Pig Hunt

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.

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.

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.

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.

Honestly, I think this movie deserves a good solid 5. In a world where AMAZING movies rank between 8-10, this one falls into this area. So compared to amazing..this movie is...well it's not bad. It's kinda good even. Here's my reasons why.

This movie comes off as very original. I can honestly say I had no clue what was going on, and I couldn't guess what was going to happen next.

This is not a "horror" film. To be honest I'm not sure what genre this movie falls into. I suppose it falls a bit into the same category as movies like "The Cabin" or "Shrooms". It has horror elements to it. It has suspense. It has gore. It has at times cheesy dialog. It also has the typical badass hot chick that tend to show up in these types of movies.

The plot is as follows. A group of friends, some of which have served in the forces, and one of said friends girlfriends go on a hunting trip at one of their deceased uncles cabins. They are there to hunt wild bore. In the local area there are "clans" of hills people, who hunt and for the most part live off the land. Normally you'd think they would be the main antagonist from the get go, but you'd be wrong. They actually help the "friends" on their hunting trip.

While hunting, they run into many obstacles, including pot fields, crazy hippys, and insane hill people out for murder.

Overall this was a fun watch. The acting is pretty bad sometimes, some of the plot points aren't points at all, some characters make horrible decisions, and some things are left completely unresolved. Also there's some weird person just staring at you in the end. I still have no idea what that was about.

In the end I'd say give it a watch. It's a fun and crazy film. Don't expect too much and you'll enjoy it.