{"id":18319,"date":"2018-09-12T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T20:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18319"},"modified":"2018-09-12T17:06:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T21:06:34","slug":"br-piranha-2-the-spawning-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18319","title":{"rendered":"BR: Piranha 2 – The Spawning (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Scream Factory \/ Unobstructed View<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 July 31, 2018<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Horror \/ Eco-Horror<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A beach resort in Jamaica is threatened by genetically modified flying piranhas determined to feast on dumb tourists and half-naked sun bunnies.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 2 Interview Featurettes – “One Moment in Time: Ricky Paull Goldin on Piranha Part II: The Spawning” (15:54) + “The Sky Has Teeth: Brian Wade on Piranha Part II: The Spawning” (14:09) \/ Theatrical Trailer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The differing versions of Piranha 2<\/strong> are almost as fascinating as the making of James Cameron\u2019s first feature as director, and Shout\u2019s new Blu-ray rights a lot of wrongs for a sequel that\u2019s almost as fun of the 1978 original (itself\u00a0a spoof of Steven Spielberg\u2019s Jaws<\/strong>), written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante.<\/p>\n

While producer Roger Corman retained the rights to the original film, knocking out a cheap 1995 TV movie<\/a> that adding nothing new, the 1981 sequel was produced by veteran schlockmeister Ovidio Assonitis<\/a>, whose own directorial efforts include the earlier Jaws<\/strong> rip-off Tentacles<\/strong> (1977), and a blatant rip-off of The Exorcist<\/strong> (1973), the ridiculous\u00a0Beyond the Door <\/strong>(1974).<\/p>\n

Door<\/strong> is significant because of the strange luck that enabled Assonitis to survive the wrath of Warner Bros. After the studio sued and received a settlement that included a percentage of Door<\/strong>‘s future profits,\u00a0P2\u2019s distribution was shared by Columbia and Warner Bros., giving the project a good push in cinemas, and later home video.<\/p>\n

According to available lore, the original story was conceived by Miller Drake, a visual effects editor who, like Cameron, cut his teeth in filmmaking at Corman\u2019s New World Pictures. Drake had done second unit work on Corman\u2019s other<\/em> Jaws rip-off Alligator<\/strong> (1980) \u2013 also scripted by Sayles \u2013 and P2 was supposed to be his first theatrical foray as director, but after Warner Bros.\u2019 voiced disinterest on the script, Assonitis brought in Cameron, who\u2019d worked on the visual effects for Corman\u2019s Star Wars<\/strong> riff, Battle Beyond the Stars<\/strong> (1980) and production design of Galaxy of Terror<\/strong> (1981).<\/p>\n

Cameron\u2019s rewrite pleased Warner Bros., and the production was scheduled to film in Jamaica. Pretty much all of the action takes place in and around the same resort, and in spite of a limited budget and Assonitis filming nude-flavoured material for the film\u2019s European release, Cameron shot P2, as supported by co-star Ricky Paull Goldin in Shout\u2019s lengthy filmed interview. Effects man Brian Wade also validates Cameron\u2019s role as lead director, and helping design the film\u2019s killer fish, reformulated as flying carnivorous hybrids, courtesy of the U.S. Military.<\/p>\n

Cameron disliked Assonitis\u2019 intended interpolation of breasts and topless bodies – the pre-credit underwater sex secene \/ piranha feeding frenzy is completely contrary to Cameron’s tough woman archetype – and as the lore continues, the director broke into the editing room to cut his own version until the producer fired him. It seems unlikely newly scripted material or reshoots followed; if Assonitis\u2019 intention was to deliver two versions under a tight budget, extending production, especially with effects material, would’ve been too costly.<\/p>\n

For the film\u2019s U.S. and U.K. release, at least as evidenced by the DVD editions, the pre-credit nudity remains because it leads straight into the solarized red-blue Main Title sequence. Whereas the film was released somewhat in widescreen in the U.K., the U.S. DVD from 2002 is full screen, and features a grainy transfer that isn\u2019t helped by the soft, diffused cinematography by Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli, who lensed several of Assonitis\u2019 weird films (Tentacles<\/strong>, Sony Boy<\/strong>, and Curse II: The Bite<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

As evidenced by these two frame grabs, it\u2019s clear Shout\u2019s HD transfer (made from a print titled Piranha 2: Flying Killers<\/strong>) is gorgeous and contains additional visual information than the badly cropped R2 DVD:<\/p>\n

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Frame grab from (presumably) R2 matted widescreen transfer, excerpted in the Brian Wade interview on Scream’s Blu-ray.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Frame grab from Scream’s properly framed widescreen Blu-ray. All heads and bodies are (relatively) intact.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Diffused lighting was en vogue in several exploitation films of the period, and Assonitis mandated the same soft, creamy look for his dreamy production of the batshit crazy The Visitor<\/strong> (1979). The colours in P2 aren\u2019t quite pastel, but they\u2019re soothing, especially beach and ocean footage with sand & flesh tones.<\/p>\n

The Goldin interview interpolates footage from a grainy widescreen transfer \u2013 perhaps the U.K. version \u2013 which interestingly includes a darkened \u2018nude\u2019 waterfall scene between Goldin and Leslie Graves that\u2019s absent in the U.S. disc. Shout\u2019s HD transfer of P2 is both the longer European edition which seems to include all of Assonitis\u2019 nude material, and the aforementioned waterfall whoopee is timed back to its original daylight setting, revealing wet T-shirt boobery.<\/p>\n

As trivial (and perhaps ludicrous) as this mammary apocrypha may sound, it\u2019s significant because when the film was released on laserdisc in 1984 by Nelson Entertainment, whether approached with an offer by the American label or the result of an image-concerned, post-Terminator<\/strong> Cameron, the director supervised a re-edit, knocking the running time down from 94 to 85 mins., and adding ‘piranha-vision’ effects – basically solarized colours similar to the Main Titles sequence.<\/p>\n

Lopping off everything he hated necessitated re-ordering material to ensure a tight flow, but it\u2019s worth pondering whether Cameron would even bother to fiddle with such a marginal cult film today, and accept P2 for what it was always supposed to be: an exploitive B-film designed to cash-in and develop a new franchise.<\/p>\n

The shorter recut (which is available on YouTube<\/a> as well) is quite inferior to Assonitis\u2019 release version partly because Cameron\u2019s rewrite of Drake\u2019s concept is a compromise between generic exploitive elements and serious drama. The marital discord between the two leads is a stark portent to a similarly strained relationship within The Abyss<\/strong> (1989). That weird shift from idiotic material (nude and comedic) to serious drama (and forceful performances from underrated actress Tricia O\u2019Neil and Lance Henriksen) ultimately adds to the film\u2019s fromagerie.<\/p>\n

The story is typical of any killer [insert arbitrary ocean creature<\/em>] movie: a man butts heads with disbelieving police and ignorant local officials and greedy corporate figures, unearths nefarious governmental design and complicity in the creation of the mutant [arbitrary ocean creature<\/em>], and through brawn and bits of fast reasoning, saves some lives and utterly shames those responsible\u2026 until a lone surviving and possibly bigger mutant [arbitrary ocean creature<\/em>] emerges for the next franchise installment.<\/p>\n

Cameron\u2019s rewrite of Miller’s concept is noteworthy for some (presumed) major character upgrades which, deliberate or not, enhance the film\u2019s pro-marine ecology stance (which is, admittedly, essential to the motivations of heroes & heroines within ocean creature features).<\/p>\n

The Cameronesque script has hotel diving instructor Anne Kimbrough (O\u2019Neil) living with her son Chris (Goldin, in his feature film debut) in one of the rooms after recently separating from husband Steve (Henriksen), the local police chief. The feuding couple have their own storylines \u2013 Anne is wooed by pushy tourist Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk), while Steve investigates the recent deaths of the aforementioned underwater lovers in a wreck. The two strands collide when the police chief discovers a piece of evidence validating Anne and Tyler snuck into the local morgue to prove the deaths were related to a nasty, invasive species.<\/p>\n

Instead of the woman tagging along with the lead male, Anne is the hook that drags people to action, and in the process reveals Tyler as one of the government eggheads who co-created the killer fish for an experimental bio-weapons program. Steve is jealous of Anne\u2019s new attraction, and their amiable son bounces between his parents, kidding and cutting down his mom while teasing his dad with the slightly irresponsible decision to act as a guide for one of the many stupid tourists who\u2019ve flocked to the resort for sun, rum, sunbathing, sailing, and the midnight grunion run.<\/p>\n

Like Jaws<\/strong> and P1, the mass gathering of dumb bathers & tourists will become the magnet that attracts the killer flying fishies; in Spielberg\u2019s film, deaths are due to the negligence and greed of local government & businesses for reopening the beach and restraining their police chief; in P1 it\u2019s a mix of greedy resort owners who refuse to heed warnings that send many kids into the digestive track of the fishies; and in P2 it’s a midnight grunion run that’s transformed into a chumfest.<\/p>\n

The main massacre is also the film\u2019s most enjoyably ridiculous, because Cameron plays it completely straight: after losing his son to the fishies, Steve\u2019s fishing pal takes the bombs he\u2019s been using to blast fish from the water and attempts to end the piranhas’ reign of terror, but before he can put Plant A into action, he stands his ground on the grunion beach, using fire & fists against wings & teeth \u2013 and (of course) loses. The score by Stelvio Cipriani (billed as \u201cSteve Powder\u201d) holds on grim chords and accentuates the tragic sacrifice, while Cameron intercuts shots as Anne crumples to the floor as she watches his death from behind a blood-splattered glass door.<\/p>\n

Less enjoyable are doses of unfunny dialogue and stale character actors playing goofy tourists: an older guest teases a young server with her chest; there are persistent cutaways to a nerd obsessed with taking photos of his dim wife; and there’s a slightly challenged assistant cook ridiculed by two ‘pirate’ babes (actress and former Playboy & Penthouse model Carole Graves + former Penthouse model & one-time actress Connie Lynn Hadden) who use sex appeal to score free food.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s these sequences, plus Chris\u2019 waterfall session with Allison (Leslie Graves, a former nude model) that Cameron trimmed or removed entirely, and re-ordered remaining scenes into a tighter, more linear, and ultimately banal story that robs P2 of its fun factor.<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, P2 should exist on Blu in both the Assonitis and Cameron edits, but Shout\u2019s BR offers the film in its sharpest and most colourful transfer, with the standard mono sound slightly goosed with reverb to feign some aural depth. Left intact, one can watch the evolution of Cameron\u2019s most popular archetype \u2013 the pro-active, no bullshit, working woman with blue collar roots \u2013 who takes command of a terrible crisis when all the men are too ignorant or careless.<\/p>\n

Anne Kimbrough is<\/em>\u00a0The Abyss<\/strong>\u2019 Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and Steve is<\/em> a fuzzier Bud Brigman (Ed Harris); there are no kids in the Brigman\u2019s fractured union \u2013 only the work, which could be indicative of Cameron\u2019s union with Abyss<\/strong> co-producer Gale Anne Hurd (another graduate from Corman\u2019s New World Pictures), with whom the director was formally splitting during production. The director also saves the revelation of each respective couple\u2019s marital status for a sharp gag, especially in Abyss<\/strong>, when Bud\u2019s \u2018I hate that bitch\u2019 is answered with a pal\u2019s \u2018Probably shouldn\u2019t have married her then\u2019 quip.<\/p>\n

Bud and Lindsey have several brutal, frank exchanges that illustrate the ongoing friction between two smart headstrong people, sharing common goals but are locked in very different power positions: Lindsey is Bud\u2019s boss and designer of the mining rig; Anne is an assertive working mom who becomes the equal to her investigative husband by doing the hard legwork, risking her life (especially in the finale) to save (ostensibly) the islanders, and tying crucial evidence that shifts theory to fact.<\/p>\n

The Kimbroughs\u2019 big fracas happens after Steven finds her in bed with Tyler, and Cameron tries to capture their deep divide in a sharp exchange with Steven in a closing elevator and Anne in the hallway; the scene feels like a rough draft of the Bud-Linsey head-butting which ends after Bud slams a hatch shut and throws his wedding ring into the toilet.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/p>\n

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If the marital DNA of the leading characters isn\u2019t indicative of Cameron\u2019s auteurship, there\u2019s the underwater footage which must have pleased Assonitis: the wreck is beautifully captured as a hulking diving trap, and Cameron establishes the geography of the vessel in several scenes to convey its canted corridors, rooms, and the terrifying ducts where Anne and Tyler find fleeting safety from the massing fishies.<\/p>\n

This lengthy sequence is also where the film comes alive with a novel twist: hero Tyler is devoured by his creation, enabling Anne to escape, and in an end scene evocative of a Production Code movie, with the morally stained lover dead, the Kimbrough family is united and whole again.<\/p>\n

P2 is a killer ocean creature thriller with its emotionless monsters \u2013 Dino De Laurentiis\u2019 Orca<\/strong> (1977) would change the formula a bit, putting the big fish on a vengeance quest after a sailor murders its mate and unborn child \u2013 but Cameron also resolves the big conflict and mystery within the ruins of a sunken wreck, a crucial element in the suspense-thriller\u00a0The Deep<\/strong> (1977).<\/p>\n

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END OF SPOILERS<\/p>\n

Because it lacks aging major stars, P2 is arguably more enjoyable because relative newcomers Henriksen and O’Neil aren’t slumming their way through a quick paycheck; they gave their roles more oomph, which gives the drama more grounding than it deserves.<\/p>\n

O’Neal returned to an already prolific career in episodic TV but has a small moment in Cameron’s Titanic<\/strong> (1997), while Henriksen appeared in Cameron’s Terminator<\/strong> (1984) and Aliens<\/strong> (1986). Co-star Marachuck appeared in just a handful of TV and feature films, apparently retiring from acting after 1985. Goldin progressed from acting (The Guiding Light<\/strong>) to producing and directing, and former child actress Graves (TV’s\u00a0Here We Go Again<\/strong>) appeared in\u00a0Death Wish II\u00a0<\/strong> (1982) and the first season of\u00a0Capitol\u00a0<\/strong>(1982-1983) before substance issues halted her career, and she passed away in 1995.<\/p>\n

Original director Drake worked on a series of effects-heavy productions, including The Abyss<\/strong> (1989), Terminator 2<\/strong> (1991), True Lies<\/strong> (1994), and the Hurd-produced Virus<\/strong> (1999).<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2018 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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