Piranha 3D

That Alexandre Aja is a man for the rough, he has with films like "High Tension", the remake of "The Hills have Eyes" or "Mirrors" clearly proven. The fact that his excursion into the world of three-dimensional films is not for the faint-hearted should therefore come as no surprise to anyone. What is quite surprising, on the other hand, is the blunt way in which Aja meets the needs of his target audience in "Piranha 3D", a very free remake of Joe Dante's little cult classic, delivering one of the most fun horror films in recent memory.

It's spring break. Lots of young people are coming to otherwise sleepy Lake Victoria. Sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) knows that with the drinking and sex-starved teens comes plenty of work. What she doesn't suspect, however, is the danger unleashed by an earthquake: Swarms of prehistoric piranhas, which have slumbered peacefully for two million years, are pouring through a crevice into the lake. And the little critters, with their razor-sharp teeth, are hungry - damn hungry...

Blood and breasts, these are the things that dominate this film. Two naked beauties perform an erotic underwater ballet in best 3D quality, genitals are bitten off and spit directly into the viewer's face, blood flows in buckets as sinful teens are half-eaten or split in half, a full-breasted and naturally bare-breasted paraglider pilot (who, like the ladies of the underwater ballet, has been cast with a star from the erotic or porn industry) finds herself in the middle of an erotic and naturally bare-breasted paraglider pilot (who, like the ladies of the underwater ballet, has been cast with a star from the erotic or porn industry). porn industry) comes to an extremely unsavoury end and Eli Roth's appearance as a judge at a wet T-shirt competition ends differently than the "Hostel"-director would have wished...

Now all this doesn't sound very ambitious. But that is not what the film wants to be. Rather, Aja plays with the clichés of the genre and those of the classic 3D horror film and overdoes them in such a way that it's just a lot of fun. Plus, he doesn't miss the opportunity to include some nice references to other horror films and nice guest appearances in his work. For example, the opening sequence, in which Richard Dreyfuss makes a guest appearance, is a clear reminiscence of "The Great White Shark". And the wonderful Christopher Lloyd ("Back to the Future") also gets to dominate the action on screen for a few minutes.

That Oscar-nominated Elisbeth Shue manages to deliver something of a straight-ahead and, yes, one might almost say really good performance amid the over-the-top goings-on adds to the film's success as well, as does Jerry O`Connell`s ("Stand by me", "Sliders") sleazy portrayal of unscrupulous would-be porn director Derrick Jones, whose demise gives a whole new meaning to the term "fish sticks".

If you set out to watch "Piranhas 3D", you definitely shouldn't take the film seriously for even a second. Because otherwise, the gory goings-on on screen could very well be taken as sick, sexist and tasteless. But if you take the movie for what it is, you will be rewarded with a 3D fun of a very macabre and entertaining kind. Therefore: especially for male genre fans well worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp