Flying fish fry
In the waters off a Caribbean island, a couple is found dead inside a sunken ship. They come from a near by resort called Club Elysium. Anne Kimbrough (Tricia O'Neil) is the scuba diving instructor of the resort. Believing that something strange is going on she breaks into the morgue with Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk). They find that the bodies have been basically eaten. Tyler is a biochemist that helped developed a specimen of genetically modified piranha. These piranha are capable of flying. They were designed to be the ultimate weapon. Unfortunately they had lost a cylinder full of the new breed in the water.
Of course the resort manager refuses to cancel the annual fish fry on the beach. During the fishing party promoted by the resort, the piranhas attack the guests. Instead of the guests eating the fish, the fish are eating the guests. No one is safe. The only hope Anne and Tyler have to stop them is to explode the ship and destroy the piranha's nest.
“Piranha II the spawning” was released in 1981 and was directed by James Cameron, Ovidio G. Assonitis and Miller Drake. This is the second best piranha movie ever. It comes with its own pedigree of actors like Lance Henriksen and Tricia O’Neil.
The piranhas with wings are not as cool as the normal ones but that’s OK. It’s still a low budget “B” movie and that’s part of the fun. It’s campy and a fun little horror movie. It’s not Piranha but it’s still got flesh eating fish. And it’s still fun, however, the action behind the scenes appears to have been more intense than what is on screen.
Although labeled as the first official directing credit for James Cameron, most of the work was done by Ovidio G. Assonitis. Assonitis had made a deal with Warner Bros. to produce the movie provided an American was credited as director. What Assonitis wanted was a first-timer who he could easily run over run in order to take over as director. Cameron worked on the film's special effects, re-wrote the script, created storyboards, did location scouting and actually filmed for four days. Assonitis, however, called most of the shots, continuously questioned Cameron's decisions, did not allow him to watch his own footage, and finally fired him on the fifth day of shooting. His excuse was that Cameron's footage wouldn't cut together. Later, Cameron was able to convince Assonitis to show him a rough cut of the film, which Cameron felt horrible. Assonitis manipulated the situation to re-write half the movie adding nudity that wasn't in the script originally. Cameron then broke into the editing room every night for weeks, and cut his own version. Unfortunately, Assonitis found out and re-cut it again. The most widely distributed version of the film that is available on DVD is Assonitis' version, although Cameron was later allowed to create a director's cut that saw a limited release in some markets. Because of this Cameron doesn't consider the film his first directorial debut.
When James Cameron flew to Rome to see the film's post-production he spent his entire advance salary on the plane ticket. With no money for food, he just snatched leftovers and rolls from dinner trays in his hotel. Due to jet lag and malnutrition, he grew ill with fever. He had a nightmare about a metallic torso emerging from an explosion, and dragging itself over the floor with kitchen knives. This gave him the idea for "The Terminator" (1984).
For parents: Be warned that there are some alternate versions of the DVD which contain a topless nude scene as well as a love making scene behind a waterfall.