Release Date – 8/20/2010
An underwater earthquake opens up a rift in Lake Victoria. Prehistoric piranha that had been living beneath the surface are now unleashed. It just so happens that Spring Break just started and thousands of college students have flocked to the area. A local sheriff must decide how to deal with the problem while also protecting her own family. Meanwhile her teenage son abandons his babysitting duties and tags along on a porno film shoot out on a boat. The movie is very silly yet has definite moments of good horror also. The general plot is absurd but the director manages to still create tense situations and gory deaths to make it a fun watch. Plus there’s nudity galore. What more could you ask for?
Elisabeth Shue (remember her from Back to the Future Part II & III and Adventures in Babysitting?) is the local sheriff. She’s a no nonsense single mother who takes her job very seriously. The crowd that comes out to the lake for Spring Break keeps her very busy. Meanwhile her teenage son Jake (Steven R. McQueen) never gets to experience the party because her mom works long days and gets him to babysit his younger siblings. But this year is different, the girl he likes, Kelly (Jessica Szohr), is back in town and he gets hired as a location scout for a porno film out on the water. Jerry O’Connell plays Derrick Jones, a spoof of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis. He’s doing drugs and degrading women and just going wild. If you want over the top then look no further than his character. Kelly Brook and real life porn star Riley Steele play 2 of the porn girls. You’ll get to see PLENTY of them. Of course there’s tons of nudity which is lacking from most horror flicks these days. Other small roles include Ving Rhames as a cop, Christopher Lloyd as a crazy fish expert and Adam Scott as a seismologist. Also cameos by Eli Roth and Richard Dreyfuss (funny opening scene where he’s humming Show Me The Way to Go Home from JAWS). The movie is PACKED with characters, most of which die in outrageous ways.
Director Alexandre Aja knows horror. He has directed the critically acclaimed foreign horror flick High Tension. Then came and surprised everyone with a great remake of The Hills Have Eyes. He hit a sour spot with his supernatural based Mirrors but now returns with something completely different. Does it still have elements of horror? Damn right. Some brutal deaths and gory scenes. This time some are purposely funny like an old Friday the 13th movie. But in a way, he still gets you on the edge of your seat forgetting how silly the movie is. It wasn’t quite as over the top and campy as I would have liked though. Aja couldn’t decide if he wanted to go straight horror or make a horror comedy. The fish were all CGI and sometimes obviously so but its OK because you don’t see them much as its a lot of old school camera point of view monster. Speaking of CGI there’s a CGI penis being devoured in one of the funnier scenes. Just thought I would mention that. I did get a few laughs but mainly was surprised at how violent and gory it was. It was right up my alley. I was fortunate enough to see it in 3D which is how it was meant to be seen. It was much better than converted to 3D films I’ve seen recently (Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3). They played with the technology and got some laughs. Oh and did I mention the nudity? 3D Boobs FTW!
IMDB – 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 75%
Movie Wiseguys – 7/10