PopHorror Let's Get Scared
To be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for PIGGY. I figured it would be another film about an overweight woman who is dehumanized goes on a killing spree, but it was far more than that. PIGGY was directed/written by Carlota Pereda and stars Laura Galán, Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi, Irene Ferreiro, Camille Aguilar, Claudia Salas, and Pilar Castro.
Official Synopsis for PIGGY
With the summer sun beating down on her rural Spanish town, Sara hides away in her parent’s butcher shop. A teenager whose excess weight makes her the target of incessant bullying, she flees a clique of capricious girls who torment her at the town pool, only to stumble upon them being brutally kidnapped by a stranger, who drives off with them in his van. When the police begin asking questions, Sara keeps quiet. Intrigued by the stranger — an interest that’s mutual — she’s torn between revealing the truth and protecting the man who saved her.
As someone who has struggled with weight my entire life, PIGGY was all too relatable for me. Fortunately for me, I’ve never experienced anything close to what poor Sara goes through during this entire film but I know many others have. It’s unbearable and dehumanizing and the worse part it’s not just from outsiders, it’s from her family as well. I can’t imagine how isolating that would be. This film is raging with fatphobia but more so an inside look of what bullying can do to someone.
Sara is played by the incredibly talented Laura Galán. She stole the show with her emotionally powerful performance that will make you want to curl up in a ball and cry. Yet somehow through all the bullying, misery, loneliness she still finds strength to be a decent human being. Let’s just say, if I were in her shoes, I don’t think I could have made some of the choices she does nor would I have survived half of what she goes through. I also love the unique, awkward, and dare I say sweet connection she has with the stranger. Psycho? Definitely. Hero? Also definitely. It’s sad to think that a complete stranger is the only person in her life who has ever shown her kindness.
PIGGY is a brutal film with loads of violence and blood, but that’s not the gut-wrenching kind. It’s the psychological fuckery that this film puts you through that is maddening and that’s because it’s not fake. It’s real and so many people take their lives because of acts like this. It’s not so much the physical abuse, but the mental abuse that impacts the viewer, making it hard not to put yourself in Sara’s shoes.
Overall, PIGGY is hands down one of the best films I’ve seen this year as well as one of the most unique revenge stories I’ve ever watched. It’s heartbreaking, humiliating, and undeniably brutal but a must-watch. It is now available in select theaters and VOD from Magnet Releasing.
