PIRHANA 2: THE FLYING KILLERS

US, 1983, 90 minutes, Colour.
Tricia O'Neill, Steve Mariachi, Lance Henriksen.
Directed by James Cameron.

Pirhana 2: The Flying Killers is an alleged sequel to the very effective 1978 animal menace thriller Pirhana directed by Joe Dante and written by John Sayles. In the screenplay there are some tenuous links of this film with the original. However, the film is a European variation on the screenplay of Jaws. The characters, the crises and the atmosphere of the town and the stupid hotel manager (parallelling the Mayor in Jaws) are all derivative of the effective original.

Characterisation is stereotyped, the situations all predictable. This makes them enjoyable enough to watch while they are there on the screen, but ultimately they are forgettable. There is an atmosphere of the Caribbean island resort, the heroine who is a scuba diving instructress, her separated police chief husband and teenage son. There is an obtuse Englishman with a yacht. There are divers, an amorous holiday maker who turns out to have been involved in the experiments described in the original Pirhana. There are some glamour girls Loretta and Jai who are killed by the flying fish. There is meant to be an annual fish fry on the beach and it turns into a massacre. Chris and Alison, Dumont's girlfriend, are the focus of the final climax. The special effects for the Pirhana are quite good, the gnaw and fly, even though they do seem somewhat mechanical. A derivative example of what became an over worked genre.

And, yes, this is the directing debut of James Cameron who made The Terminator the next year and then made movie history...