Joe Dante directs Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies and Kevin McCarthy in this blatant cheapie Jaws rip-off involving a mutated shoal of killer fish.

Listen… it isn’t very good by any reasonable sense of the term. Yet when Dante scribbles outside the lines of what Corman wants Pirahna chimes better than many slicker imitators. The off beat chemistry of the gawky leads. The self aware stunt casting of McCarthy, Paul Bartel, Barbara Steele and Dick Miller. All of whom sing. That weird little stop motion creature who appears in the lab for no reason. The stretched teases of the raft being unravelled and the water skier being ignored by his bimbo mates. It’s not right but it’s okay.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Pirahna II: The Spawning (1982)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/