Piranha 3D — Review

Unfortunately misunderstood due to subpar visual effects, garishly over-the-top party sequences and a handful of forced 3D moments that have aged like milk, PIRANHA 3D is far greater than the sum of those minor parts. Alexandre Aja’s reimagining of Joe Dante’s JAWS send-up is an homage to pulpy monster B-movies, brimming with eccentric characters, gratuitous nudity and gallons upon gallons of fake blood. It is deliberate cinematic trash—a gleeful throwback intended to be devoured at midnight with joyful abandon, treasured as junk food horror that tastes sweet and goes down easy.

Aja doesn’t simply throw nameless actors to the slaughter in PIRANHA 3D though, which further sets the movie apart. Elisabeth Shue and Ving Rhames bring a certain degree of acting calibre to the film, while Jerry O’Connell steals the show by going above and beyond as a sleazy, over-the-top wretch ripped right out of the ‘80s. PIRANHA 3D wholeheartedly embraces coarse humour, exploitative sex appeal and graphic gory carnage, combining them into a piece that wears its trashiness as a badge of honour, while celebrating every instance of flesh-eating mayhem and shameless popcorn thrills.