MOVIE REVIEW

Piranha / 1978

A hideous death lurked unseen in the river...

6 / 10 (732 votes)

94 minutes

DIRECTOR Joe Dante

WRITERS John Sayles, John Sayles, Richard Robinson

CAST Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, Barbara Steele, Belinda Balaski, Melody Thomas Scott, Bruce Gordon, Barry Brown, Paul Bartel, Shannon Collins, Shawn Nelson, Richard Deacon, Janie Squire

PRODUCTION New World Pictures, Chako Film Company

Watch On

REVIEW & SYNOPSIS

Sinopsis

Piranha adalah sebuah Horror, Science Fiction yang dirilis pada tahun 1978. “A hideous death lurked unseen in the river…” Film ini disutradarai oleh Joe Dante dan dibintangi oleh Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller.

Piranha menghadirkan cerita yang mendalam tentang perjuangan, konflik, dan resolusi yang memukau. Dengan alur yang terstruktur dengan baik, film ini berhasil membawa penonton dalam pengalaman sinematik yang tak terlupakan.

Dari segi teknis, Piranha menawarkan sinematografi yang memanjakan mata, tata suara yang imersif, serta akting yang meyakinkan dari para pemerannya.

Secara keseluruhan, Piranha adalah Horror yang layak masuk dalam daftar tontonan Anda. Film ini tidak hanya menghibur tetapi juga memberikan pesan moral yang mendalam.

Last Updated: April 29, 2026

COMMUNITY REVIEWS FROM TMDB

Gimly 4/10

January 25, 2018

Not a terrible film, but there was a remake in the 90s with the exact same story featuring better acting and better effects, so you can probably skip straight ahead to that one. Now I know that if I had been around when that remake came out, I'd probably be the first in line to complain "Why'd you even bother? It's just the first movie over again!", but seeing as I watched them both in retrospect, I can ignore the fact that I'm being a total hypocrite and move right ahead to recommending you just watch the remake. _Final rating:★★...

Read full review on TMDB

Wuchak 8/10

July 10, 2018

Adventuresome and fun "Jaws" homage with far superior women RELEASED IN 1978 and directed by Joe Dante, “Piranha” chronicles events when genetically-enhanced piranha are accidently released into a river system in central Texas, which threaten kids & counselors at a Summer Camp and vacationers at a lake resort. A spirited skip tracer (Heather Menzies) and a backwoods drunkard (Bradford Dillman) team-up to save the swimmers. Kevin McCarthy and Barbara Steele play military scientists who experimented with the escaped piranha. While "Piranha" is sort of a "Jaws" (1975) knockoff, it’s different enough to not be a rip-off: The story takes place...

Read full review on TMDB

Kamurai 5/10

July 28, 2020

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, but can recommend for fans of Jaws or any other version of this movie. There is a 1995 remake of this movie that I would probably watch instead if I wanted to watch this gain. Not-trigger warning: There is a surprising LACK of gore in this movie. This has a decent story to it, but it shares aspects with Jaws, Friday the 13th, other movies of the era. Particularly the "hide the effect" routine that Jaws made famous. The practical effects aren't very good, which is why the best use of them was to...

Read full review on TMDB

The Movie Mob 5/10

November 27, 2022

**Piranha is bad 70s creature feature gold! It's so bad it's great and a fun ride as long as you expect a total cheesefest.** Piranha is cheesy 70s/80s creature films at their very best! It has everything - evil military generals, obligatory lake celebrations, scientific experimentation gone wrong, horrible dialogue, low-budget effects, and more. It's clear as you watch the film that Piranha was heavily influenced by Jaws, with the city ignoring the warnings of the dangerous underwater creature, the very similar movie poster, and much more. Steven Spielberg has even named it his favorite Jaws rip-off movie. This low-budget...

Read full review on TMDB

CinemaSerf 6/10

November 5, 2023

"People eat fish, fish don't eat people"! Well, that might be the theory but when a meddlesome couple accidentally release a swimming pool's worth of genetically modified fish into a river, we discover that that mantra isn't strictly true! It's only because "Dr. Hoak" (Kevin McCarthy) is at the facility that our interfering pair - "Maggie" (Heather Menzies-Ulrich) and "Paul" (Bradford Dillman) learn of the potential disaster scenario looming - especially when they realise that there is a water park down the river populated with loads of noisy, bitesized, tourists just perfect for their peckish predators. Can they get down...

Read full review on TMDB

r96sk 7/10

February 22, 2025

'Piranha' is short on laughs for a "comedy horror", though I did still enjoy this film. The elements to do with the titular fish are pretty strong, they are portrayed in the right way so the humans do feel in suitable danger. The piranhas aren't shown much, which is smart. Obviously it is inspired by 1975's 'Jaws' and does fall fairly far adrift of that classic, though that is to be expected and I'd still log it as a respectable attempt at following the mould set by that Steven Spielberg movie. It's nicely paced too, the ending felt like it...

Read full review on TMDB