Piranha Meal Deal A Bit Fishy

Piranha

Why do major studios spend big money to make B-movies? Attempting to recapture that “it’s so bad that it’s good” appeal which certain B-movies have is rarely achieved by today’s standards. Sure there have been exceptions, most notably Black Dynamite and, to a lesser extent, Machete. Yet more often than not the films end up being plain silly. This is evident when you watch films such as Drag Me to Hell, My Bloody Valentine 3D and the recent release of Piranha.

After living for millions of years in a tomb underwater, thousands of fearsome prehistoric piranhas are released after an tremor occurs. Fortunately for the piranhas there is plenty of food available as the tremor just happens to coincide with the annual Lake Victoria Spring Break week. Soon sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) and a marine biologist, Novak (Adam Scott) find themselves trying to not only stop the piranha invasion, but attempting to save Julie’s son, Jack (Steven R. McQueen), and the object of his affection, Kelly (Jessica Szohr), in the process.

It is hard to truly classify Piranha as a horror film as it aims to be more of a reimaging of the original Piranha film series. The problem is that the film does not know when to quit. It is like a joke that is no longer funny, yet the comedian is still trying to get as much mileage out of it as possible. For example, a good portion of Piranha is dedicated to spoofing the whole Girls Gone Wild franchise. Besides being several years late in regards to the subject, there is a point where the film becomes the very thing it is spoofing.

Every aspect of the film, with the exception of the plot, is done to great excess. Both the nudity and the violence are so gratuitous that the film ends up being a cheesy comedy instead of a horror movie. Similar to director Alexandre Aja’s previous films, The Hills Have Eyes and High Tension, Piranha has numerous scenes where Aja goes to extremes to generate some form of reaction from the audience. He fills the screen with scenes of the piranhas eating male and female genitalia, severing various limbs, and even a scene where a piranha devours a woman from inside out. Yet unlike his earlier works, these scenes do nothing more than causes fits of laughter instead of screams of terror.

If anything, the most shocking thing about Piranha is the cast that the film manages to pull together. Besides Shue, the film features the likes of Ving Rhames, Richard Dreyfuss, Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Lloyd, and even Eli Roth. It is perplexing to imagine what drew them all to this particular film? As neither the plot nor the campy humor is really that appealing. Out of all of the actors, only O’Connell and Lloyd seem to hit the right over-the-top tone that the film aims for. Elisabeth Shue does the best she can with the material she is given, but the fact that someone with her talent even did this film is probably the scariest thing of all. 

TADFF Review: The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism

During question and answer period of The Last Exorcism screening director Eli Roth, who produced the film, stated that he is drawn to films where the real discussion begins once the films ends. This perfectly encapsulates The Last Exorcism. The film may not make you jump out of your seats, but you will be thinking about The Last Exorcism long after it is over.

Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has been preaching the gospel since the age of 10. Immensely charismatic, Cotton knows all the right things to say to both his congregation and the various people he encounters on the street. Despite not believing the religious jargon he spews, Cotton continues to preach in order to take care of his wife and child. After a young boy is killed during an exorcism procedure, Cotton Marcus becomes determined to expose just how fake exorcisms really are. Cotton enlists a documentary film crew to follow him while he “performs” one last exorcism. Picking a letter at random, Cotton heads to a small town in Louisiana to conduct an exorcism on Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell). Nell’s father Louis (Louis Herthum) is convinced his daughter is possessed but Cotton is not so easily swayed. The deeper Cotton delves into Nell’s predicament the more dangerous things become for Cotton and his film crew. Is Nell really possessed by evil forces? Or is there a greater mystery afoot?

Similar to The Blair Witch Project, The Last Exorcism is all about the audience creating the horror in their minds. The film does not aim to shock via excessive gore or elaborate deaths. This type of film spends time creating the right atmosphere, which impacts the viewer much more than merely splashing the screen with blood. Telling the tale through the eyes of the documentary camera man is both a benefit and a disadvantage for the film’s director, Daniel Stamm. On one hand Stamm is able to create the claustrophobic and creepy atmosphere that only having viewpoint provides. Unfortunately, the fact that some of the moments are “edited” takes the audience out of the story at the wrong moments. For example, when Cotton is conducting his exorcism the film constantly jumps back and forth between scenes of the exorcism and scenes where Cotton is explaining the tricks of the trade. While the section is very amusing, the audience cannot help but question when did the documentary crew have time to splice those scenes together? Especially since the audience is led to believe that the events are being documented as they happen.

Still, despite the minor flaws, there is a lot to likeabout The Last Exorcism. The performances from both Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell are outstanding. While Cotton is as fraudulent as the exorcisms he wants to expose, Fabian’s portrayal of Cotton is by no means a gimmick. Fabian brings a nicely layered performance that will have you laughing along with Cotton just as much as you fear for his safety. Cotton’s scenes with Nell go from sweet to chilling in a blink of an eye. Ashley Bell does a great job of making Nell both the victim and the aggressor. There is a great scene in the film where Nell is sitting on the bed all innocent looking while Cotton checks up on her. Then, just before the door closes, she delivers this slow evil grin to the camera that sends shivers down the audience’s spine. It should also be noted that there were no special effects used for Nell’s scenes. Every disturbing body contortion is 100% Bell. The Last Exorcism is a film that succeeds because it harkens back to more minimalist horror films. The type of tales where the scariest aspects are the things that the audience creates in their own mind.

Grade: A-

Stars in attendance: Producer Eli Roth and actors Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell held a question and answer session after the screening.