Barracuda is a 1977 American horror/

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

about a small

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

coastal town that is menaced by chemically induced and highly aggressive

barracuda A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldw ...

fish. The cast included

Wayne Crawford Wayne David Crawford (February 11, 1947 – April 30, 2016) was an American film and television actor, and film producer, director and screenwriter. Crawford appeared in nearly thirty films, produced fifteen, wrote nine, and directed seven. Cra ...

Jason Evers Jason Evers (born Herb Evers or Herbert Everin; January 2, 1922 – March 13, 2005) was an American actor. He was the star of the 1963 ABC television drama '' Channing''. Early life Evers was born either as Herbert Everberg or Herbert Everin ...

, Roberta Leighton, Cliff Emmich,

William Kerwin William Kerwin (April 17, 1927 – October 27, 1989) was an American actor and filmmaker. He was most well known for his character roles in the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Career Kerwin enjoyed some success on the stage and screen bef ...

and Bert Freed. It was directed by Harry Kerwin, with the underwater sequences handled by Wayne Crawford.

Plot

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 hypoglycemia and its effects on human behavior.

Cast

– Mike Canfield (credited as Wayne David Crawford) *

– Dr. Elliot Snow * Roberta Leighton – Liza Williams * Cliff Emmich – Deputy Lester *

– Sheriff Ben Williams * Bert Freed – Papa Jack * Harry Kerwin – Government Agent #1 * Rick Rhodes – Government Agent #2 * Matt King – Agent Leaving * Barbara Keegan – Maggie Snow (credited as Bobbie Ellyne Kosstrin) * Edmund Lupinski – Boy on Beach (credited as Ed Lupinski) * Kim Nichols – Girl on Beach * Frank Logan – Sam * Daniel L. Fitzgerald – Cook * Will Knickerbocker – Bill (credited as Willis Knickerbocker) * Ruth Miller – Edna * Scott Avery – Toby * Bob J. Shields – Floyd

Release

Home media

Barracuda was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

by UAV Corporation on December 7, 1989. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

by Dark Sky Films on September 30, 2008.

Reception

Cavett Binion from

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

gave the film a negative review, called it " muddled attempt at ecological horror". Andrew Smith from ''Popcorn Pictures'' awarded the film a score of 2/10, calling it "a cheap cash-in", and criticized the film's plot, phony special effects, and lack of focus on the film's title monsters.

References

External links

* * * 1977 films 1977 horror films 1970s horror thriller films 1970s monster movies American horror thriller films American monster movies American natural horror films 1970s English-language films Films about fish 1970s American films English-language horror thriller films Films scored by Klaus Schulze 1977 science fiction films English-language science fiction horror films {{1970s-US-film-stub