A kind of maniac thriller that grew out of a popular short film. Probably somehow revealed the topic of bullying, but the problem is that the main character does not cause strong sympathy. Of course, she is sorry and you understand that the fault of the situation is the girl’s too tough mother, and the indifference of others, but something in her behavior prevents her from turning on empathy in full. It can be understood, but for some reason it does not work. At the same time, the game of the main character is quite good and interesting. But it looks too naturalistic. It was like we were told an episode from real life. Maybe it was intended. And the image of a maniac, somehow too romanticized. And this general strange atmosphere, which suddenly slides into an ordinary slasher, is confusing, but it cuts into memory. Something is not standard and it is good.
Plot. A girl who almost lives in a small town. She's taken care of by a tough mom and bullied by one-year-olds because she's fat. She's really fat. And when the bullying crosses the boundaries, suddenly she meets the same maniac and life changes. Which way is not clear after the final. And whether her life will get better or worse, we can only guess. It probably won't be the same. Maybe nothing will change.
Cinema can be liked by lovers of author’s films and horror films.
All right, guys. Again festival author's film, and again I got high with the thrash that I saw. It’s always fun to talk about these movies and talk about them with other people. All this Hollywood gum and postmodern steamed up.
Carlota Pereda is unknown to me as a director. After digging into her filmography, I saw that this picture is the second full meter. The case is done - the first one is postponed for review. As for Pig, this is an example of an excellent psychological thriller, which does not evaporate into arthouse kitsch, but is quite an audience film. Do not worry that you are loaded full while watching, as is often the case with representatives of Goya or Sundance.
I’ll start to praise this movie.
First of all, I liked the script. Cheerful, rhythmic, with a sense of suspense, in places in black comedy. A fascinating plot, which is interesting to follow all the "hour forty".
Second, it's a cool management idea. If this movie was shot in Hollywood, we would probably get another Girl Who Shows Hope, only with a try at body positivity. There's European cinema from and to. The meaning is the dualism of the victim of abuse and the contemplation of revenge and forgiveness. I like that the question of toxicity, bullying, “strong male shoulder” is raised, as well as the appearance of human morality.
Of the disadvantages, I can only highlight the form. To me, it was such a bad decision to make a film at 4:3, because there is no feeling of closeness and claustrophobic cinema does not cause. Want to show the completeness of the character in a square picture? They would have done "broad" and it would have been no worse. But the film sounds good and well voiced in post-production.
Acting jobs are good. Laura Galan's debut came out as a pancake, not a lump. The woman hapanula 'bronze bust' for her role, for which I congratulate her. Richard Holmes is a typical stalker maniacello. Handsome, in a word. The rest of the characters - insofar as.
"Pig" is a great author's film and a beautiful message from a woman to other women. The parable is that one should be able to forgive, even if the scum asks for forgiveness who are unworthy of it. Revenge is like them. So who's the bottom line for Pig? The protagonist who did not wish harm to anyone, or the antagonists, a bunch of "smearing" one harmless person? Rhetorical question.
General impression: Take the situation: there is a teenage girl Sarah. The girl is a little fat, she has no friends, and her forms are mocked by her classmates. Sarah helps her father, a butcher, and her hobby is swimming in the pool. One day, a girl was swimming like nothing had happened. But the angry classmates, seeing her body again, shouted: “Pig, mumps!” Crying, Sarah goes home in one swimsuit, but an interesting picture awaits her. She sees girls being kidnapped by a man. And here is the scale: show mercy or punish classmates, forgetting the situation like a terrible dream?
The theme of bullying in cinema is not new, and even more so if you remember worthy films, a magnificent example of bullying comes to mind - King's "Carrie". How do you remember the girl being abused, and what happened? Revenge accumulated in the heroine, and spilling it happened irreparable. “Pig” is certainly far from “Carrie”, and there is no mysticism here. Only scathing hamstrings from classmates and maniacs near the house.
Let's go back to our pig. Oddly enough, but such a favorite topic as bodypositive goes by the wayside. The picture is cruel, anger burns in it. And horror excels in dynamics, reflected in scenes with violence. The age limit is 18+! If you have a delicate mental organization, do not eat while watching.
Visually, the film is well placed in the flower, surprisingly, but with a small budget, even filters were not used. Although wait... The film that festival, in January was presented at the Sundance Film Festival Yes, it is an independent film, for the general public and not intended, but it has achieved success. There is enough room for blood, but, for example, Mesilovo does not reach Tarantinovsky.
The plot is trivial, and the twists are guessable in front. The tape will not present any unexpected turns, there are many stereotypes. However, the abundance of genres does not look like porridge-like thickets, on the contrary, the mixture is harmoniously placed on the film.
A thriller about teenage cruelty is accompanied by terrible events. And the drama of the offended person turns into horror. So what will our Sarah choose? Mercy or revenge?
Sarah was going to swim peacefully in the pool, but faced bullying local hooligans. They took her things, and went home in her underwear. Along the way, she encounters a maniac who keeps those girls locked up. Fortunately, Sarah returns unharmed. Passions heat up when there is a noise in the town because of the disappearance of girls.
Actors: Laura Galan plays in fact a 17-year-old girl with an ugly scar on her belly and looks very plump (I liked this in that teaser piece, but we will return to this) because of which she is subjected to increased humiliation, bullying. The actress is much older (now 37), but looks like a Spanish teenage girl. It was very believable. She managed to embody a man who cannot stand up for himself, even before the humiliation of his mother. But later, parents will be rewarded for everything. The story. I mean, it's really hard to see reality through the eyes of a teenager. I want to hide from everyone, find an outlet, find my meaning. The importance of living in this world. Therefore, the actress conveyed the emotions of her character and embodied what skinny makeup people will find difficult.
Poor looks small storyline of the son (Fernando Delgado-Hierroo) - assistant senior in rank (and part-time father), but I think it is insignificant minus. He (albeit a thin young man), but realizes how bad the heroine is. A guy with a good reputation, unlike a maniac. The maniac understands it too, but with a bad reputation. Among all people, it seems that the guy looks sober on his head and is not subject to these Spanish traditions and the culture of his people. In short, the modern boy is heading for private detectives, guessing from the first time what exactly Sarah saw. Therefore, the boy should wish, like Sarah: "Get away from his mother", and in his case, father. Funny how his name is exactly like his father. He is Juancarlitos and his father is Juan Carlos.
The maniac performed by Richard Holmes is a real object of former bullying, who could not cope with the management of anger and his desires broke out. Probably he also had parents, a family, he had dreams that collapsed because of the abuse of his excess weight. How much can a person benefit if they do not harm anyone? In the future, there will be fewer maniacs if you stop putting sticks in the wheels of normal or cornered people.
All the rest: The film is staged on the eponymous short film "Pig" 2018, and in the title role was also Laura Galan. On the one hand, I want to praise the author of the script and the director of an unusual social and dramatic horror. This story began as a novel by Stephen King (who has a lot of film adaptations), and ended not in revenge. This film is a reminder for former hooligans/ok who became victims. And for the victims themselves, knowing what kind of person you are and who you want to be right now? We've all been bullied, but we've only really opened up when we realize that school, our peers at school, our parents, are just temporary obstacles. It's a soap bubble. It'll burst, and your life will remain. What to do with it is up to you.
The heroine does not have a menstrual cycle, which marked her growing up and after which she acquires supernatural powers to punish the offenders in the final. No, there's no such thing! But there is a theme that will be relevant to this day: young people can grow up very innocent, but as always, everyone is bullied, rotten and humiliated. Not only from peers, but also from parents. Of course, my words will become an occasion or write for the mind of hooligans, but these hooligans have something to think about. No one can help them, except for a random victim of bullying (like Sarah). Maybe he can't help you. Why? Because you deserve what will happen to you. Unfortunately, that is the truth.
Take the image of a plump maniac. Laura’s heroine saw in him a man who, among all others, understands her. For whom she showed love and sympathy, because he is the future of her. So it happens in a circle, always screaming parents who do not care about their children, as long as they were born to check the box and help them with the housework (but this can be seen in the sequel Spike Lee \'X\' - Pearl\'). In the end, each of us dreams of the death of a relative who drives us mad. Deep down, everyone wants it, but they can’t, because you’re no better than a maniac who doesn’t think about the consequences. This maniac is a reflection of the past and the future, but what matters is who you want to be in the present tense. Eternal sacrifice, hiding in the shadow of people (a maniac in an abandoned warehouse or a person sitting at home within four walls and suffering humiliation from the people around you).
Maniacs emerge from our past and go in circles. They are like a time bomb, and others become a timer. You can't guess when you're going to piss a man off. Therefore, he never looked for problems, did not join gangs, did not poison anyone. I didn't have to. Just as you age, there comes a time when you have to say goodbye, goodbye, as Lev Leshchenko sings, pack up, and fly!
The storylines of the father (the prototype of modern heeled fathers), a kind of calf with a soft character, are truthfully shown. It is not that you can not move, he sees how hard his daughter is, and can not properly intercede for her. Even more strange is the fact that the family maintains a butcher shop, which does not bring them income. Well, dad could sell everything and gently give the money to his daughter when she could go hunting with him or be alone. I would say to myself, ‘Let your daughter go.’ This is your life now. You have to tolerate your mother. I hate her, too, but I have nowhere to go. And you can. But this is already to the script of Carlota Questions.
The work is commendable.
Artist Arancha Escerro qualitatively showed liters of blood flowing from the heresy vein, as well as a detailed study of costumes for heroes.
I didn’t watch the short film, but this year there was a piece that inspired me to watch it, even though I was looking for it for a long time. And getting up early in the morning, I decided to watch this movie from the bay. I think the maniac helped the girl with the fact that he gave a worn pink dress, although he did not take it to the city. I understand he was just carrying out revenge.
Impressions: A true film about who you want to be inside yourself? Driven by a victim or identity. Even more important is the ending, which clearly reflects the feelings of the victim. I felt that she was not aiming at the rope on which the offenders were hanging.
Making a good short film is an art. To expand it to a successful full meter is a task of even greater complexity. Especially in the genre of horror, where after the main screamer / monster / fint is often unclear what and how to say next.
The story in the short film 'Pig' (2018, also included in the full-length almanac 'Burned alive' 2021) is simple and powerful: a fat teenage girl who decided to swim in an abandoned pool is treated and humiliated by beautiful girls. Girls call her 'pig' almost drown, steal her things. There's a creepy guy hanging around. When a weeping girl runs home down a country road, she sees that her tormentors, all covered in blood, are locked in the van of a creepy man. The maniac does not threaten the girl, but returns her belongings. They wave at each other - two outcasts - and... the end!
Powerful, scary, finished. There is no question why the girl does not call the police, why the maniac did not kill her - everything is clear without words - in this fragile and creepy moment.
In a full meter, these shots are repeated one at a time, only the maniac is now more cute: as if from wet girl fantasies. And the story needs to go on. But where?
It seems that Carlota Pereda, who invented and directed both the original and this remake, has not decided what to do next. At this moment of tacit agreement between the characters there is no sexual tension - just a tacit agreement: ' You didn't see me, I didn't see you' But in the full version, the heroine is added sexual attraction (she masturbates to the dreams of this bearded man), the maniac for some reason continues to hang around, and the main emphasis of the story is on the relationship ' Pigs' and her tough mother is stereotypical through.
Sympathies for heroin crumble - one thing, when she ' closes her eyes' on kidnapping hot on the trail, and quite another, when around begin to find corpses, and ' Pig' dreams of strong hands maniac.
In the finale, the tone of the story changes dramatically from psychological drama to almost ' torture porn' in the spirit 'Hostel'. The motivations of the heroes are destroyed, and only blood remains in the frame. Still, some stories are better off staying short. . .
Spain is pleased with its film production, here and the Invisible Guest 2016, and the old Devil's Ridge 2001. Pig is not a twisted detective thriller, and he does not try to be a slasher.
I really liked how the simple truth was shown that family is the first root of a teenager's problems. The relationship with my classmates seemed exaggeratedly violent... but then I remembered my class and I believed. We have to remember that we have a small town here.
Well shown the worldview is not a pretty full girl with a pretty face (the very correct body positive in the opinion of men), but a real fat woman with complexes and what happens behind a closed door.
The ending was good.
“I wrote the Pig to confront my fears.” – Carlota Pereda
The Spanish thriller “Pig” (Cerdita or Piggy) directed by Carlota Pereda (Carlota Pereda), she also wrote the script, reminded me of the Finnish-Swedish thriller “Pahanhautoja”, which was released in the first half of 2022. Reminded by a substantive story about a specific problem, the way the author paints it, from the beginning to the consequences. The difference is that the Scandinavians turned out with the northern coldness, and the southern country feels a certain passion in the narrative. The result is one, this is a story about how a teenager grows rage / monster, and she / he needs a way out at some point.
Sarah leads a secluded lifestyle. Claudia's best friend has moved into another group of more popular girls and pretends they have nothing to do with Sarah. Sarah is mocked by all peers because of her fullness, they call her Pig, post humiliating posts on the social network so that everyone can see what kind of fat girl lives in their city.
The only entertainment that brings Sarah to people is the public pool. One day, the swim was unsuccessful - Claudia, Maka and Rossi's girlfriends stole her clothes, backpack and phone, which forced the girl to return home in a swimsuit. This incident was decisive to change the life of the town and the consciousness of Sarah herself.
Sarah often tries to stay away from people. Nothing she does is “right” in the eyes of her austere and endlessly angry mother. Sarah hides from the spotlight and her body strains when she's around the others, as if she's ready to take the verbal punches they can deliver. There is a scene where Sarah is by the pool, ready to jump into it because she is alone; she freezes when she sees a stranger, and immediately hides her body, slowly removing her hands when she realizes that he is not criticizing her or looking mockingly.
Sarah is very full, there is no hiding it. Her body is shown so that the viewer does not doubt why her peers are so cruel. But why parents are so cruel remains a mystery. It is as if the mother is not paying attention to the problem. In the case of the relationship between the mother and Sarah, just a mockery is reproduced, this is a farcical situation: the mother controls her daughter, makes sure that she always performs well tasks, helps around the house, does not waste time on nonsense.
At the same time, she knows about the conflict between Claudia and Sarah, is very negative towards Claudia’s mother. And even against this background, Sarah's mother perceives her daughter's fullness as something normal until the critical moment, and even after that, she manages to remain indifferent - then you will eat salad leaves. She simply voices: “You are fat, you need to lose weight, and the world is so full of evil.”
The father in this situation is also a caricature. A good-natured fat man, happy that his daughter helps him in his business. He takes care of his nerves, not entering into a conflict relationship with his wife, he almost like Sarah prefers to be, but not to highlight.
This thriller could have remained a regular, simple thriller with slasher elements in the finale had it not been for these decorative psychological details revealing the pain of a driven man. Sarah is trapped in a world of beautiful and free. They live quietly, swim in the pool, plan a vacation, they are socially adapted. Their photogenic appearance allows them to be bad people, and the author of the script made the image of the full Sarah intensely repulsive to show more clearly how something natural, like a failed metabolism, can become a problem for a person. After all, a fat person is not a threat in itself. The threat is the attitude towards him both in the family and outside it.
The completeness in this film is a collective image of some trait, because of which a person begins to be bullied. And inside the man, and in the particular case in Cerdita in Sarah, a monster grows. A sarcastic note, by the way, stretches all the way to the final. The very first frame is the head of an animal planted on a hook, and in the final scene on hooks in an abandoned factory hang yesterday’s beauties, disarmed by fear of kidnapping. This is how the unobtrusive parallel between beauty and ugliness is drawn, just as the construction of relations between people is fragile.
Since no one saw the man who abducted his girlfriends, no one pointed fingers at him and did not suspect him (because the boy Pedro was listed as the suspect, who spoke closely with the girls), but only Sarah saw this strange man. Between him and her even there was a contact – bodily, close, he emotionally addressed her by name.
I thought he was an imaginary protector, a product of Sarah's aggrieved ego. If you look at Sarah and her manic protector together, they look like a big belly, a face like a mask with frozen terror, an unkempt appearance. And he's the only one standing up for her. Sarah is both awe-inspired and fearful of a stranger throughout the film, but it was the mistreatment and verbal abuse that really affected her.
Again, the stranger can be mistaken for the product of her mind – yes, she is initially afraid of her warlike thoughts, but she likes them because she suddenly stands up for herself. And the final scene is about Sarah accepting herself.
Despite the poster, which seems to invite you to a bloody low-budget senseless and merciless thrash, the film came out surprisingly good, whiplashly and straightforwardly revealing the problem of bullying among young people.
'Pig ' Sarah differs in her appearance from others, falling out of the “generally accepted” 39; beauty standards are constantly mocked and bullied by peers, neighbors and even members of her family.
But life presents her with a moral dilemma - the opportunity to get even with wrongdoers with other hands - what will she do? Will he take revenge or turn the other cheek?
The choice is difficult also because the evil obvious to all - the maniac kidnapper, was the only one who showed sympathy for her and did not humiliate her dignity.
Not bad for a banal horror, is it? And all together - a well-written script, cheerful shootings, an excellent game of the main character, arid Spanish locations and an easy imitation of body-horrors from the 80s makes ' Pig' quite watchable and cute European cinema!
This film is a vivid example of what I personally associate with the so-called author's film. Extensive, pretentious, swinging to a certain depth, which in fact exists only in the inflamed imagination of the author. But the funny thing is that the whole film can be described in one word: hysteria. And it is hysteria that is the engine of all this, let me say, work.
A tantrum in the name of hysteria, twisted on the oblique skeleton of the alleged injustice of the world and the imperfections of human nature. And you know what – all this might even have worked at certain points, if not for one ' but'.
The film tells about the difficult fate of a simple Spanish woman, the weight of a centner with a gack and how this very characteristic prevents her from living. She's not doing well. Parents are bad, mother, and tyrant and dictator. The poor heroine is exposed to frank mockery from almost all those around, at least one, certainly. And yes, teenagers are cruel, it's silly to argue with that. And with oppression and sadistic mockery in this life period is faced by almost anyone who can not stand up for themselves.
Here is only one nuance that completely destroys this picture - there are no teenagers in the film as such: that the main character, that her antagonists do not pull on a stupid schoolboy, although they behave exactly like that schoolboy. And yes, I understand that even after school there may be some excesses of this puberty relationship... but not in this form, not in this volume. In the film, it all looks just far-fetched, like forty-year-old schoolchildren from typical American films of a certain period.
And you could close your eyes to this, somehow justify it for yourself, if the film offered at least something else.
But there is nothing else in it – only an endless reflection, manifested through the same endless hysteria. The surrounding world behaves absolutely inadequate and unreliable in relation to this very "pig" ' "pig" ' and "pig" ' "pig" '" fully reciprocates him, behaving as repulsively. And if she was 14-18 years old, I would still be able to understand such reactions with a stretch, but she is more, and much more.
However, the jester with him. 'Pig', this is a film that is very trying in drama, psychology, and then in the thriller. As I wrote above, the whole drama here is expressed in endless and hopeless reflection and hysteria. I cannot help but note that I have not come across a movie in a long time where there would be so many absolutely inappropriate and stupid screams, screams and lamentations. Here the Spaniards even managed to surpass our hysterics, although, it would seem, much more. I think it's understandable how stupid all this is, so we can safely erase the drama of psychology.
There is still a thriller component, and here’s what I will say about this: a thriller, this is a genre that simply has to constantly escalate the atmosphere and force the viewer to follow what is happening on the screen without stopping, ideally without even blinking. It's about a good thriller.
'Pig' it is a thriller that you just want to cut in half a word. I don't want to see him. Personally, I was completely uninterested in how it all ended. He's so sloppy. But I did check it out... To be honest, the denouement did not bring anything new to the impressions, only aggravated them. There was only one bright spot in it, when one single ("secondary") character showed at least a bit of adequacy. But she, too, was immediately swept away by the absolute irrelevance of the author of this film with a ridiculous moralistic attempt to speak out.
After viewing, there was just one question left - What did you want to say? To talk about inner demons? The cruelty of the world? The injustice of others? Retribution for your own sins? Forgiveness? About what?
After all, if all this is guessed somewhere behind the hopeless veil of author’s talentlessness, it is only indistinct phantom silhouettes, when you do not even know, you tried to portray all this yourself to come up with at least some excuse for what you saw, or you still tried to say something of this from the screen, but it turned out so indistinct, as if you talked with a tightly stuffed mouth?
Again, good auteur cinema forces you to think, reason, philosophize, discuss and try to get to the bottom of it. A good author’s film may well leave the viewer with a bunch of questions on his hands and an offer to answer them yourself. It is. That's just 'Pig' NOT a good author's movie. And personally, I stayed after watching only with an oppressive feeling of total stupidity and a bitter taste of the next hour and a half of my life spent in nowhere.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this product does gain some recognition and even compete for some regalia at the next film festival. Sundance is already lit up. After all, something relevant, so topical, directly revealing the vices of oppression on physiological grounds. You give body positivity to the masses and all that.
4 out of 10
Horror from Spain about the love of fat woman and maniac
Back in 2018, Spanish screenwriter and director Carlota Pereda shot her short film titled 'Pig '. The story of a girl suffering from obesity, who is bullied by popular girls, teenagers received many film awards and as a result, 4 years later appeared on the screens again as a feature film.
' Pig' 2022 is quite original and bold horror, although not without a huge number of shortcomings. Laura Galan - the performer of the leading role - not only has a few kilograms of excess weight, but has obvious obesity. Her face also does not meet the standards of beauty, and makeup artists in the film further emphasized her uglyness.
The director and screenwriter of the film Carlota Pereda presented this heroine to us in an extremely unsightly light. She doesn't evoke sympathy on the outside. But what she does and says also does not cause sympathy.
The heroine goes to the pool, there is subjected to humiliation and then forced to go home in one swimsuit, as her belongings were taken by hooligans. Unpleasant, of course, but what is the horror? And the horror unfolds along the way - the bullying in the pool was seen by a maniac killer. He followed the bullies and grabbed them. Well, the fat girl saw what was happening on the way, but did nothing, and when she returned home she continued to be silent. . .
The promising first part of the film, unfortunately, does not receive a decent development, leaving the potential of the original idea insufficiently disclosed. But ' Pig' surprises with a strange mixture of genres, non-trivial characters and their unexpected actions.
Despite the fact that 'Pig & #39; does not flirt with comedy, trying to remain a dramatic narrative, the tape leaves a rather funny impression. It’s like a horror version of the super popular romantic Spanish drama ' Three meters above the sky' about teenage love. Only instead of the beauty of the heroine here is a huge ridiculous girl, and instead of the beautiful rebel Mario Casas - a vile maniac. And they both have no idea what to do. . .
The rating of the film is fairly low - 6.3 points in IMDB. But if you’re into horror movies, don’t miss Pig & #39 – she’s trying to grope for something completely new in the genre, and she almost succeeds.