He’s A Perfectly Normal Boy! Hooptober XI
19/32 - New World 3/3

Look, Spielberg never hired another director who ripped off Jaws, but Joe Dante took that horror masterpiece and riffed on it with an abandoned wartime plan to terrorize Communist Vietnam. Shortly after Piranha, the two would make Gremlins together.  

Piranha dips into some b-movie dialogue, but with Phil Tippet’s creature work and the great Pino Donaggio contributing the score, Joe Dante comes in with one of the all time great directorial debuts. We have benefited for years on what Dante workshopped in Piranha and this is one of my favorite horror films. 

The 4k and mono soundtrack on Shout! disc is pretty great, restoring a classic to its full glory.