Piranha (1978) ***

There are more entertaining Jaws (1975) (review) rip-offs, there are funnier Jaws rip-offs, and there are gorier Jaws rip-offs (The Last Shark (1981) falls into all of those categories), but Piranha (1978) is one of the most well-made Jaws rip-offs (Alligator (1980) (review), which shares writer John Sayles, has it beat).

Piranha is a campy knockoff (there's literally a camp in the film) that Steven Spielberg liked enough to hire Joe Dante to direct multiple films that he produced (Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Gremlins (1984) (review), Innerspace (1987), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) (review) among them) and that spawned (sorry, not sorry) a sequel (1981's Piranha II: The Spawning, directed (and disowned) by James Cameron), two remakes (1995's Piranha, which I've yet to see, and 2010's Piranha 3D, which is over the top fun) and a sequel to said remake (2012's Piranha 3DD, which I've yet to see). 

Piranha is no classic (I’ve seen it numerous times and never quite loved it) but it is a lot of low budget fun. The performances are great (Dick Miller is aces, as usual), Pino Donaggio's score is, as always, full of emotion and tragedy, and the finale is a bloody blast.

Joe Dante Feature Films Ranked