‘Piggy’ (2022)

‘Piggy’ is a thriller that follows Sara, a teen dealing with being bullied due to her weight. The group of girls who make fun of her soon go missing and it comes down to what Sara does next that will seal their fate.

‘Piggy’ depicts Sara as a quiet and shy girl, working with her family at their butcher shop. There she sees Maca, Claudia and Roci, her contemporaries who take a picture of her and post it on social media, making fun of her.

One morning swimming at the pool, Sara sees a strange man. Ignoring him she goes for a swim, but is soon accosted by the group of girls. They try to drown Sara with a pool skimmer and later run off with her clothes and towel, forcing her to walk home in her swimsuit. Being assaulted along the way, Sara turns down a dirt road on which she sees the strange man in his van. Out of the back window Sara sees Claudia who screams for help. Sara and the strange man share a moment, each realising Sara will not tell on him.

Back at home Sara and her mother have a candid exchange about her weight, with her mother resorting to blunt statements about her being called a pig. The following day, a body is found at the pool, with the police starting an investigation and the parents of the missing girls asking questions. Not revealing what she knows, Sara goes out looking for the phone she lost, in fear of it tying her to the girl’s disappearance. There she meets the murderer, with the two sharing a moment yet again.

After being called in for questioning by the police, Sara is berated by her mother, with the two being shocked to find the murderer as they return home. Having incapacitated her father and knocking down her mother, the murderer takes Sara with him to an abandoned meat packing plant where he’s stashed Maca, Roci and Claudia.

Whilst there, Sara realises she needs to help the girls escape. With the murderer finding Sara try to free the surviving two girls, a struggle ensues with Sara killing the man. With a loaded rifle at her disposal, Sara has the chance to take revenge on Claudia and Maca, but decides to set them free. The film closes on Sara wandering out to the main road, flagging down a scooter and returning to town.

‘Piggy’ is a feature length adaptation of Carlota Pereda’s original short ‘Cerdita’ (2018), expanding on the unconventional and well executed melding of horror and teen coming-of-age genres. The film blends Sara’s struggles as an overweight teen with the gruesome and brutal murders happening around her, building towards an almost insurmountable point of tension that is resolved only after Sara has the chance to unleash her pent up emotion towards the murderer.

Anchored by Laura Galán, portraying Sara, the film gives us an authentic depiction of a young girl coming of age. Her struggles with weigh and subsequent bullying make for a poignant viewing experience as Galán delivers on the harmful effects she must endure from her abusers and the suffocating atmosphere created by her mother. With relatable and heartbreaking moments of weakness and instances of violent outbursts, Galán’s Sara delivers an outstanding performance, going beyond what could have only been an intriguing premise.

The film further explores the detrimental effects Sara’s mother has on her. Portrayed by Carmen Machi, the mother is shown to berate her daughter when it comes to private conversations, tearing her down and not holing back in expressing her vexation towards Sara. Conversely, being very protective and wary of other’s opinions of Sara in public, Machi delivers a detestable character, evoking disillusionment and disappointment in the mother’s priorities being set at other people’s opinions.

‘Piggy’ delivers not only on the examination of a teenager’s struggles, but also manages to probe deeper into uncovering the lengths a person would go to for self-preservation. Quickly turning the tide, as Sara has the chance to take revenge on her bullies, Maca and Claudia plead for help, uncovering the duplicitous nature of their character, almost to the point of detestation for the girls.

Conversely, driven by the pleas as Sara turns and shoots, the viewer is lead to believe Sara has gone for retribution. As the girls are revealed to have been released by Sara, the movie provides a moment of reflection of Sara’s strength of character, with Galán walking away victorious knowing she did the right thing. With the big twist being that Sara did the right thing, ‘Piggy’ could be viewed as commenting on the warped sense of morality that exists if the fact that Sara sparing her abuser’s lives comes as a huge shock to the audience.

With a fine blend of drama, thriller and at times even comedy, ‘Piggy’ is a singular film that gives us a unique perspective on life from a young woman’s point of view. Delivering much more than a tired revenge thriller, ‘Piggy’ surprises the viewer with moments of deep introspection, shock derived from body horror and surprisingly hilarious moments of levity.

Score: 3/4