Also released as
- Piranhas
- Piraya
- Piraña
Filed under
Piranha
Piranha is a 1978 American creature feature directed by Joe Dante.
Joe Dante's Jaws cash-in, written by John Sayles, and it is far smarter and funnier than it needed to be.
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Genetically engineered piranha, bred by the military for the Vietnam War and left in a mountain pool, are released into a river that runs to a summer camp and a new resort.
Roger Corman produced it to ride Jaws, and Spielberg reportedly liked it enough to drop a threatened lawsuit. It launched Joe Dante, who directs it with real wit, and John Sayles wrote it, which is why the satire, the military cover-up, the resort owner who will not close the water, has actual bite.
The effects are cheap and the film knows it, playing the horror and the comedy at once, and the camp massacre is genuinely nasty for a film this playful.
It is the best of the Jaws imitators by a distance, and it started the careers of several major film-makers.
Dante and Sayles went straight from this to The Howling.
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Australia
Canada
Germany
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 10 Aug 2026
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