KILLER FISH

Italy, 1979, 101 minutes, Colour.
Lee Majors, Karen Black, Margaux Hemingway, Marissa Berenson, James Franciscus.
Directed by Antonio Margheriti.

God looking credits but is only average entertainment. This is a Carlo Ponti International production. However. the cast is not outstanding except for Karen Black. Marissa Berenson and Margot Hemmingway are there for passion and glamour. The setting is South America, the threat comes from piranha who are quite vicious and demolish quite a number of the cast. Comparison could be made with the small budget thriller Piranha starring Bradford Dillman. There are some spectacular effects, a robbery story and some doublecross.

1. Audience expectations from the credits. the cast? This film within the context of disaster films of the seventies? Animal menace? Glossy internationalism? Cast, production, glamour? How successful an entertainment?

2. The use of South American locations and settings? Atmosphere, wealth, fashion. greed? The world of multi-national industry, international criminals, international fashion magazines? Colour, special effects, score, the song and its lyrics?

3. Audience response to piranhas: small, ugly, monstrous and destructive, fear? rhe way that they were visualized, used during the plot, destruction of the characters? The purpose of the animal menace film - an attack of the irrational onto a self-controlled world?

4. The plot and its complexity: the picture of international industry, the large-scale robbery, criminals waiting and planning, the contrast with the fashion world, boats and lakes, storms, betrayal, death, the monstrous piranhas, the double-crossing? The tricks of the plot - and audience interest in these?

5. The effectiveness of the opening, the explosion and the robbery, the police and the search? Creating an atmosphere about crime and escape?

6. The portrait of Diller and his expertise, his control, his illness? His plans, orders? Relationship with Kate? His having control over all the participants, betrayal and killing, the use of the piranha? His ultimate betrayal of the group, especially of Kate? The poetic justice of his death with the piranha? A persuasive vilain?

7. Bob and Kate and the robbery, their work, hiding, socializing? A black hero and heroine? The encounter with the fashion people? The boat and the need for rescue at the end? The final doublecross?

8. The members of the gang and their deaths and betrayals? Expected material - to facilitate the development of the plot?
9. The introduction of the fashion world, the world of the hotel, the entourage of the fashion magazine, the two girls (and their glamour but lack of acting ability), the photography sessions, the photographers and their style, effeminate manners? The deaths?

10. The crisis, the plan and its crash, swimming and diving, the need to be saved, the helicopter problems?

11. The reality of the piranha and their destruction - the way this was visualised? Satisfying horror material?

12. The final switches? An end to conventional plot material -but entertaining conventionality?