BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Leofwine_draca Packed with more murky underwater photography than you would find in your average nature documentary, BARRACUDA is in all respects a cheaply-made film. Starting off like some derivative JAWS rip-off, we witness lots of scenes of divers and swimmers getting attacked by "something" under the water. Cue lots of limb thrashing, extreme close-ups, blood bubbling to the surface and even a cheap severed hand. The slow police department (seemingly made up of the Sheriff and his slow-witted deputy) haven't got a clue. So it's up to our hero, a marine biologist student complete with a '70s bushy hairdo and a fine line in horrible shirts, to discover the truth.Well, in most respects this is a pretty awful film. There's hardly any action in it and the gore is kept to a minimum - just the aforementioned underwater death scenes. When characters get shot, they just fall and die with no visible wounds. The music is derivative and the acting is amateurish at best. There are a minimum of locations (a police station, a doctor's lab, the beach) and a lack of narrative which sucks the excitement from the film, turning it for the most part into a dull, boring effort packed with stiff cardboard people. Even a romantic subplot is contrived and lame. The sound and picture quality are poor too, but then I did pick this up for 50p at a car boot sale.But...about two-thirds of the way through, the film changes direction and becomes interesting. A government conspiracy angle is introduced as it becomes apparent that a local cooperation is dumping chemicals into the ocean which are turning the barracuda deadly. Not only that, but the town's water supply is also infected with the same chemicals and making people depressed, stressed out and violent. And on top of all this, a squad of shady government agents, who resemble "men in black", are executing anybody who knows anything about the situation - be it nosy reporters, police, our hero. Thus, the film just about gets by on the strength of the story alone, and deserves kudos for not just being another underwater menace rip-off. The bleak ending is also very effective, and shocking, and totally unexpected. Let's just say that it's extremely downbeat and a risk that paid off for the makers of this no-budget thriller.

gavin6942 A top secret government experiment leads to fatal barracuda attacks on the beaches of a small coastal town formerly renowned for its lobster. A marine biologist (Wayne Crawford) and sheriff (William Kerwin) uncover a plot involving a mentally unstable former war-medic (Evers) pioneering research into hyperglycemia and the effect on human behavior.Writer-director Harry Edward Kerwin came out of the same group that brought H. G. Lewis to notoriety, and he was the brother-in-law of actress Connie Mason. Unfortunately, "Barracuda" was his last film, and he passed at age 48 the following year.Writer-star Wayne Crawford has fared better, going on to act in bigger and better things, as well as producing a few noteworthy films of the 1980s (such as "Valley Girl" and "Night of the Comet"). Well played, Wayne.I liked this film and think it deserves better than the low rating and obscurity it has achieved. This is actually a very clever script and contains good performances. Sure, it is misleading to make it about attacking fish when it is more of a government conspiracy film. And I do think the pace is a bit slow at times. But it is hardly a bad film, and the fact that (as of this writing) is has not found a Wikipedia page or a decent DVD release is sad. Where are you, Scream Factory?

The_Dead_See I would love to hear the story behind how Barracuda got made. My guess is this: someone penned a land-based thriller entitled "The Lucifer Project" (which is the movies' subtitle) that was about a government conspiracy to control the populace through blood sugar manipulation. The film started pre-production, but someone said "hey, this movie called 'Jaws' was really successful three years ago and now I hear this new one called 'Piranha' is also going to do well. How about we change the title to 'Barracuda' and throw in a few scenes of hypoglycemic fish attacking divers to see if we can make more money".The fish stuff really is that obvious of an afterthought.If you attempt to watch Barracuda seriously, it's incredibly bad on many levels: cheesy acting, bizarre plot twists, a hilariously inept police force (complete with the fat comedy relief character) and an ending scene that strives hard for the bleakness that was so fashionable in the late 70s but only ends up being kind of funny instead. But I will say this, if you're looking for a movie to put on with friends, maybe with a little drink, and run your own MST3K style commentary over the top, Barracuda is an absolute gem. My wife and I had a riot watching it. Unlike a lot of the intentionally bad SyFy channel movies (like Sharknado) that come across as manipulative attempts to draw crowds through corniness, Barracuda is an *actual* bad movie, not a manufactured one, and thus is much more charming and fun to experience.

Wilbur-10 ****POSSIBLE PLOT SPOILERS***I was hoping for another corny 'Jaws' rip-off with this film, but after two unknown divers are killed in a long, drawn out, silent opening scene, the plot immediately changes itself into a land-based conspiracy thriller.The story is based around the town of Palm Cove, where a large chemical plant is the main source of employment. Chemicals are being put into the water supply in an experiment to control the population - they are also leaking into the sea and stimulate aggression in the local barracuda.There isn't much to get excited about here - a few 'Jaws' links are of minor interest: a labrador chasing a stick on a beach comes across a divers head; sheriff and marine biologist are the two main characters and they have a night search out on the water similar to the one enjoyed by Brody and Hooper.The film has the look of a home-grown project and the multitude of credits given to the co-directors Wayne Crawford and Harry Kerwin suggest this may be the case. Once it is clear the barracuda threat is only a plot device the films interest level begins to wane.Whilst production values are poor 'Barracuda' is still fairly watchable and the characters are fleshed out to a reasonable degree ( particularly Lester, the fat useless Victor Buono-like deputy ). This is still as far below 'Piranha' as 'Piranha' was below 'Jaws' though, so while not quite a full-blown turkey its very close.