Piranha II: The Spawning

Piranha II: The Spawning (1982) is a horror film you can watch online on iFILM — and the directorial debut of James Cameron, made as an Italy-Netherlands-US co-production when he was 25 years old. The Terminator came three years later. At a Caribbean resort, a sunken freighter sits on the ocean floor, and something has taken up residence inside.

Dive instructor Anne Kimbrough investigates a string of deaths among local scuba divers and reaches an alarming conclusion: a mutant strain of piranha has hatched in the wreck. These aren't ordinary fish. They can fly. Alongside her, a biochemist boyfriend and a skeptical ex-husband who's also the local police chief — played with quiet authority by Lance Henriksen — slowly come to terms with the threat.

The film is uneven in the way that low-budget genre debuts often are, but its creature logic is committed and the underwater sequences have a real edge. For anyone curious about where one of Hollywood's biggest careers started, this is the document. Stream Piranha II: The Spawning online on iFILM.