Les monstres sanglants

Ladies and Gentlemen, the hall of 70's exploitation obscurity proudly presents "Pigs", a movie made by, made for and – of course – largely revolving on … Pigs! Just in case you're looking for a totally incompetent yet strangely fascinating and one of a kind drive in class-sick, I warmly recommend this movie which Marc Lawrence (supportive cast member of such acclaimed classics as "Key Largo" and "The Asphalt Jungle") wrote, produced, starred in and directed entirely by himself! "Pigs", which is a much easier and equally appropriate title to use instead of the official "Daddy's Deadly Darling", blends two main story lines that are typical 70's exploitation guff (meaning: absurd and utterly tasteless), yet the wholesome feels refreshing and unique. The opening sequences introduce Lynn Webster. She's a beautiful and impressively voluptuous young girl who has just slain her father because he couldn't keep his hands to himself and a certain other body part inside his pants. One minor problem, however, Lynn refuses to accept her daddy is dead and she even escapes from the asylum to search for him. Why she desperately wants to be reunited with the guy who physically abused her is just one of the many weird kinks in the plot that remains unexplained and neglected. I guess it's because she's mentally unstable and those people tend to desire weird things. Anyway, she arrives at a remote countryside diner where funny farmer Zambrini employs her as a waitress. Zambrini has a couple of issues of his own, though. To a corpse he stole from the local morgue he explains how his pigs accidentally developed a taste for human blood. It started when they devoured a drunkard who fell asleep in their barnyard, but now they exclusively crave human flesh. The rest of the film is pure but amusing nonsense, with Lynn gradually losing whatever's left of her sanity and Zambrini desperately collecting corpses to keep his porkers satisfied. Jesse Vint stars as the handsome Sheriff investigating the odd events at Zambrini's farm and, like any other male character, he falls for Lynn's gorgeous rack. "Pigs" guarantees 80 minutes of uncompromising and demented 'Rednecksploitation' fun! Naturally it's a horrible film, complete with amateurish acting performances and dialogs that appear to have been written by the pigs, but trained admirers of cinematic 70's smut won't be able to resist it. The camera-work looks hideous, Marc Lawrence clearly never heard of editing and the make-up effects wouldn't even scare a child. "Pigs" also features a misfit but incredibly catchy theme song called "Somebody's Waiting For You" (misfit songs were almost obligatory in 70's drive-in classics) and the endlessly repeated "La la lalalla la la" tunes. Marc Lawrence donated the role of Lynn to his real-life daughter Toni, presumably to launch her career. It must have been awkward, for the both of them, to shoot all the sequences where she wears a revealing and too tight nightgown. Do I sense incestuous undertones? Sure, why not … Everything goes in the wondrously twisted world of 70's exploitation, right?

Lynn has a problem. Her father abused her, raped her, and beat her. Lynn killed her father, was put in an asylum, and still believes her father to be alive. Lynn escapes from asylum and heads on the highway to get away. Thus is the first five minutes or so of Daddy's Deadly Darling(Pigs was the title of video I saw). Then comes on one of the best and most ridiculous songs for a horror movie I've seen in a long time, "Somebody's waiting for you." I have to admit it is a pretty catchy tune. The tune plays while Lynn drives away from her troubles till she comes to a small cafe in the middle of nowhere that has a position for employment open. She secures her job here as a waitress and soon creates a bond with the cafe owner. His name is Zambrini and he has a bunch of human flesh-eating hogs in the back. Well, the story really gets bizarre here when we see Zambrini feed a freshly dug corpse to his livestock. Lynn too seems to not haven gotten over her killing ways completely and the two work together going hog wild over their work. This film is actually pretty good. I mean it is not a a good movie, but it is a whole lot better than I expected and I think will exceed many of your expectations. Marc Lawrence wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this film. His daughter Toni plays Lynn. Lawrence is able to create a very eerie feel to the film despite the total lack of logic that exists in the script. Some of the scenes are dream-like and Lynn's nightmare scene is very powerful. Lawrence also does a fine job acting in his professional low-key style. His daughter isn't too bad either and let's just say she sure knows how to fill out a nightgown. The deaths are not particularly plentiful or gruesome. The rest of the acting is adequate with a couple of old ladies doing very well as neighbors complaining about the pigs next door. Watch out for video misrepresentation: one of the older women's names is Katherine Ross(she starred in one movie...this one!) but is given top billing on many videos to try and make you think this is the other Katherine Ross(The Graduate and The Legacy). All in all a better than expected cinematic experience.

Pigs (1972)

*** (out of 4)

Lynn Hart (Toni Lawrence) gets a new job working for the rather strange Zambrini (Marc Lawrence) and before long she's luring men to their deaths and feeding them to the employer's pigs. Pretty soon Sheriff Cole (Jesse Vint) begins to think that there's something in Lynn's past that might have a connection to the current events.

I had never heard of this film until Vinegar Syndrome released it to Blu-ray so that tells you how obscure this film was at one point. It was released under various titles including DADDY'S DEADLY DARLING and THE 13TH PIG, which is the title available on the print I watched. I'm giving this film three stars simply because it's really unlike any other movie out there and not only does it have an interesting and at times deranged atmosphere but it also deserves some credit for coming before so many other popular horror movies set in rural towns.

I guess if I had to compare this to a more popular movie then I'd say THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. Both films take place in small locations and both films have a rather warped atmosphere that make them so memorable. I really liked the look and feel that director Marc Lawrence brought to the picture and I thought he perfectly captured that small town mood where everyone knows one another and everyone talks about one another. The two older ladies who are always suspecting something. The town Romeo who tries to sexually assault Lynn.

The film really doesn't contain any graphic gore or violence but it still has some unsettling images that once again should have us giving credit to the director. I thought his daughter, Toni, in the lead was also extremely good and believable in the part. I also liked the performance from Lawrence as the crazed diner owner. Father and daughter certainly did a nice job here and the end result is a pretty entertaining slice of 70's horror.

This movie is often marketed under the title "Pigs!", but that's actually pretty misleading. Granted, there are in fact some pigs involved in this project, but if you want to see crazed hogs rampaging and eating people and whatnot, look somewhere else. I have no idea where, but definitely somewhere else. Instead, this movie focuses on a strangely attractive young woman who seduces men and then kills them. And then she feeds the victims to a bunch of local pigs, mainly to justify the alternative title. It's a pretty thin plot, but the surprisingly decent acting and the sheer brutality of it all manage to keep the show on the road. Also comes with a really weird lullaby soundtrack that's difficult to get out of your head.

A doolally feature so disjointed that it makes you feel like you've been drinking Everclear all night, PIGS is one of the more underrecognized films in the 70s horror canon. An attractive girl fresh from the funny farm-(she killed her Father for you-know-what)-takes a waiting job in a Mayberry-hick diner operated by an old wacko who keeps a pen of flesh-hungry swine(a perfect disposal for those dead bodies that keep turning up).

Enjoyable soup-kitchen quickie with a groovy bubblegum pop intro, PIGS is plenteous with off-base appeal, and is a moderately more proficient contribution than the standard hireling-level picture of its day.

5.5/10