Director/ Producer: Alexandre Aja
Writer: Pete Goldfinger, Josh Stolberg
DVD and Blu-ray release date: December 27 2010
Studio: Entertainment In Video
Number of discs: 2
Price: From £9.99-£14.93
Running Time: 89 mins
Certificate: 18
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Elisabeth Shue, Christopher Lloyd, Eli Roth, Jerry O’Connell, Ving Rhames, Kelly Brook

Favouring the horror genre and previously dabbling in remakes (Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes), the Director of Switchblade Romance and the less successful, Mirrors, brings us Piranha 3D.

Instantly more brutal than its 1978 predecessor, Piranha 3D’s opening underwater sequence shot through a red lens is somewhat misleading in that what follows is far more tongue-in-cheek than is at first suggested.

Thousands of scantily clad hotties and ogling youths annually hit the 25 miles of beach along Lake Victoria for Spring Break with their party motto “Dying to get wet”, wet t-shirt competitions and bikini dancers. But in “cowboy country” a quake has caused a rift under the lake unearthing a subterranean lake full of two million year-old Piranha. Evolving into cannibals to survive, these flesh hungry Piranha hunt in packs.

Jake, the son of the town’s Sheriff, is sick of having to babysit every Spring Break so instead bribes his younger sister, Lola, and brother, Jake, to occupy themselves while he takes a trip out on the “Wild Girls” soft porn boat. Unfortunately for Jake, the Piranhas are out in force and his siblings have their own ideas, venturing out to Sand Island where they end up stranded. Rescue is up to kick-arse mum, Julie (Elisabeth Shue), who can more than hold her own, tasering Piranhas and warning partygoers: “You boys take one more step, you’ll be pissing lightning bolts all year.”

Picking up on Piranha’s original B movie reputation, everything about Piranha 3D, is drenched in smuttiness. What Piranha 3D lacks in script it makes up for in large-breasted women and inventive gore with boob slashing and head squashing scenes; a parasailing corpse; gruesome underwater camera shots and the piece de resistance – a penis fight.

With the odd cliched hardened line (“Chow on this motherfucker”), girl-on-girl action, Bible bashers trying to convert partygoers, Piranha cam and skinny dipping, Piranha 3D has an 80s feel and is a less effective Lake Placid in its character creation. All set for a sequel, “Piranha: Meet The Parents” , Piranha 3D’s carnage scenes and ridiculous special effects are suitably bloody to at least satisfy goresters.

**

Special Features:

3D Edition DVD

  • Filmmaker commentary
  • Behind-the-scenes featurettes

Blu-ray 3D Edition

  • Filmmaker commentary
  • Behind-the-scenes featurettes
  • 2D version of the film

Blu-ray – 2D Edition

  • Filmmaker commentary
  • Deleted scenes with optional commentary
  • Deleted storyboard sequences
  • 10 Behind-the-scenes featurettes
  • Storyboard gallery
  • Trailer & TV spots