BARRACUDA (THE LUCIFER PROJECT) (1978)
Article 3205 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-28-2010
Posting Date: 5-24-2010
Directed by Harry Kerwin and Wayne Crawford
Featuring Wayne Crawford, Jason Evers, Roberta Leighton
Country: USA
What it is: Starts out as JAWS ripoff, then changes

Barracudas have begun attacking and killing people. A student investigates the possibility of pollution in the cove of a small town. Are these incidents related…?

It starts out as a simple JAWS ripoff; all well and good. Then it layers on the pollution subplot, which gives the movie two types of seventies movies from which it can borrow its plot trappings. By the time it gets around to throwing the paranoid conspiracy thriller into the mix, the barracuda attacks have definitely been placed on the back burner. And once you know you’re dealing with a paranoid conspiracy thriller, you’ll know how it’ll end. Though some of our heroes are likable enough, the indifferent acting, slow pacing, and the repetitive music start to take their toll. If the movie had concentrated on the subplot about behavioral changes of the townspeople, it might have worked itself up to something really interesting; as it is, it tries to cover too many over-familiar and exploitable bases at once and comes up short. But then, with a production company called Marketing Film, what do you expect?