Genre: Horror, Thriller, Heist
Director: Antonio Margheriti
Starring: Lee Majors, James Franciscus, Karen Black, Margaux Hemingway, Marisa Berenson
MST Season: 12
The Movie
Lost in the slurry of killer critter (aquatic or otherwise) inspired by the success of Jaws, Killer Fish didn't even have the distinct honor of being the first film about man-eating piranha released in Jaws's wake. That honor went to, in the surprise of the century, a film called Piranha, a low-budget film produced by Roger Corman and directed by a very young Joe Dante. Killer Fish came in second place, over a year later. For a moderately budgeted Italian knockoff film, Killer Fish actually may have had a bigger budget than Piranha, which is something that can't be said of many Italian knockoffs. But Piranha was much more fun to watch.
That being said, I still think Killer Fish is kind of a hoot. It doesn't have the gleeful creature feature vibe of Piranha, but for films of its type, it's not without its charms. It actually manages to have a flavor unique to itself by combining the creature feature with a crime caper, as the primary premise of the film involves jewel thieves retrieving their stash from the bottom of piranha infested waters, only to find themselves adrift in the middle of it with no way out. The movie is way more fun if you think of it as Catalina Caper but with little fish that will strip the flesh off of your bones.
The Six Million Dollar Man himself, Lee Majors, takes protagonist duties with a twinkle in his eye. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Beneath the Planet of the Apes (and City on Fire, KTMA fans) star James Franciscus as our human antagonist, who wishes to have all those gems to his greedy, greedy self to the point he, of course, is eventually fish food. There are very little surprises to the story, but to an extent that's part of the fun. We know where Killer Fish is going, who is going to live and who is going to die. Like an episode of a formulaic episode of the TV series you tune into every week, I find myself willing go through its familiarity with a smile on my face.
The Episode
We're in round five of Kinga's Gauntlet and Jonah and the Bots are showing no signs of fatigue. And considering they've been given a fairly watchable movie for this bout, it's easy to see why they're in such good spirits. Compared to the micro-budget genre fare that Kinga's been handing out so far in this marathon of hers, Killer Fish is mostly a refreshing change of pace. In fact, it almost feels like a real movie. The leisurely pace of the film never quite feels like a detraction, probably because of that fact. The riffing feels very boisterous, as the tone of the theater keeps everything feeling like a party. The gags can get goofy with the visual cues, such as Crow turning to a little fish to chase actresses or Growler entering the theater as if he is a tour guide at Universal Studios. The riffing probably has a bit more gusto than I personally think would have matched this movie (I would have liked to have seen a more relaxed but aggressive Season 9 approach to it), but luckily there are some solid laughs at its stoic seriousness.
Controversially, the episode has a fairly unique scene in the theater where Gypsy, Growler, and Waverly join the riffing trio for a musical number while the movie is playing, which is a much more elaborate version of a similar but smaller musical scene in Starcrash last season. I've heard some grumbling about this, but prepare for my hot take: I fucking love it. There is a subtle genius to the tune of the number they present, because there are riffs within the song that still correspond the movie as it unfolds in front of them, and it's vibrant and playful. Is it worth interrupting the movie for? Here's the thing, the sequence in which they write the musical number over is a lengthy scuba diving sequence with no dialogue. Theoretically they could have riffed it like normal and everything probably would have been fine. They instead took a swing to spice up a humdrum sequence of very little and tried to turn it into one of the most memorable moments of the episode. I fell in love with it. Others are entitled to disagree, but I don't see anything evident in the episode itself that makes it any sort of detraction whatsoever that doesn't come down to "personal pet peeve" status. It works, and it's fun. I don't want one for every episode, but if they find circumstances like this again where they can play around, I'm going to allow it.
The host segments are on the slight side. They're primarily film related, as Jonah and the Bots speculate on what type of "killer fish" they're going to see in the movie (Crow guesses piranha right off the bat, so he wins) or coming up with a battle plan for getting the group off their sinking ship and onto land without becoming piranha chow. Segments with the Mads are equally slight, as Kinga sends Synthia into the archives to find the Idiot Control Now song for Dr. Erhardt. The concluding "liquid music" gag at the end of the episode is a little daffy for my tastes, and not really that funny. I did, however, enjoy the Invention Exchange, which has the Alchemy Glue (you need to believe it works) and the fun prop comedy of the Time Travel Oven.
There doesn't seem to be many people ranking Killer Fish very highly this season. I think it's unfortunate, because I find the episode a lot of fun. It enters the third act of the Gauntlet with a lot of energy and it spices up my interest in the six-part season long marathon. And on its own it's just a really groovy episode. I'd say it's well worth sailing these waters.
Good
The DVD and Blu-Ray
Shout Factory released this episode in their Season 12 DVD and blu-ray box sets, featuring great audio and video. Like all relaunch episodes, it doesn't have any disc specific bonus features, but it shares a disc with the following episode, Ator, the Fighting Eagle. My particular copy of this set is a Pledge Drive Edition, which was given out as a reward for participating in a fundraiser for the season. The disc is identical to the normal release.
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