Set in Brazil, this Italian
"Piranha" knock-of stars Lee Majors (the "Six Million Dollar Man" himself) as the leader
of a group of thieves, who pull off a daring robbery by stealing a bunch of diamonds from a vault at a heavily
guarded diamond mine.
Dumping the diamonds in a reservoir, they agree to wait 60 days for the heat to die down before retrieving them. But some of the gang decide they don't want to wait that long to share out the loot, so go diving for it. Only to find their boss (played by US TV actor James Francissus) has filled the reservoir with Piranha, to stop them from doing so.
With 2 of the gang now dead, tensions begin to rise between the remaining members, figuring each one is out to double cross the other. But the real fun begins when a storm takes out the dam containing the piranha and floods the lake next to a nearby tourist resort and the remaining thieves find themselves stuck on a sinking boat, surrounded by hungry piranhas, as they continue to squabble over how to divide up the spoils from the robbery.
Directed by Antonio Margheriti (Cannibal Apocalypse, The Last Hunter), this isn't a particularly gory film, indeed there's only about 4 piranha related deaths in it and was really more of a Drama/Thriller than a horror, with the main focus being on the theives, and the Piranhas being more a sub pot. It was almost like watching a TV movie, which wasn't really that surprising considering it was co-financed by ITC Entertainment, who were a British TV production company.
This being said, the Piranha effects are certainly more convincing than those in Roger Corman's "Piranha", as at least they took the trouble to film some actual fish and not just use plastic puppets and despite the obvious short comings that are akin to low budget Italian films, such as the Gerry Anderson style model work of this nature, this is actually rather enjoyable. I've liked most of Margheriti's action movies, and this is no exception.
So, overall I'd say this is quite good fun, and also features an interesting cast, including B-Movie regular Karen Black. So if you like cheesy Italian knock-offs and you liked "Piranha", then you should also enjoy this.
