- Year
- 1978
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 94 min
- Director
- Joe Dante
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- known (18/100)
Piranha
Sayles script, Dante direction, and jokes that land. The best Jaws rip.
The best of the Jaws imitators, because John Sayles wrote it as a comedy and Joe Dante directed it knowing exactly how silly it was. Military-engineered piranha escape into a summer river resort, and the film has fun with every beat the formula demands.
Spielberg reportedly liked it enough to keep Dante working rather than sue. It is fast, funny, gory and affectionate toward the genre it is sending up, which is the hardest tone to hit.
A parody that also works as the thing it parodies.
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