Piranha Women

Fred Olen Ray has spent the past 40+ years making exploitation movies. Often the titles identify them as very much not serious movies. Examples are "Beverly Hills Vamp" (starring Britt Ekland as a creature of the night in southern California) and "Evil Toons" (which is basically "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" as a comedy-horror).

So now we have "Piranha Women". The title pretty much explains the plot, and there's some nudity to keep things going. A previous reviewer complained that it focused too much on the boyfriend. I guess that's true, but the movie manages to be entertain the viewer enough so that the focus doesn't matter.

It's a reasonable choice if you're looking for some brain candy. It's probably not widely available; I watched it on Tubi (a streaming service that lets you watch for free).

Directed by beloved director Fred Olen Ray, Piranha Women is relatively a simple odd story with an interesting concept but it doesn't quite reach the heights that it possibly could have. It is very silly and not meant to be taken too serious.

With a run time of under one hour, this is quite a short film where everything does move quickly, yet things aren't exactly fully developed.

The lead protagonist is the standard generic likeable character we are to root for. The main problem with the film is there is too much focus on him, and not enough on these "Piranha women" (Keep Chambers, Carrie Overguaard). The acting is subpar to average as we would expect.

The ending is rushed and it gets a little silly and over the top, the transformations in that.

How does FOR keep getting assignments? He's barely better than Jim Wynorski, who admits he makes crap. This is just above the level of crap and, at under an hour in length, I have to wonder if they A)Ran out of Money or B) FOR got a better paying job and just ended it. Charles Band, another semi-schlockmeister who has produced a few good movies (Trancers, Zone Troopers) produced this waste of time. Basically, the direction is subpar, the acting is mostly bad, the topless women look good, but the 'pirhana' effects (sharp teeth and toothy breasts) are bad. This stuff would get someone kicked off Face/Off. The 'hero' is kind of a dunce and the cop is very much a moron. Guy couldn't find a clue if he tripped over it. The end has some of the worst creature effects (Think Creeping Terror level) and no explanation at all. If you have an hour to spare, you may laugh... or you may cry. Just bad all around.

Needed more length to develop the story/script. This way it is just things happening in the second half, even switches protagonist for no reason, leading the whole thing to confusion and a pile of mess.

Truly sad thing, as the technical aspect, even the acting was great, and there is a film here - if you add 30 extra minutes to let things walk their path.

What do I mean by that? I mean that the story, budget, genre all demand camp, but the writing and score want a serious tone, as though we're actually going to be in suspense.

I've noticed this problem in many latter-day Full Moon productions and I wish they would give it up. They need to go back and study what made movies like HEAD OF THE FAMILY and HIDEOUS, or even OBLIVION, so special.

Conflicted tone and an underdeveloped script spell doom for this wanna-B-movie.

Shary Nassimi was perfectly cast as Dr. Sinclair! Very convincing as a mild-mannered practitioner but also able to provide a sinister edge. Unfortunate music choices undermine the subtlety of his performance.

Other performances of note include Keep Chambers' and Carrie Overgaard's. I especially enjoyed Chambers' performance as Shauna. For whatever reason, I never liked Sof Puchley's character. I'm not sure if that is due to the writing or to her performance in the role. I think it's more the former.

Bobby Rice was sufficient as Richard. The two detectives were serviceable, though I blame bad writing and an uncertain tone for their poor performances. They were playing dopey detectives in a movie that for some reason was playing it straight.

That last point speaks to the larger issue of the movie's development. It wants to rush things along, but the writing isn't tight enough to support the pace, so I never felt suspense or concern.

If this movie were a bit more campy, if the music was less over-the-top, if the writing were tighter, I would rate this movie much higher. And it really is a shame, because this could have been a wonderful flick.

Keep Chambers and Carrie Overgaard have a few nude scenes to keep things interesting.