Tony Swansey’s directorial debut scores with an ominous looking cover art which harkens back early 80s, but sadly it’ll never graduate into a lasting mark in the landscape of THE low-budget horror genre. I recall seeing this film a long time ago, actually when it debuted on the fest circuit at the Terror Film Festival in Philadelphia, PA, but even now seeing once again the attempts to lay new groundwork in the hogspolitation subgenre fail great, and in this review it presents why that didn’t happen. Though it should be noted for the curious that this film does find itself alone in this subgenre, far from it the ‘pig people or hog human monsters’ first remove three films from the list for improper identify traits, Carrie [1976] merely pig’s blood, then Motel Hell [1980] and Saw IV [2007] both for hog masks. Therefore the remaining list consists in summarization as Dr. Moreau’s House of Pain [2004], The Butcher [2007], The Pig Witch: Redemption [2009], Porkchop [2010], Porkchop II: Rise of the Rind 2011, HogMaul: The Legend of Abrams County [2013], Pig Girl [2014], Tormented [2014], The Pigman Murders [2015], Barney Burman’s Wild Boar [2019], and The Pig People [2021]. The popularity of these exploits has bred well and raised or even fostered some mild interest in it.
We learn that the hog people, we witness mostly two more may exist but not shown; a full-grown man-hog and smaller person seem to be all that was left at a rundown farm, and what remains from a bizarre cross-bred scientific experiment, it’s never explained why this was done, it often felt not knowing is scarier and while that is often correct the ‘unknown’ nefarious reasons provide more frights, sometimes a little backstory is needed, none of it is shown. No experiments, voiceovers, images of it occurring; all of it just leaves the audience starving for information. Therefore, the story merely jumps into the beginning with one highly angered man being annoyed about breaking down in the middle of nowhere and horrendous cell reception in 2008 before snatched through the driver’s side window of a vehicle that stops for him. Um okay… no blood the driver of the pickup simply drives off. Then a hard cut to an independent band, featuring Mark (Kevin Oestenstad), Travis (Stephen Davis), and Tom (Joe Burke (Dementia [2015])) heading out for some gigs, join them are two of Travis’ groupie Cindy and Mindy and the band manager Valerie (Allison Batty), though it doesn’t take long until they get lost, too. They stop on their travels for both gas and directions from some locals, Hank and Danny and a trip to the customary hideous restroom as it be cleaner to use an alley. Shortly afterwards in the same general area where the first guy went missing they had a drug infused crash. Let’s just jump ahead, because with 25 minutes spent on the introductions to the cast and how some are very annoying, any viewer has their scorecard ready of who needs to die first. Hence, the band is caught, abused, with one member having their lips sewn shut with guitar string and another has a weapon used to kill one, though I think Jason did a better performance in Friday the 13th, Part VIII, Jason takes Manhattan [1989]. Of course as expected there’s sexualize moments include simulated rape, hinting in cross breeding, followed with plenty of screaming, pig grunting and thoroughly terrorizing the captors, but feels as if just going through the motions.
Any originality in the film is lost quickly due to the fact the audience doesn’t have reason for why this is happening, a glimpse could’ve gone a long way, even some well-placed scientist bodies, other mutations lingering around the farm, but nothing exists, just these pig-creatures, which aren’t that scary looking roaming about and killing. They wear overalls (far too clean, proper, no tears, mud, or blood) and what appears as masks, the special effects makeup greatly lacks when showing the monsters. There’s a suggestion for meat containing genetics and hormones, and hints to vegan but its pitters out, never fully developed, which could have been interesting. There’s quite a bit of crying and screaming, and the adds to other sounds which affect the audio pitch, you’ll have fun playing with the volume button. The gore and killing is often not shown briefly so watch carefully for it, overall, the film’s screenwriting sours greatly with the dialog, not compelling for many of the scenes.
I really held high hope for the movie, trying to recall if it lived up to my thoughts of long ago, sally it just doesn’t, while attempting for capture of a desolate landscape, the coldness barren land the horrors hidden in those abandon farms, just falls a tad to flat, lack the ability to convey a more meaningful intrigue horror tale. I feel has a very loose storyline, too many plot holes, and lacking character depth, especially lacks the ability to answer the basic question why the pig-creatures existence. Thankfully no CGI was used, I believe this is mainly due to lack of budget and while we do have some blood spillage and some gore it’s still not enough to really send home to the gorehounds the movie just has plenty of faults including wobbly cinematography, remember an angle shot needs to serve purpose. The only plus for some viewers is to play the infamous scorecard game, guess who lives and dies.
TAGLINE: (There are no taglines for the film.)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1288399/
IMDb Rating: 3.6/10
Baron’s Rating: 3.5/10