Republic Pictures released Barracuda on 16 October 1978 in Sweden. It didn’t make it to the United States (or anywhere else) until the following year.

I love Barracuda. Sadly, I have yet to see any “critic” who understands it. It combines two great trends at the time. First, it is a Jaws ripoff. Second, it is a 1970s paranoia film. (Thank you, Richard Nixon!) The film starts as a standard monster movie with environmental elements. The conspiracy stuff comes later.

But just the monster element is enough. The attacks are visceral. They hit me stronger than those in Jaws, for example.

The film is co-written and directed by Harry Kerwin, the younger brother of iconic psychotronic actor William Kerwin, who also stars in this film. Wayne Crawford co-wrote and directed the underwater sequences. Kerwin and Crawford worked together quite a lot. (Crawford went on to mainstream success with Valley Girl.)

Besides William Kerwin, the film stars a couple of psychotronic actors. These include Cliff Emmich and Jason Evers, the mad doctor in The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.

“Critics” hate this film. At least they do when they consider it at all. Mostly, the film has simply been forgotten. The fact that it premiered in Sweden says a lot.

So this 47th anniversary of the film’s release is a great time to watch it. That’s especially true since even most psychotronic fans have never seen it. If I’m wrong, I’ll give you all your money back from this free copy I dug up!

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Barracuda (1978) poster via Wikipedia under Fair use.