Piranha II: The Spawning Backdrop Blur
Piranha II: The Spawning Poster

Piranha II: The Spawning

"It started as a vacation..."

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.

Top Cast

  • Tricia O'Neil

    Tricia O'Neil

    Anne Kimbrough

  • Steve Marachuk

    Steve Marachuk

    Tyler Sherman

  • Lance Henriksen

    Lance Henriksen

    Police Chief Steve Kimbrough

  • Ricky Paull Goldin

    Ricky Paull Goldin

    Chris Kimbrough

  • Ted Richert

    Ted Richert

    Raoul, Hotel Manager

  • Leslie Graves

    Leslie Graves

    Allison Dumont

  • Carole Davis

    Carole Davis

    Jai

  • Connie Lynn Hadden

    Connie Lynn Hadden

    Loretta

  • Arnie Ross

    Arnie Ross

    Mal the Cook

Overview

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.

Rating

4.3 / 10
309 Reviews
2 Popular

2 Reviews

  • Gimly
    Gimly
    4 Jan 25, 2018

    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._

  • r96sk
    r96sk
    4 Feb 23, 2025

    '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.

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