One of the Best Horror Reboots of the 2010s Is Even Gorier Than You Remember

This article contains spoilers!

As a young teenager in 2010, seeing Piranha 3D in a movie theater felt like a rite of passage. You’d pay for a PG-rated movie that was also in 3D (it was quite the fad back then), don the dark-shaded 3D glasses, and then sneak into the balls-to-the-wall insanity fest that was Piranha 3D. When you came back from summer break, your friends at school who didn’t have the gall to see the film would be in awe of your recounts of birthday suit-clad underwater acrobatics and spring breakers being devoured by prehistoric fish. This was not an uncommon experience with the film, making Alexandre Aja‘s brutal and hilarious remake a pivotal horror movie for many people who came of age in the early 2010s.

Piranha 3D is a remake of a 1978 film of the same name (minus the 3D), executive produced by Roger Corman. Most likely, the aspect of this campy reboot that made it so popular was its shock value. Word of mouth about this movie was absolutely bonkers, with the film eventually grossing over $83 million against a budget of just $24 million. Released on August 20, 2010, moviegoers quickly told their friends that this was no cheap Jaws rehash. No, Piranha 3D showcases as much grotesque carnage as a Hostel movie, but still manages to maintain a steady serving of fun throughout, causing people to feel the need to see what all the fuss was about. And to most, especially gore-wise, the movie delivered on its hype.

Piranha 3D‘s “story” centers on an earthquake that unleashes viciously hungry prehistoric piranhas that will devour any living thing in their sight. The film stars Elizabeth Shue as a Sheriff who tries to stop spring breakers, including her own son, from becoming fish food when the murderous sea life invades a popular lakeside tourist spot in Arizona. The film also features Christopher Lloyd as a knowledgeable retired marine biologist who steals every scene he’s in. Adam Scott is also in the cast, which is great fun for modern Severance fans who want to see the actor’s early roles.

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While the piranhas certainly cause plenty of damage to the young partygoers, including in one scene when a parasailer is pulled out of the water with her legs missing, there are also shocking scenes of violence not involving the piranhas, which may be surprising to some. One horrific scene in particular features a wire snapping from a stage during the spring break celebration and cutting a cheerleader in half, with the top half of her body slowly falling to the ground. Another unforgettably grisly scene occurs when two men carry an injured woman through the chaos, one at her feet and the other holding her arms; the woman’s body splits in the middle, most likely due to previous injuries, leaving one man with her torso and the other with her bottom half. Yet another brutal scene without the piranhas involves a character played by Eli Roth getting decapitated by a boat, and a fourth sees a woman having her face ripped off by a boat motor.

While a discussion about the non-piranha deaths in Piranha 3D is necessary, the death and destruction caused by the piranhas is nonstop throughout this film’s runtime. One of the best sequences of gore in this movie is when a piranha rips its way out of a woman’s body through her mouth. A character played by Jerry O’Connell also loses his manhood to one of the devilish creatures, which is possibly the most memorable and talked-about scene of the film. 

Not only is the gore off the hook, but the overall vibe of this film is just bonkers. One of the key subplots involves Sheriff Forester’s son Jake getting involved with the shooting of a pornographic film, and it feels off-color, yet so of the time the movie was released. The humor in this film is just as rampant as the gore, causing it to be received as one of the most entertaining horror comedies of its decade, even if it is extremely goofy. The film spawned a sequel in 2012, Piranha 3DD, but that film will never be as legendary as Piranha 3D, which is arguably one of the best horror reboots of all time.

Piranha 3D is available to stream on Tubi.