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Piranha

Play trailer Poster for Piranha R Released Jul 3, 1978 1h 32m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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72% Tomatometer 29 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
Two people (Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies) unwittingly free a mad military scientist's (Kevin McCarthy) mutant fish near a summer camp and resort lake.
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Piranha

Piranha

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Critics Consensus

Performed with a wink and directed with wry self-awareness, Piranha is an unabashed B-movie with satirical bite.

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Critics Reviews

View All (29) Critics Reviews
Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness Of all the late '70s-early '80s Jaws knockoffs, none balanced tongue-in-cheek humor with out-and-out gore as deftly as Joe Dante's Piranha. Rated: B+ Jan 10, 2006 Full Review Empire Magazine Rated: 4/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies Ultimately Dante is the star and his personality seeps from ever pore of the movie. From his snarky jabs at the military and political apparatuses to silly flourishes that seem to come from out of the blue, Dante’s fingerprints are everywhere. Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 17, 2023 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Dante’s talented, sure hands assemble a fun little horror-thriller that deserves to be seen as more than just a post-Spielberg rehash, but a winking and skilled thriller in the summer escapism style. Rated: 3.5/4 Aug 9, 2023 Full Review Stephanie Archer Film Inquiry While Piranha may not be the best horror film, even boarder lining ridiculous at times, it is undeniably entertaining. Jul 30, 2022 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Even Jaws director Steven Spielberg counts himself among the film's fans. Rated: 3/4 Oct 26, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Dallas H I enjoy watching Joe Dante's creature features even if they feel like a Jaws movie riff. And what is the deal with pronouncing the word "piranha" in this movie? The characters enunciate the word with a hard Y instead of a silent H. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/17/24 Full Review Christian K Funny and harmless enough, appreciated the simple setup and premise and the bad acting. The actual piranha scenes are done surprisingly well. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/30/24 Full Review Comrade A Jaw's autistic younger cousin??? Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/21/24 Full Review Jules N Piranha offre une sorte de satire des Dents de la mer assez réussi et sanglante avec pas mal d'action, dommage que les acteurs qui donnent une interprétation de leur personnage beaucoup trop théâtral et donc ridicule rendent le film quelques fois exaspérante. Les effets spéciaux ont aussi beaucoup trop mal vieillis. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 08/20/24 Full Review Blu B It's exactly what you'd expect and nothing more. A low budget B-Movie Jaws inspired creature feature with none of the suspense or amazing characters of the movie it's influenced by. It barely ever shows the piranhas but there is lots of blood and kills so it's almost like a creature slasher than anything. Everything is as medicore as you can get. It's super campy/cheesy and self aware which defintely helps warm up to it's poor quality at times. Nothing is really memorable or well done about it but nothing is truly broken either and it's totally followable. It just doesn't do a good job of building any suspense and is more mindless than anything. If your a big creature feature fan than I guess give it a try but most should skip it. It's hard to get angry at any of it's shortcomings because its so clear it knows what it is and accomplishes what it sets out to be. A run of the mill B-Movie. Nothing more nothing less. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/13/24 Full Review Corey N Good for a few laughs Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/28/24 Full Review Read all reviews
Piranha

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Cast & Crew

C.H.U.D. 29% 33% C.H.U.D. Watchlist TRAILER for C.H.U.D. Return to Horror High 0% 17% Return to Horror High Watchlist Hellbound: Hellraiser II 52% 59% Hellbound: Hellraiser II Watchlist TRAILER for Hellbound: Hellraiser II The Howling 74% 60% The Howling Watchlist The Legacy 19% 25% The Legacy Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Two people (Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies) unwittingly free a mad military scientist's (Kevin McCarthy) mutant fish near a summer camp and resort lake.
Director
Joe Dante
Producer
Jon Davison
Screenwriter
John Sayles
Distributor
New World Pictures
Production Co
New World Pictures
Rating
R
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 3, 1978, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 3, 2018
Runtime
1h 32m
Sound Mix
Mono
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