31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 13 - Barracuda
Barracuda
98 mins.
Dir. Harry Kerwin and Wayne Crawford
USA/1978
If you thought sharks were the only dangerous fish in the ocean think again. Tonight we go swimming with Barracuda. I hope Nancy Wilson comes along.
You know how some movies start off in one genre and then they take a turn and jump into another one? Kind of like From Dusk Till Dawn or something. Barracuda is one of those movies. Starts off as expected, underwater shot, diver swimming around, credits, intro music, dun...dun, dun...dun. Ok maybe not that intro music. But if it was, it might have helped the diver know that the barracuda were coming. And come they do, to tear the diver apart. Now that we have that established it is time to meet our cast. Mike is a biologist for the local university who is taking water samples. But the big chemical plant run by Papa Jack doesn't want anyone testing the waters they are dumping chemicals into. So some guys get into a scuffle with Mike. Police come, Mike gets locked up.
Let me tell you, if you are going to get thrown in jail, make sure it is in lovely Palm Cove, Florida. The sheriff will happily wake you up, open your cell, have his beautiful former Playmate daughter make you breakfast, hell he will even let you sleep with her. Plus you can leave the cell and go to the doctors and come back later. It's all good. That's how laid back things are in Palm Cove. Ruckuses happen in town, the police just look and shrug their shoulders and go on their merry way. Eventually another barracuda attack happens and the police have no clue what is going on. So they turn to Mike the biologist to see if he has any ideas. Mike tests the waters again and finds some chemicals in there that shouldn't be. Turns out some of these chemicals are causing fish to become more aggressive. Hence the local barracuda population going on a feeding frenzy. Speaking of Barracuda, that is about the last we see of them, or the water for that matter.
More digging and Mike discovers there is a whole government conspiracy happening with chemicals in the water that is not only making the fish pissed off, but it is in the drinking water and the town citizens are getting feisty as well. Suddenly the whole horror aspect about a movie about killer fish is left behind and it becomes a thriller conspiracy movie about government experiments and double crossing that ends in a blaze of bullets.
Not sure what the hell just happened here, I was expecting one thing and ended up with something totally different. Might not have been half bad if they stuck with the barracuda part. Sure the effects are cheesy, but there was a little bit of blood and I am a sucker for sea monster movies. Some how this slow ass movie held my interest through to the end. Not sure I would really recommend it to anyone, unless you feel you need to watch everything I am. I probably would have skipped this and moved onto something else, but its Saturday and no one probably reads these things anyway. So Barracuda. The fish were present but the Heart song was not.
Barracuda
98 mins.
Dir. Harry Kerwin and Wayne Crawford
USA/1978
If you thought sharks were the only dangerous fish in the ocean think again. Tonight we go swimming with Barracuda. I hope Nancy Wilson comes along.
You know how some movies start off in one genre and then they take a turn and jump into another one? Kind of like From Dusk Till Dawn or something. Barracuda is one of those movies. Starts off as expected, underwater shot, diver swimming around, credits, intro music, dun...dun, dun...dun. Ok maybe not that intro music. But if it was, it might have helped the diver know that the barracuda were coming. And come they do, to tear the diver apart. Now that we have that established it is time to meet our cast. Mike is a biologist for the local university who is taking water samples. But the big chemical plant run by Papa Jack doesn't want anyone testing the waters they are dumping chemicals into. So some guys get into a scuffle with Mike. Police come, Mike gets locked up.
Let me tell you, if you are going to get thrown in jail, make sure it is in lovely Palm Cove, Florida. The sheriff will happily wake you up, open your cell, have his beautiful former Playmate daughter make you breakfast, hell he will even let you sleep with her. Plus you can leave the cell and go to the doctors and come back later. It's all good. That's how laid back things are in Palm Cove. Ruckuses happen in town, the police just look and shrug their shoulders and go on their merry way. Eventually another barracuda attack happens and the police have no clue what is going on. So they turn to Mike the biologist to see if he has any ideas. Mike tests the waters again and finds some chemicals in there that shouldn't be. Turns out some of these chemicals are causing fish to become more aggressive. Hence the local barracuda population going on a feeding frenzy. Speaking of Barracuda, that is about the last we see of them, or the water for that matter.
More digging and Mike discovers there is a whole government conspiracy happening with chemicals in the water that is not only making the fish pissed off, but it is in the drinking water and the town citizens are getting feisty as well. Suddenly the whole horror aspect about a movie about killer fish is left behind and it becomes a thriller conspiracy movie about government experiments and double crossing that ends in a blaze of bullets.
Not sure what the hell just happened here, I was expecting one thing and ended up with something totally different. Might not have been half bad if they stuck with the barracuda part. Sure the effects are cheesy, but there was a little bit of blood and I am a sucker for sea monster movies. Some how this slow ass movie held my interest through to the end. Not sure I would really recommend it to anyone, unless you feel you need to watch everything I am. I probably would have skipped this and moved onto something else, but its Saturday and no one probably reads these things anyway. So Barracuda. The fish were present but the Heart song was not.
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