is as deadly as a bunch of these toothy fish. Our feature today is 1972's "Piranha," directed by Bill Gibson.
Caribe (Smith) is a hunter. He hunts for the thrill of the kill. He even traps monkeys and feeds them to anacondas just for the fun of it. Beats on-line betting or phone app betting of NFL games if you ask me. Then, two American arrive in Venezuela. The sultry blonde Terry (Ahna Capri) and her brother Art (Tom Simcox). Terry is a photographer who believes no animal should ever be killed by human. Yep, she'll change her mind real fast after she enters the Amazon. Her brother is a gadabout who succeeds in banging a sultry Venezuelan slut (Julie Teca) in Caracas. Good for him! Now they hire a guide, the handsome Jim (Peter Brown). Lucky for Terry that Peter brings a gun as she shoots an offending rattlesnake right off the bat as it sprung at the nubile blonde babe.
The go further into the Amazon so Terry can get more photos of the wildlife. She has a grant to do it. There they meet Caribe who smiles at them as an anaconda smiles at a hog. We know what he has on his mind. Rape and murder. Uh oh...Caribe gets Terry's juices going even though she hates the concept of hunting and killing animals. Jim hates Caribe from the outset and loses a motorcycle race to him that went through a swampy Amazon landscape. Caribe brings the trio further and further into the Amazon as Art is now after diamonds which seem prevalent in the basin. Now, well into the Amazon, just like an anaconda, or rattlesnake, Caribe springs. Poor Terry...the thug wants a sex toy and Terry has tons more sex appeal than the local Indians. Now the trio is at Caribe's mercy and he is a vicious killer.
Will the nubile blonde Terry be soiled by Caribe and fed to piranhas? Will Art and Jim stand a chance against this monster in his own home turf? Are the piranhas, referenced in the title of this film, going to be part of the final reveal? This is brutal one and the fate of Terry may make many of you wince. For piranhas, anacondas, rattlesnakes, gators (or are they crocs?), electric eels, etc...and a complete psycho, see William Smith in his magnum opus, "Piranha."