LOS ANGELES (AP) ― It’s a sink or swim moment for the filmmakers behind the sequel to “Piranha 3D.’’

Combining a silly, self-aware sensibility with over-the-top gore, the original comedic horror film starring the likes of Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Lloyd and Elizabeth Shue as townsfolk fighting off prehistoric flesh-eating fish became a cult hit when it was released two summers ago opposite more mature fare such as “The Expendables’’ and “Eat Pray Love.’’

Dimension Films, the division of the Weinstein Co. that produces horror and sci-fi fare, quickly christened a sequel with the tongue-in-cheek title “Piranha 3DD’’ in hopes of riding the same wave of success as “Piranha 3D,’’ which reportedly cost just $24 million to make but reeled in more than $83 million worldwide.

The original also received an unexpected amount of guilty-pleasure acclaim, not just from horror blogs, but from mainstream critics. “Piranha 3D’’ was called “bloody watchable trash’’ by Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman and “‘Jaws’ without the art’’ by Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers.

“I don’t even know if we can top it,’’ lamented sequel director John Gulager, whose horror film “Feast’’ was the subject of the Bravo moviemaking documentary series “Project Greenlight’’ in 2005. “I don’t think that was totally our goal. We just wanted to be different. They had Academy Award-winning actors and stuff. We just wanted to have our own separate story.’’

Curiously, Dimension isn’t screening “Piranha 3DD’’ in advance for critics.

Gulager and his “Feast’’ screenwriters dove into the “3DD’’ project after Alexandre Aja, the previous film’s director, chose to work on new material.

“We wanted to double everything,’’ said “Piranha 3DD’’ screenwriter Marcus Dunstan. “If the first one had laughs, we wanted to double the laughs. If the first one had violence, we wanted to double the violence. If the first one had offensive elements, well, actually, we wanted to triple the offensive elements. That was always the DNA of this movie.’’