Why Piranha (1978) Still Bites: The Retro Horror Gem Astrology Warned Us About—Is Your Zodiac Sign Ready for These Waters?
Added on July 30, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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Ever wonder if today’s planetary hustle has a thing or two in common with those bloodthirsty piranhas unleashed on the unsuspecting in the cult classic “Piranha” (1978)? Well, while Mercury might be zigzagging through Scorpio whispering secrets and stirring the depths, this wild Roger Corman production dives headfirst into the murky waters of “Jaws” ripoffs versus cash-ins—because let’s face it, not all fish stories are created equal. Directed by the soon-to-be legend Joe Dante and daringly defended by none other than Steven Spielberg himself, this splashy homage manages to swim circles around its payday peers with a killer mix of gore, wit, and some seriously star-studded aquatic mayhem. So brace yourself—the fins are sharp, the budget was sliced, and the legacy? Well, it’s savagely unforgettable. Ready to wade in? LEARN MORE
Look, I know I called Orca a Jaws ripoff and that’s a tad derogatory. I didn’t mean to make it a pejorative, but that’s in essence what nearly every animal attack movie is post Jaws isn’t it? Well yes and no. One of my favorite YouTube channels is Movie Dumpster, and they recently covered The Dunwich Horror. They went into the difference between a cash-in and a ripoff. Go watch their videos as it’s always great stuff but anyway, they are right. Orca isn’t a ripoff necessarily even if it was designed to go after Jaws‘ popularity and box office. Cruel Jaws out of Italy is 100% a ripoff but Orca, and today’s movie Piranha, are much more cash-ins where it doesn’t have to be the same animal at all or even the same story but the advertising and makes audiences want to have a go at a movie that will hopefully make it profitable. Today’s movie was created by one of the best to ever do it but the other creators like the writer, director, and cast, who all happen to be pretty famous and reliable, make Piranha the best Jaws cash-in of all time and certainly one of the best black sheeps of most of these peoples’ careers let alone just in the category of animal attack flicks.
There are a lot of movies that get the label Jaws cash-in or ripoff and your comments on the Orca video showed me we are on the same page in terms of what we like. My kids adore Tentacles and quite often quote “Nobody likes a fat man” from it. Alligator is an all-timer that is also written by today’s movie scribe while making Robert Forster a B movie icon. Grizzly is fun but I prefer Prophecy and The Car is better than Killdozer. That being said, I may be able to get to some or all of them if you can collectively make the videos worth it. It’s funny to say that but that does link into Piranha as the late great Roger Corman wanted the movie made and even released it around the same time as the official sequel to Jaws. Universal wanted to put a stop to that until Steven Spielberg himself said to leave the fish movie alone. Even he knows you just let Corman do his thing, and he actually loved the movie when he saw an advanced screening of it. Corman almost handicapped the movie though by cutting the budget drastically from 900k to 200k, or perhaps only down to 500 or 600k, it’s hard to tell. He did leave the movie almost completely alone too though, which gave the production and director Joe Dante specifically the room to do what they wanted.
Dante used to edit movie trailers together for Roger Corman and New World Pictures but in 1976 was given an opportunity to co-direct his first movie with another Corman editor with Hollywood Boulevard. He would get his next chance with Piranha and even though it was a huge hit at the box office and later a cult gem, it almost made him quit the business. Like the movie Jaws that Corman claimed this to be an homage for, there were tons of problems. Special effects didn’t work like they were supposed to; there were issues with unions and actors, and the second unit footage was damaged and became unusable. Universal was going to sue and he and writer John Sayles were ready to give up their Hollywood dreams. Dante would of course go on to have an epic career including working with Speilberg, the man who saved this movie, while Sayles is a two-time Oscar nominee now with a ton of other fun genre credits to his name.
The cast is great too. This is the second of nearly too many to count in terms of collaboration between Joe Dante and the ever-lovable Dick Miller, but we also have Keenan Wynn who you last saw in Orca, the great Kevin McCarthy, Paul Bartell, and Italian horror royalty Barbara Steele. Heather Urich and Bradford Dillman are the main characters and are fine but end up being the least memorable parts. Finally, the behind-the-scenes talent goes beyond just an awesome director and screen writer with Phil Tippett and Rob Bottin on special effects. This wonderful melting pot of a creative team elevates a mere Jaws cash-in to THE Jaws cash-in. Looking at the main plot of the movie it doesn’t immediately feel that way but let’s look at some of the things that lend themselves to that distinction.
First is the poster. While it isn’t as subtle as the all-timer for Jaws, it still exudes the feeling that this is a giant sea creature that’s going to wreak havoc on the general public. While it’s silly to think so now, the poster could be even seen as misleading as it only shows one deadly man-eating fish and isn’t called Piranhas plural. That is one nasty-looking predatory fish going after a very pretty and leggy woman just like the opening to the 1975 blockbuster. That opening is the next thing that signals what we are in for, we get a kill, or two here actually, where we don’t even get to see what is doing the damage. Unlike Jaws, we also don’t need to squint or have a 4k to see the nudity on display, a Corman staple. We get kids in peril and a greasy mayor like character played by the ever-reliable Dick Miller who tries to downplay the whole incident and keep making money. The last really funny Jaws cue is the arcade game that the main character is seen playing when we meet her. It’s called Shark Jaws and becomes one of the most meta things ever with a mega cash-in arcade game being displayed and played in a mega cash-in movie. Brilliant.
Even with the overt as well as the more subversive nods to big brother Bruce, the movie is not a plot for plot, shot for shot retelling. After the opening scene where two teens get eaten, we are introduced to Maggie, who is dispatched to go find them. She doesn’t know her way around the area, so we get Paul hired to guide her and just like that we have our two leads. We don’t have any Hoopers, Quints, or Brodys to be found but we don’t need that here. The two find the military compound that is housing what killed off the couple in the beginning and we not only get to see a world-weary Kevin McCarthy looking like he is trying to stop pod people from invading but we get a wonderfully out-of-place Ray Harryhausen creature that looks like it would be more comfortable in one of the two Gate movies than a Jaws pastiche. Maggie unwittingly opens the piranha flood gates and the rest of the movie now has a clock over its head.
Dr. Hoak, as he becomes known to be, explains that these are bioweapons. They were created for use in the Vietnam War from a strain of particularly large and violent piranha and it was called Operation Razorteeth which really could have been its own movie and I’m a little surprised it wasn’t. The deadly spawn, joke made on purpose, are headed down the river and will be unleashed to the greater public but also the Lost River Resort and Summer Camp. The movie doesn’t really pull any punches with its gore or kills. Dr. Hoak sacrifices himself to save a young boy who lost his father, and we see tons of kids getting attacked by the crazed fish and their dentist drill teeth, because, you know, that’s how they made the noise. The military steps in including another member of the Razorteeth squad which sounds like a comic book, and they attempt to poison the fish even though they know that’s not going to work. The military get to the camp to stop Paul and Maggie from making things worse for them but the commander is killed along with a ton of other vacationers.
The final stand involves the heroes taking a speedboat to open a valve and unload toxic material into the water to kill the frenzied fish. Paul is able to do it but its not a sure thing that he’s going to make it either. While it seems that they have won, we also get a Barbara Steele stinger where she tries to convince the public that it’s over and that it was way less scary than it was made out to be. We have a Corman production here that aimed at being a love letter to both Jaws and ’50s sci-fi movies and it mostly succeeds. It has nudity, a much higher body count, a lot more gore, and was successful at the box office. If that isn’t a Roger Corman production, then I don’t know what is.
Piranha was successful, although how much is hard to tell. Parts of the internet claim a lofty number of 14 million, 16 million, or just under 3 million. Any of those numbers would make it a success story and it has gone on to be a cult movie, though about as popular and well known as a cult movie can be. It has a direct sequel with Piranha Two: The Spawning from 1982 being James Cameron’s worst nightmare both physically and metaphorically but also giving us The Terminator in a way. After that it had a TV remake in 1995 starring William Katt, James Karen, and a young Mila Kunis before getting the proper theatrical remake and that remake getting its own sequel with the wonderful title of Piranha 3DD and being in 3D. Richard Dreyfuss even appeared in the very successful 2010 remake which tied a nice little bow on this Jaws cash-in. Piranha is a wonderful bit of ’70s animal attack and holds up today with its beautiful 4k transfer. While the others in the series aren’t mandatory, this one sure is. So, what’s next, the undersea octopus rage of Tentacles or the hunt for a giant reptile in Alligator? Let me know in the comments and be sure to watch the black sheep of the rip-off genre, in the best possible way.
A couple of the previous episodes of The Black Sheep can be seen at the bottom of this article. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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