Every James Cameron Movie Ranked Worst To Best

9. Piranha II: The Spawning (1982)

I noted in the introduction to this ranking that Cameron never disappoints, but that's not entirely true. His directorial debut, Piranha II: The Spawning, is so horribly poor it's shocking to think he was involved in it at all. And to his credit, he reportedly wasn't, since he claims to this day he didn't really direct it past the two-week mark.

Produced as a sequel to Joe Dante's 1978 original feature, Piranha II: The Spawning was so poor even Roger Corman rejected it, and Cameron (young and ironically hired after working as a VFX artist for Corman) lost control early on, clashing with producers and unable to see anything that had been filmed before it was edited.

The finished product is ultimately that of an ugly, unsavoury B-movie disaster, rife with atrocious performances, effects and production values. It's the kind of awful, abject dud that isn't even bad enough to be memorable. It just barely exists, leaving little wonder why Cameron doesn't consider it his.