Pig (2010)

What should I say about Pig? It was an interesting movie, to say the least.  It's obvious that Adam Mason was trying to make an impression, and at that, he succeeded.

I was really bummed when I missed the online showing of this movie last year.  I was in the midst of grad school and was a little behind on my horror news, and the premiere flew right by me.  My attempts to find a copy were unfounded and after a while, I gave up.  Excited about my new banner (thanks, Scream King!) I went scrolling through some old banners and was reminded of Pig.  I started my search anew, and although I'm not going to say how I procured Pig, I will just say that I found it...somewhere on the internet.

The technical achievement of this movie is that it was filmed in a single shot with no cuts or scene changes.  Obviously this is quite the accomplishment, even though it makes you incredibly dizzy at some points.  There's very little dialogue in this movie, and much of it can be quite repetitive, or the nonstop rambling of a mentally challenged young pregnant woman.

Basically, Pig centers around a man living in a dilapidated trailer, torturing various people while alternately drinking wine and making somewhat sophisticated sauces.  He urinates on his captives, professes his love for his "retard" (his words, not mine), and generally seems to take a lot of showers for someone who remains so dirty throughout the film.  This movie really was an exercise in endurance in some ways.  You sort of want to shut it off because there's no storyline, but you're also interested to see what's going to happen next, if anything.  Like how far is Mr. Mason going to take this?!

I've seen this described as a bit Rob Zombie-ish and I could get on board with that.  It's got the same trailer trash backwoods psycho vibe of House of 1000 Corpses, but without the inherent charm of the Firefly family.  This man acts extremely erratically, and tortures, kills, and humiliates for no apparent reason whatsoever.  At first, you may think him to be mentally challenged as well, but sticking through this to the end will change that notion.  As for the ending, I found it to be brilliant.  Such a quick and effective twist, and if Adam Mason wanted to make some sort of Pig series, I supposed he opened up that can of worms.

I can't say overall how I feel about this movie, except that it had the effect intended.  I thought about Pig often over the course of the day and I imagine it won't leave my mind anytime soon.  It's an experience rather than a movie, and one of those things that kind of have to be seen to be believed.