This sort-of follow-up to the original "Piranha" takes place on a
Caribbean island resort, where a bunch of mysterious deaths and disappearances have recently occurred. It begins when a couple go missing whilst out for a late night scuba dive.
Then, another diver on a scuba expedition disappears, only to be found all chewed up and horribly mutilated.
A nurse at the local morgue is later attacked, then a couple of bikini models are killed whilst on their yacht, by strange flying creatures that dive out of the water. Yes, it seems that some military scientists have been crossing piranha with flying fish and catfish for use as biological weapons, as they can fly out of the water and attack on land. (yes, its as bad as it sounds), and a ship containing several barrels of these piranha eggs has sunk just off the coast of the island resort.
Now the eggs have hatched and the carnivorous killer fish are on the rampage, attacking the tourists and locals on the holiday island, which is going to be bad news for the tourist trade, unless the local Police Chief (played by genre regular Lance Henricksen) can find a way of stopping them.
Shot in Jamaica by an Italian crew, the film gained a lot of infamy over the years for not only being incredibly bad, but for marking the Directorial debut of James Cameron (of "Terminator" and "Avatar" fame), who actually got himself fired halfway through production.
Though played as a straight horror film, the whole thing is so ridiculous you just can't take it seriously. The scene with the hotel guests going down to the beach for the annual catfish catching competition, chanting "We want fish", before getting attacked by flying piranha, had me in hysterics. Which is not helped by the fact that the wires on them are clearly visible. Also, why on Earth did they have an American running the local police?
But anyway, don't be put off by the films shortcomings, if you enjoyed the original you should get an equally enjoyable kick out of this one, albeit for the wrong reasons and in the words of James Cameron himself, this is "the best flying piranha movie ever made"!
