Piggy

A young teen who has long been powerless in her life, is suddenly given power.

A Spanish revenge fantasy/coming-of-age/slasher horror flick that examines the shame and secrecy that accompanies bullying, Piggy is a very interesting film. Funny at times, while also being an occasionally gory portrait of a tormented and imperfect soul, it mostly works.

Mostly.

After her bullies steal her clothes while she’s swimming, forcing her into a humiliating walk home, Sara—tormented ceaselessly because of her weight—sees those same bullies being abducted by a hulking brute of a man, a man she had seen earlier at the pool, a man that the audience already knows has killed the life guard, and Sara says nothing. She lets the killer drive away with his prey, and later, when she is directly confronted by her parents, by her neighbors, and by the police, every time Sara has a chance to save her bullies, to turn on the killer stalking their town, she says nothing, she lies, again and again.

The killer is drawn to Sara as he moves through the small Spanish town like a prowling wolf, snatching victims seemingly at whim, always lurking, always near, watching her. Sara, trapped in an increasingly tangled web of lies as the town begins to panic, ends up in a strange dance with him. She is as drawn to him as he is drawn to her, as they cross paths again and again, both fascinated by the other, both perhaps even terrified of the power the other wields too.

Ultimately, the killer tries to pull Sara into the bloody horror of his world, and Sara, for all of her pain and loneliness and deliberate decisions, is left with a final choice...

Piggy has a lot of things going for it.

It looks great. It’s unexpected. It’s got humor and pathos in spades. And it does a great job of weaving the horror of the murders with the horrors of growing up as an outsider, which makes things like Sara’s attempt to sneak around the house, for all the familiar teenage reasons, all while avoiding her mom, as tense as her attempt to escape the killer’s bloody charnel house later in the film.

Laura Galvan, who plays Sara, is really impressive too. She carries the whole film. It’s all her. This had to be an incredibly difficult character to portray too, especially for a young actor, and she really throws her all into it. It’s a very impressive performance.

Overall, this is a good film. It’s an interesting film, and it’s also an occasionally difficult to watch film, although not for the reasons you might expect. I’d definitely recommend it, but it’s also not what I’d call a film with a broad general appeal, so be aware of that before you wade in.