Piranha II: The Spawning

"It started as a vacation..."

1982 1h 34m EN

💀

4.3

SKIP

🥫

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

3.8

IMDB

★4.3TMDB · 326🥫4%Rotten Tomatoes●15Metacritic★3.8IMDB · 10,190

Horror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A scuba diving instructor, her biochemist boyfriend, and her police chief ex-husband try to link a series of bizarre deaths to a mutant strain of piranha fish whose lair is a sunken freighter ship off a Caribbean island resort.

“It started as a vacation...”

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Cast

Tricia O'Neil
Anne Kimbrough
Steve Marachuk
Tyler Sherman
Lance Henriksen
Police Chief Steve Kimbrough
Ricky Paull Goldin
Chris Kimbrough
Ted Richert
Raoul, Hotel Manager
Leslie Graves
Allison Dumont
Carole Davis
Jai
Connie Lynn Hadden
Loretta

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron, Ovidio G. Assonitis, Charles H. Eglee
Languages: English
Countries: Italy, Netherlands, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

44 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Italy, Netherlands, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Piranha Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by James Cameron, shot by Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Stelvio Cipriani. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Roberto Silvi shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tricia O'Neil and Steve Marachuk and Lance Henriksen carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

James Cameron directs. Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli behind the camera. Stelvio Cipriani scores. Roberto Silvi cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Italy, Netherlands, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
244 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 3 countries: Italy, Netherlands, United States of America.
4Part of the "Piranha Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by James Cameron, shot by Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Stelvio Cipriani. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Roberto Silvi shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Tricia O'Neil and Steve Marachuk and Lance Henriksen carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "It started as a vacation...".
10IMDB entry: tt0082910 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli
Original score: Stelvio Cipriani
Editing: Roberto Silvi
Costume design: Nicoletta Ercole
Makeup / hair: Mirella De Rossi
Sound: Danilo Sterbini
Runtime: 94 min · 1h 34m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $145,786
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Piranha II: The Spawning (1982)
Rotten Tomatoes: 4% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 15/100
IMDB rating: 3.8/10 · 10,190 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 nomination

Part of

Piranha Collection

A film series about a swarm of killer piranhas.

Also by

James Cameron

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2018-01-25
★ 4/10
You've finally got a fix for "Hey you can beat this villain by just staying out of the water" and then they barely ever use it. Sure, it makes no sense that the piranha can fly, but seeing as they can, you may as well have used that ability to the max. But 99% of the victims are still water-bound. Whatever, it's a modicum of fun in that dated practical effects way. Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.
r96sk2025-02-23
★ 4/10
'Piranha II: The Spawning' is woeful. You'd expect more with James Cameron at the helm, but everyone has to start somewhere; he followed up with 'The Terminator' and 'Aliens' so he did alright! This, his feature directorial debut, is proper rubbish though. It's seemingly less to do with Cameron anyway in fairness, it sounds like producer Ovidio G. Assonitis had his hands all over this; Miller Drake was the original director, who Assonitis evidently fired. I think that speaks for itself. Either way, it's low-quality and I hold no positives. The editing is all over the place, there are moments where it cuts to characters for a relative few seconds for no apparent reason; notably with Chris & Allison and that random couple whose names didn't even register. Some of the character interactions, mainly early, are weird too. How the film utilises the piranha is the big issue, though. Unlike the Joe Dante original, we see so much of the fish that it becomes ineffective; less is more and all that. And that's without mentioning the biggest howler produced: they made them fly. It plays as terribly as it sounds. I don't have anything all that noteworthy to say about the cast, but to be honest this film's issues have very little to do with them. Tricia O'Neil is the standout if I had to pick one. Perhaps only an all-star cast would've saved this, but probably not given all the offscreen problems.
Wuchak2026-09-21
★ 6/10
The mutated piranha threat switches from a river in Texas to Jamaica Everyone knows this is the film where James Cameron debuted as director, albeit he got fired after only four days, not to mention a week’s worth of pre-production (searching for locations and so forth). Cameron believed Greco-Italian producer Ovidio Assonitis would hire American directors to get funding from studios for his projects and then find an excuse to fire them so he could direct himself. The claimed support for this is “Beyond the Door,” “Madhouse,” and this movie. Disregarding the behind-the-scenes drama, is the film as bad as its reputation? Not at all. It’s a perfectly watchable creature feature in the tradition of the original 1978 film and the “Jaws” flicks, as well as Assonitis’ own “Tentacles.” No, it’s not great like Dante’s “Piranha” or the first two “Jaws” movies, but it’s an improvement over “Tentacles.” Those in the mood for an oceanic thriller like “The Deep,” “The Great Alligator” and “Zombie” should appreciate it. Lance Henriksen stars as the harbor police chief and it’s interesting seeing him with a full head of hair at the age of 40yo during shooting. Meanwhile blonde Connie Lynn Hadden stands out in the female cast as Loretta, but her role’s unfortunately too small. Dark brunette Carole Davis as Jai is also worth a mention, not to mention petite Leslie Graves as teenager Allison and Tricia O'Neil as the main protagonist (who’s reminiscent of Adrienne Barbeau, albeit more attractive IMHO). It runs 1h 35m and was shot Feb-Apr 1981 on the north side of Jamaica in Ocho Rios, with lots of scenes done at the resort hotel there; underwater sequences were filmed almost 300 miles to the west off of Grand Cayman. Additional studio work was done in Rome. GRADE: B-