Pig Hunt

Suckered in by the Fright Fest presentation? ... Check.

Suckered in from the director of "Skinwalkers" and "Jason X"? ... Check.

Bored senseless throughout the entire movie? ... Check.

Right, well initially I had hope for something more than the less than mediocre drag that "Pig Hunt" turned out to be. Granted, the title of the movie wasn't much of a grand appeal, but still, from time to time the creature features can be enjoyable movies to watch.

"Pig Hunt" wasn't one such movie.

The storyline in "Pig Hunt" was just unfathomably boring and uneventful. And I am not kidding when I am saying that you might as well just skip the entire movie and just watch the last 10 minutes or so, because that is the only part where the movie actually had any worth. But even at that point, the movie had slipped so far out of director James Isaac's hands, and the writings of Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson had turned into the muck that the boar was dwelling in.

As for the acting in the movie, well let's just say that the performers were crippled by an inferior script and horrible characters. The entire movie was totally devoid of anything that even resembled character growth and development, and they could just as easily have been replaced by cardboard cutouts. But at least Tina Huang made the movie somewhat worthwhile to endure.

I was bored throughout the course of "Pig Hunt", yet I managed to stick around to the end, in sheer defiance that a movie could really be so bad when it definitely had so much potential. But now that I've seen "Pig Hunt", I am never returning to it again. I suffered through this ordeal of a movie so you don't have to. Stay well clear of this 2008 creature feature, because there are far, far better movies in the creature feature genre.

is this a horror and does it contain pig hunting. That was what I thought when this flick was finished. I agree, it do contains well executed gory effects but there's more going on than only a pig. In fact it reminded me more to old exploitation flicks added with some horror. There's some resemblance to Deliverance (1972) because it's more how to survive red necks going wild then how to hunt the boar.

The return to exploitation lays in the fact how the red necks move through the woods. It's a kind of mad max style. Suddenly one of the friends come across a lake full of naked women. That's being exploited with the song 'It's A Man's World". It's only towards the end that we see some kind of cult adoring the big boar called The Ripper.

I think a lot of viewers will be disappointed about the fact that it's more about being hunted down by the rednecks then go hunting pigs. On the other hand it do has some nasty scene's with even intestines being ripped out by the boar. But still I would rather call it a thriller with gory shots then a horror.

For the fans of the band Primus, Les Claypool made some tracks for this flick and is seen as the priest here in Pig Hunt.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

There aren't a whole lot of horror movies out there involving pigs. Or maybe there are, but not as many as there should be. Most of the time pigs in popular culture are cute, funny, a term of insult, to a majority the word pig brings up a dirty, snuffling and shuffling pack of beasts in a farmers yard, waiting to get turned into delicious food. So to use pigs as a force for horror, to have them preying on humans, it's a good role reversal. Plus, the basic form of a pig doesn't take too much distortion and increase in size to become a pretty menacing looking customer. It was with these thought in mind that I sat down to Pig Hunt, unknowing that the pig action is actually just one aspect of the film, it being more of a backwoods genre mash up. The film sets about its build up during the course of a hunt, friends out for macho bonding in the forest (though one girlfriend tags along), a soaking, chilly trek with a few hints and rumours to stir a sense of mystery. Monster pig action is conspicuously absent for quite some time as the film combusts somewhere around the halfway mark, blazes through exciting hick-sploit action and some more unexpected craziness before we finally get into monstrous territory. Fortunately, the beast is mighty impressive, no CGI in sight, a tightly shot ferocious tusked beast rather worth the wait. A downside of all of this is that such a set up somewhat requires decent, memorable or likable characters and performances and Pig Hunt is pretty meh on the characterisation and acting fronts. No one is especially bad, but equally I never felt much for anyone. Travis Aaron Wade is a competent enough hero figure, Tina Huang does a fair tough gal schtick as his girlfriend, Howard Johnson Jr. makes for a decent a-hole, slightly more of a punch is provided by Jason Foster and Nick Tagas as wild natured but initially friendly hicks, while most notable is Les Claypool as a bulky, mystical figure who becomes important later on in the game. Though generally competent, the film suffers from a drawn out first half in which presumably we are supposed to get to know the characters so we can suffer and thrill along with them, but as mentioned they just aren't especially interesting. Slick, wet and vivid cinematography from Adam Kane makes for a suitably arduous atmosphere and when things do get exciting director James Isaac keeps tight, stylish hold on things, making for one or two impressive, thrilling moments. There's more nudity than might be expected, which is rather pleasing to behold, and a few good grisly scenes, the film isn't too concerned with gore but uses it for some nifty jolts. Interestingly, the goriest scene involves a pig rather than a human. Comment on the savagery of man? I could have done with more general gore, a shorter first half and longer final block (the film needs more pig!) but generally I was pretty pleased by this one. No classic, but certainly a worthy modern day B picture.

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 ...