Pig Hunt

Horror conventions like Frightfest are an ideal home for z- grade movies, because they will be lucky to find distribution anywhere else. At first glance, Pig Hunt may seem like one such movie, but once you see it you realize that labelling it as Z-grade may a tad degrading. Sure it's low budget, but the premise is something more legitimate than the kind of rip off of a rip off of a rip off that one might be anticipating. Indeed Pig Hunt's problem is not a lack of material. On the contrary, it has too much. The film is overambitious and uncertain of what it wants to be. It delivers a scenario where hunters go after pigs, pigs go after hunters, hillbillies go after hunters, and Eurasian brothel girls are after anyone.

Pig Hunt is arguably enjoyable in that it doesn't feel predictable or familiar. It has a fun disgusting sense of humour, which is sustained for all most the entire running length, but is still not enough to keep the viewer blind to the movie's error. After a while, Pig Hunt starts to feel bloated and overlong. When it's all said and done, Pig Hunt could be called an amusing mess. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, I guess it's all a matter of how you approach it.

This movie certainly wasn't anything like I expected, yet I'm not quite sure whether that's a good thing or not. Based on the title and particularly the enticing DVD-cover, I was anticipating (or hoping…) to see a good old-fashioned creature feature and perhaps even a homage to that nostalgic childhood favorite of mine; "Razorback". Instead, "Pig Hunt" is a lot more ambitious than that (perhaps even too ambitious for its own good) and presents a miscellany of creature feature, hillbilly backwoods horror, slasher and even satanic cult horror. Oh, and there are naked lesbians! The film starts traditionally enough, with a bunch of enthusiast friends (read = stereotypical twenty-something idiots that certainly don't belong in the woods) heading out to the Californian wilderness to go a-hunting for wild hogs. They quickly get stuck with two obtrusive marijuana-addicted and aggressive local yokels, who tell them about the most notorious inhabitant of the woods: a humongous and ferocious 3.000lbs hog nicknamed "The Ripper". The group runs into conflict with a sect that worships the giant hog as some sort of deity, but their main issue lies with the hillbillies. Pretty soon, the teens find themselves pursued by bloodthirsty hicks and only then The Ripper. The variety of sub plots made it very difficult for me personally to like "Pig Hunt", but I acknowledge that James Isaac (director of "Jason X" and late 80's guilty pleasure "House III") wanted to try something innovative and daredevil. The film all too often feels overly hectic and incoherent, which is a shame because Isaac does create a decent macabre atmosphere and swears by traditional non-computer engineered special effects. There's also a lot of gore and shocking imagery, including a detailed pig-gutting process, so better make sure there aren't any kids around then. Overall, this is an admirable attempt at hardcore horror but nevertheless ends up in the dreaded category of mediocrity because it's too random and all over the place. I like foaming hillbillies and naked lesbian hog-worshipers as much as the next guy, but here I wanted to see a big fat monster eating idiots from the city. Call me naive, but I think a movie entitled "Pig Hunt" should largely stick to humans hunting pigs and vice versa.

When it comes down to it, I don't hate many movies. I watch all types of garbage. From German gore flicks to no-budget sci-fi, and everything in between. All I really look for is one saving grace in a movie. One thing that makes me smile. And this movie had two saving graces actually. Well, for me anyways. But the question is, why do I still hate it? I'll attempt it with an high school analogy. Remember in high school the kid who tried to be real cool? The person that would try to talk the talk and walk the walk? The person that just tried to do and say all the 'right' things? The kid who's just a flat-out unoriginal robot-tag-along-Indian, but desperately tried to make himself seem hip and cool? Remember that kid? Pig Hunt is that kid. What a loser.

Just like that stupid kid in high school who had nothing to talk about besides 'cool' things, Pig Hunt is the same way. The thing with that loser from high school, he (or she) may have been in an accelerated class. He may have even taken A.P. Physics. But I can assure you Pig Hunt is no way near any accelerated learning classes. Pig Hunt's in the school basement with all the other people with learning disabilities. Acting overall was amateur at best. Writing was even worse. But more than anything was just it's overall feeling of trying too hard to be a hip movie. Honestly, that scene at the hippie commune....what the f@ck?

More than anything with Pig Hunt is it's horrendous characters. First and foremost, the 'hero'. What a pathetic badass he was. Phewy! He played the serious, I talk stern, nothing to smile about role in one of the most basic ways you can imagine. I don't blame the actor entirely, as the writing for his character was abysmal. Honestly how difficult is it to write a character that you care for? There isn't one person in this film that you wanted to live. If that was the film-makers goal, then great f@ckin job! But it wasn't, as there were survivors. Sure they had that cliché weakling character that you're supposed to care for, but he sucked, flat out. I'll be nice for a second and play fair. I wanted to Les Claypool's character to live longer. One second it seemed he was gonna play a bigger role as the movie began to climax, then poof, he's outta the picture. Thanks fer nuthin! Back to that 'hero' dude. There's a scene where they come upon a whole field of marijuana. And what does our Mr. Cool Hero guy do? He complains about it being illegal and not wanting it on his dead Uncle's property. And then he goes on and calls the weed, 'dope'. I don't know about you, but this movie, with all it's failed attempts at being hip, you'd think it'd be about glorifying weed. Instead it's in this weird buffer zone, as there's loads marijuana in the flick, but it's all related to bad things. But again, back to the Captain Kewl. What kind of hero, in a action/horror flick about a monster pig, looks down on weed? What's the reason to root for this guy?? Why is he the hero? Because he uses a f@ckin' crossbow!?

The two saving graces before I forget. I don't recall any CGI. And the character played by Jason Foster. He was the only consistently well-acted character in the movie. I also thought his transition from questionable-villain to evil villain was well done.

I can go on and on about why this movie failed and sucked, but I won't because I gotta take a dump. Bottom line is I didn't like this movie. With it's opening credits in animated fashion, I was impressed. It put in me that it might be something original. But that just isn't the case. Now that I think of it, it's almost kinda trendy nowadays to have your opening credits in comic book style pictures. The more and more I think about Pig Hunt, the more I just feel bad for it. Just like that kid in high school. You didn't hate him. You just felt bad for him. He was pathetic.

Yeah...so Pig Hunt. I'm pretty sure I've seen lots of movies like it, but at the same time, I've never seen anything like it. We've got city boys going to the woods for a guys weekend of hunting, we've got the "unexpected" girlfriend tagging along, we've got an (apparently) inbred family of rednecks, we've got family drama, we've got a killer giant boar on the loose, and a Les Claypool cameo AND soundtrack. I didn't even get to the cult of emu-raising, pig-worshiping, pot-growing lesbians and the Baron Samedi-esque man who lives with them. Pig Hunt isn't a good movie, and it's not even particularly entertaining, but it's so wildly random that I probably wouldn't discourage anyone from watching it.

ff

I will start with the one really good thing about the movie! It's the sound(track). I really loved it. It's a bit country mixed with other influences and it really worked for me. Not everyone at the Festvial I watched this at, was as hyped about it as me though, but that's how everyone receives certain things.

Now onto the problems: There is not much happening in the movie. And while the direction it takes (concentrating on the characters) is not really a bad one, it doesn't have either the script/dialog nor the actors to carry something like that. Still a few (too little) action set pieces and some fine moments plus the music prevent this movie from falling completely down ...