B Movie Bonanza

Piranha is the subject of this Sunday's "monsterdon" watch party over on Mastodon, our fediverse sibling!

• Just start watching that movie this Sunday, Jan 26, 2025 at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 6pm PT, which is 2am Monday UTC
• and follow #monsterdon over on mastodon for live commentary. For example, you can follow that hashtag here: https://mastodon.social/tags/monsterdon
• I usually open two web browser windows on a computer side-by-side. But you could follow the mastodon commentary on a phone app while watching it on TV or something...

How to watch:

• someone usually streams it on https://miru.miyaku.media/ at that time so check there
• if you're in North America, Australia, or the UK try Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/452488/piranha last I checked adblock worked with it
• YOUTUBE WARNING: there's a movie on youtube that says it's Piranha but it's actually some other movie, I think it's "Piranha, Piranha" from 1972 even though it says it's from 1978. Note that Piranha was also re-made in 1995 so make sure you get the 1978 version which is 95 minutes long.
• if you want to pay or watch ads and are in the US, look here: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/piranha

Executive produced by Roger Corman, Piranha is the first installment in a series of low-budget B movies inspired by the film Jaws (1975), which had been a major success for Universal Pictures and director Steven Spielberg. Initially, Universal had considered obtaining an injunction to prevent Piranha being released, particularly as they had released Jaws 2 the same summer, but the lawsuit was dropped after Spielberg himself gave the film a positive comment in advance.

...

Charles Champlin, in his review of the film for the Los Angeles Times, called it "a swift, efficient program picture which squeezes the most out of its dollars to squeeze delicious chills from the audience."[14] Jill Forbes of The Monthly Film Bulletin called the film "a quickie from the Corman company that can't decide whether to plump for horror, science fiction or social comedy, and plays safe with something for everyone", and found it "a lot of fun".[15] Screen International's Marjorie Bilbow wrote that the film "works as spirited scream and giggle nonsense because there is always something happening and Joe Dante directs with a slyly tongue-in-cheek awareness of the existence of big brother Jaws".[16]

Piranha has since acquired a cult status. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Performed with a wink and directed with wry self-awareness, Piranha is an unabashed B-movie with satirical bite."[17]

Steven Spielberg called the film "the best of the Jaws ripoffs".[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piranha_(1978_film)

This community briefly discussed this film a couple years ago.