‘Piranha 2’: Get to know the worst movie of James Cameron’s career
The prospect of a filmmaker remaining one of the biggest and most famous directors in the entire industry despite releasing just three features in the space of 28 years is nigh-on unthinkable, but James Cameron has never been one to play by any rulebook other than his own.
Up until Titanic, Cameron used to churn out new movies on a semi-regular basis, but his decision to dedicate what’s likely to be the rest of his silver-screen career to the Avatar franchise has dramatically slowed his output, which is putting it lightly. That being said, when you’ve helmed three features to have earned north of $2 billion at the global box office and spent decades pushing the boundaries of cinematic technology, getting to do whatever you want comes as part of the deal.
Everybody has to start somewhere, though, and for Cameron, that came on a low-budget horror sequel he spent years trying to actively distance himself from. Unfortunately for him, history will always remember Piranha II: The Spawning as his feature-length directorial debut, regardless of how much he wants the world to forget.
Cameron only ended up in the director’s chair when executive producer Ovidio G. Assonitis fired Miller Drake before the start of production and drafted in the novice – who had initially been hired by Roger Corman as a special effects artist – to plunge himself in at the deep end for a movie the Terminator creator would sarcastically deem to be “the best flying piranha movie ever made.”
Not that he always held that opinion, with Cameron previously trying to paint the picture of a movie he was forced into being credited on: “Technically, I have a credit as the director on that film,” he said. “However, I was replaced after two and a half weeks by the Italian producer. He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me.”
Explaining that he wasn’t even in a position to argue, Cameron pointed the finger of blame at his lack of knowledge and resources: “When I saw what they were cutting together, it was horrible. And then the producer wouldn’t take my name off the picture because they couldn’t deliver it with an Italian name,” he continued. “So they left me on, no matter what I did. I had no legal power to influence him from Pomona, California, where I was sleeping on a friend’s couch. I didn’t even know an attorney.”
Cameron did admit that he “did some directing on the film” but made it clear that he didn’t “feel it was my first movie”. Considering that he’d go on to become one of the most successful and game-changing figures to wield a megaphone – one who became synonymous with nothing but unprecedented success – it’s easy to see why he wasn’t thrilled at his legacy being ignited by a tale of genetically-modified piranhas being unleashed at a Caribbean resort to devour the terrified holidaymakers.
On the other hand, reports vary regarding how heavily Cameron was involved throughout the process. He claims he was effectively fired two-and-a-half weeks in, but Lance Henriksen – the Piranha II star who’d go on to become a close friend and regular collaborator – hinted to Film Comment that the filmmaker was a lot more dedicated than he’d let it be known: “He’d be making rubber fish while everybody else was out partying,” Henriksen said.
What can’t be argued is that Cameron hated almost every minute of the experience, which was fair enough considering he was constantly being belittled and overruled by the producers, the majority of the crew couldn’t speak English, the budget was virtually non-existent, and he was essentially exiled from the post-production suite. Then again, the book A Critical Companion to James Cameron regales how he broke into the editing suite and cut together his own version of Piranha II, which was eventually released on home video after he hit big in Hollywood, ultimately turning a profit for the studio.
Make no mistake about it, Piranha II is an absolutely terrible movie that offers no indication of what Cameron was poised to achieve, but that’s part of what makes it such an endlessly fascinating debacle. He may have gotten started in the most torturous fashion possible, but he clearly didn’t let it hinder his ambition.
