Swimming with the Man-Eaters: The Making of Piranha 2: The Spawning
III. CRITICAL APPRECIATION
Ultimately, Piranha 2: The Spawning is a terrible film, and in many ways, it’s unfair to call it Cameron’s first film as a director. Although Cameron was onboard for pre-production and twelve days of principle photography, Ovidio Assonitis was, by all accounts, the person most strongly in charge of the direction of the film. To this day, it remains unclear exactly what footage was shot by Cameron and what was shot by Assonitis. Keeping this in mind however, it’s still important to note that Cameron worked extensively on re-writing H.A. Milton’s original script, and that there are certain elements in Piranha 2 that are present throughout the body of Cameron’s work.
Tricia O’Neil in “Piranha 2: The Spawning.”
The first common thread is the film’s strong female protagonist Anne Kimbrough (Tricia O’Neil). Even in the mediocre world of the exploitation film, Cameron still managed to have a strong woman as his main protagonist. The character of Anne Kimbrough shows many of the traits present in later Cameron-created characters like Sarah Conner, Ellen Ripley, Lindsey Brigman, Helen Trasker, and Rose DeWitt Bukater. Like these other strong females, Kimbrough is smarter and braver than most of the men around her, and is sexy in a non-demeaning way. Like all other female Cameron protagonists, above all else, Kimbrough is fiercely independent and self-reliant. She has no problem going against the will of her employers, the law, or her husband when she feels the need to do so. Like Ripley, Sarah Conner, and Lindsey Brigman, she understands the need to act, and doesn’t wait for others to catch up and agree with her.
In nearly all his movies, Cameron has a prominent scene where the strong female protagonist is mercilessly prodded and interrogated by men who clearly do not believe her. It happens in The Terminator when incredulous police officers question Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) about the man who’s out to kill her. The same scene is echoed in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), except this time it’s an annoying psychiatrist grilling a substantially more jaded Conner. In Aliens (1986), Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is relentlessly prodded by corporate men who do not accept her explanation of why she destroyed the company’s ship. True Lies (1994) shows Helen Tasker (Jamie Lee Curtis) being harshly questioned by kidnappers who doubt her fidelity to her husband. A similar scene plays out in Piranha 2 when Anne is belittled in a question and answer session with her boss and her estranged husband. The whole thing plays out exactly as similar scenes in later Cameron films do. No one believes Anne about the flying piranhas, just as no one believes Sarah Conner about the Terminators, and no one believes Ripley about the Aliens.
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Nathan Sanders
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- Swimming with the Man-Eaters: The Making of Piranha 2: The Spawning - January 16, 2018
