An Underrated 3D Creature Movie Unofficially Killed Off A Jaws Character

We all talk about the seismic impact Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" had in shaping the quintessential summer blockbuster, but even greater was the renewed interest it generated in the creature feature. Everyone wanted to cash in on the killer animal movie craze after "Jaws," with films like "Orca: The Killer Whale," "Grizzly" and "Alligator" arriving in its wake. The issue was that plenty of producers wanted to hop aboard the bandwagon and make their own hit, yet "Jaws" was itself the rare combination of B-movie thrills and top-tier filmmaking, and it remains the gold standard. With that said, however, there's still a considerable amount of craft on display in the aforementioned movies. Then there were filmmakers like Joe Dante, who had the right idea and didn't even attempt to recapture the same prestige, instead leaning in a much more humorous direction with his efforts on 1978's "Piranha."

With the aid of B-movie maestro Roger Corman and a Dick Miller role thrown in for good measure, Dante unleashed a horror-comedy about genetically altered piranhas running amok and attacking a lake resort. "Piranha" is some delightful cheese that features some fun effects work from Phil Tippett and ultimately serves as the perfect dessert to Spielberg's masterpiece. Considering it was a movie made on the cheap, it's not quite as sacrilege to envision a remake with even more resources at its disposal to take full advantage of the underwater mayhem.

In the summer of 2010, Dante's low-budget creature feature got a big Hollywood facelift with the help of "Piranha 3D," a spectacularly gory and nasty cavalcade of summertime carnage. Alexandre Aja's nasty re-imagining is one of the great exploitation movies of the 2010s, giving way to gratuitous nudity, sleazy fish fodder, and a whole lot of death. The prehistoric piranhas munching on a buffet of hapless partiers cements its place in film history as the definitive beach massacre. It's the kind of horror movie bred for summertime thrills, especially with all of the tremendous practical gore effects on display.

For as much as "Piranha 3D" is in conversation with Dante's film, it also goes straight to the source of the creature feature craze by unofficially killing off a beloved "Jaws" character (one that even Bruce the shark couldn't get).

In the opening scene of "Piranha 3D," a fisherman goes out fishing in a lake and unwittingly unleashes a school of prehistoric piranha. This role could have been played by anyone, but what makes it especially fascinating is that he's portrayed by none other than Richard Dreyfuss. If you've seen "Jaws" (which, if you haven't, bookmark this article and go watch it right now), you're aware the Oscar-winning actor plays an oceanographer named Matt Hooper. Hired by police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), Hooper is tasked with helping him get to the root of Amity Island's shark problem amid the Fourth of July festivities. The great white menace proves to be too much of an issue, of course, prompting Brody, Hooper, and shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) to go on the fishing trip of a lifetime.

In the film's climax, Hooper descends into a supposedly shark-proof cage in order to poison the shark up close. Surprise, surprise, though, the 25-foot fish has no trouble breaking through Hooper's cage, spelling all but certain doom for the oceanographer. Those who've read Peter Benchley's original 1974 "Jaws" novel might have expected the character to meet his imminent demise there, but things play out differently in Spielberg's film. Once Brody blows the sharp-toothed son of a ... well, you know, to smithereens, Hooper bubbles to the surface alive. Not even a close encounter (he he) with one of the great movie monsters is able to take Hooper out. That being the case, there's an audacity to Aja presenting him as a piranha appetizer decades later.

Mind you, "Piranha 3D" never flat-out states the name of Dreyfuss' character in the film, but the credits list him as "Matt Boyd." It would be one thing if the actor were simply presented as just some guy, but the fact that he's dressed in pretty much the same attire as Hooper, drinking Amity-branded beer, and sings "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (the very same tune he sang aboard the Orca in "Jaws") makes it clear that this is supposed to be the same character. For legal reasons, of course, the movie couldn't say it was. Dreyfuss, who is prone to foot in mouth syndrome, only took the minor part after being approached by Bob Weinstein with a sweet paycheck (one that he later donated to charity).

It's easy to see how Hooper survived the shark's wrath in "Jaws," but even he — sorry, "Matt Boyd" — can't overcome the one-two punch of a massive whirlpool and the equivalent of underwater chainsaws that can rip you apart in seconds in the opening scene of "Piranha 3D." Those fish sure showed him the way to go home ... to a watery grave, that is.

"Piranha 3D" is currently streaming on Tubi and Pluto TV.