Piggy – Is It Bad or Lost In Translation? [REVIEW]

I am no stranger to foreign horror films. I definitely have my favorites, and there’s a reason American Filmmakers rip a lot of them off. However, when it comes to the Spanish Horror/Thriller film Piggy by writer/director Carlota Pereda I left the theater bewildered. Did I really not enjoy this film, or were some things just lost in translation?

PIGGY

Piggy was originally a short that has been padded into a 90 min film. The film is about a girl named Sarah. Sara is an overweight teenage girl who is tortured by her peers through name-calling, physical abuse, social abuse, and more. However, after a horrific encounter with her bullies at the pool, she witnesses a stranger kidnap the group of girls in the back of his truck. So now Sarah faces a moral dilemma – help the police or let them rot.

Laura Galán (who reprises her role in the short film) stars as Sara. Piggy also features Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi, Claudia Salas, Irene Ferreiro, Camille Aguilar, and Pilar Castro. Everyone does a lovely job in their roles. I appreciate the female director’s touch on Sara’s body never being overly shot in another form of bullying. Instead, Pereda is tasteful and an artist when choosing how to tell Sara’s story.

As someone who was relentlessly bullied in her youth, I felt the script does a great job of not sugarcoating what it is like. Sara’s tormentors are ruthless, not just with their words, but also in their actions. Their bully goes beyond calling her fat, they even cause her physical harm.

WHERE THE FILM LOSES ME

After watching the trailer I went into the film expecting one thing and that’s not what they give you. This tactic can sometimes work in their favor – a la Barbarian – but the actual story has to be better than the initial promise. For me, I found the film to meander through the story, the tone constantly shifts, and I found the conclusion to be frustrating and not satisfying.

While I can also appreciate a good metaphor in my horror films, I thought this one was unnecessary and felt like padding trying to hit a longer runtime. The metaphor of the film comes in the form of a bull. During the hunt for the missing girls, there is also a bull on the loose from a Fiesta. This parallel’s the idea that there is also a murderer on the loose, as well as we aren’t always inherently violent, but circumstances can change that. When chatting with the director after the film she confirmed this. So, it’s not just me making it up.

Overall, I found Piggy to be underwhelming and less impactful than I think it is hoping to be. I also don’t believe it’s a horror film in the slightest. Dramatic Thriller, absolutely.

Piggy will be playing exclusively at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on October 7th, 2022, and in additional theaters and VOD starting October 14th, 2022.

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