[[Category:English
Portuguese
Italian-language films]]
Killer Fish is an Italian-French-Brazilian animal horror film by Antonio Margheriti from the year 1979.
Plot[]
In the Brazilian rainforest, Kate Neville, Robert Lasky, Warren and Lloyd and the driver Hans pull off a heist in a mine. They set fire to various fuel tanks around the mine site and use the ensuing chaos to steal all the emeralds from the mine's main vault. They lock the stones in a cassette, which they mark and sink in a lake. The head of the group and former mine employee Paul Diller, meanwhile, has been playing backgammon at the group's hotel. The group discusses how to proceed. Since the police are looking for the thieves, they decide not to take the gems out of the water for 60 days. Brothers Warren and Lloyd are against it. They pretend to be leaving for Rio but secretly try to get the stones instead. One of the two is attacked in the water and bleeds to death. The other goes to Lasky and tells him everything. Kate also shows up at Lasky's, who has meanwhile learned that Warren and Lloyd have not arrived at the hotel in Rio. The surviving brother contacts Hans and they both try to retrieve the stones, but are killed by the creature in the water. Lasky and Kate, rushing to the water, cannot help either.
The distraught Kate returns to her lover Paul Diller, who keeps piranhas in the aquarium. She learns from him that shortly before the coup he released 50 piranhas into the lake, so that there are now around 10,000 piranhas in the lake. However, only those who do not adhere to the agreed waiting time will be harmed. Kate is humanly disappointed in Paul. She also realizes that Lasky only has a limited interest in the coup, since he has started a relationship with the model Gabrielle, who has come to the hotel with a crew to take photos. Kate and Paul secretly salvage the gems, while Kate narrowly escapes the ravenous fish.
On the way home, a thunderstorm breaks down over the rainforest. Kate, carrying the stones in a vanity case, escapes with Paul aboard Max's ship, which belongs to the hotel. The crew around Gabrielle and Lasky are also on board. The storm turns into a hurricane, causing the wall of the dam not far from the ship to collapse. The ship is thrown around on the lake, finally leaks 200 meters from the shore and slowly begins to sink. The piranhas got into the water through the water from the dam. Max is seriously injured while trying to save a man who has fallen overboard. The attempt to come ashore with a self-made raft fails. Photographer Ollie dies while crew leader Ann gets ashore. She can alert a search plane to the boat. It drops lifeboats - the only one usable Paul takes for himself. Using force of arms, he gets the other people on board to give way to him and climbs into the boat alone with the gem box. Lasky jumps after him, and a duel ensues on the water, in which the piranhas soon take part. Paul goes down with the boat and the cassette and dies while Lasky, badly injured, is able to save himself back on board the sinking ship. From there they are finally brought ashore by the arriving rescue teams.
A little later, in the hospital, Kate receives a visit from a policeman who brings her the make-up case, which probably belongs to her. Kate flies out of Brazil shortly after and Gabrielle says goodbye. He succeeds in swapping the make-up cases. This, in turn, Kate has foreseen and already secured half of the gems beforehand, as she lets Lasky and Gabrielle know in a letter in the suitcase.
Cast[]
- Lee Majors as Robert Lasky
- Karen Black as Kate Neville
- Margaux Hemingway as Gabrielle
- Marisa Berenson as Ann
- James Franciscus as Paul Diller
- Roy Brocksmith as Ollie
- Dan Pastorini as Hans
- Frank Pesce as Warren
- Charles Guardino as Lloyd
- Anthony Steffen as Max
- Fábio Sabag as Quintin
- Jorge Cherques as Police Inspector
- Chico Arago as Ben
- Gary Collins as Tom
- Sônia Oiticica as Nurse
Production[]
Killer Fish was filmed in Angra dos Reis and Rio de Janeiro. Adriana Berselli and Salvatore Russo created the costumes and Francesco Bronzi designed the set. The film was produced in part with the support of Lee Majors' Fawcett-Majors Productions, with Majors also starring in the film. Amii Stewart interpreted the film song The Winner Takes All.
The film was released in US cinemas on December 7, 1979 and published on DVD in March 2013. The film is the fifth of six movies featured in Season 12 of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet. On August 16. 2013, Killer Fish was broadcast on Tele 5 as part of the programme SchleFaZ as the fourth film of season 1.
Reception[]
- 4.1/10 on IMDb
- 1/5 on AllMovie
- 2/5 on Letterboxd
The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that the film "appears to have a greater budget than Piranha" and that it "exhibits considerably less imagination". Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated that the film "may not be a good movie — it's really inept—but it's friendly, like Mr. Majors's quizzical squint, which is, I'm told by people who watch more television than I do, what Mr. Majors does best. Everyone, in fact, carries on gamely, as people do at a picnic when it rains."
