For a director who’s been active and well-known for over three decades, James Cameron’s legacy has been far more fluid than most. In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Cameron was known as a maker of remarkably solid action movies – Aliens and The Terminator, True Lies and The Abyss – all with a cockeyed fabulist streak, yet all completely, crowd-pleasingly satisfying. Then Titanic happened, and changed everything. That world-conquering, genre-defining period romance reframed Cameron as a modern David Lean, a director of sweeping, technologically perfect epics. Or rather, epic, singular: Cameron seemed content for the following decade to rest on his laurels (“laurels” here being slang for “giant piles of money”). Cameron came roaring back in 2009 with Avatar, which shattered the box office records still in place from his previous film, and shifted his image yet again to the tireless champion of cutting edge 3D technology. This version of Cameron too has mutated, as Avatar’s reputation has waned and its theoretical franchise has become increasingly outlandish. At press time, Cameron is widely viewed as an out-of-touch buffoon, blinded by his own fortune and mythology: a George Lucas on the precipice of the prequels.

Through it all, though, one thing has remained true: James Cameron’s first movie is fucking ridiculous.

Like virtually every major figure of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls generation – including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson, and scores more – James Cameron began his career by making a ridiculous movie for schlockmeister Roger Corman. The first Piranha, directed by future blockbuster smartass Joe Dante and written by arthouse favorite John Sayles (who, curiously enough, also penned Alligator, which previously screened in this same series) is actually one of the more clever entries in the post-Jaws cycle of animal-attack films of the late ‘70s. Cameron’s even-cheaper sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning… well, isn’t. But it is a lovably stupid mess, involving piranha/flying fish hybrids (!!) and Cameron’s first collaboration with the always awesome Lance Henriksen. It might not have made as much money as Avatar, but as the years go by, it might just be the more entertaining film.

Piranha II: The Spawning
1981
dir. James Cameron (!)
84 min.

Screens Friday, 8/26, and Saturday, 8/27, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre – midnight!
Part of the ongoing series: @fter Midnite with the Boston Yeti