In Piggy, body shaming and a slasher add up to a horror film with a twist

The poster for Piggy, with a blood-soaked girl standing in what looks like a defiant pose, strongly implies a particular sort of story that the movie itself doesn’t exactly offer. As one might reasonably assume, the girl in question is given the insulting nickname of the title and bullied. As one might not, this isn’t about her taking violent revenge upon her tormentors. Writer-director Carlota Pereda, in her solo feature debut that expands her previous short, adds a major swerve that takes things in a different direction from the usual underdog vengeance tale. Not that the opening pig head on a butcher hook is entirely misdirection, mind.

Sara (Laura Galán), who has the misfortune of also being the neighborhood pork butcher’s daughter, suffers exactly the sort of treatment expected from cruel teens, and then some. It’s bad enough that her best friend Claudia (Irene Ferreiro) turns on her in order to be popular with the pretty mean girls, but participation in a prank that nearly drowns Sara is especially atrocious. Sara’s not the only one to think so, either—a mysterious stranger (Richard Holmes), who looks like a missing Skarsgard brother with a powerlifter’s physique and perpetually open sleeveless shirt, also finds the harassment repellent. But unlike the relatively passive Sara, he takes action immediately.

It pretty quickly turns out that he’s a serial killer, drawn to the vain and shallow as victims, but now apparently drawn to Sara in an awkwardly romantic way on top of that. Seeing him haul away her tormentors in a van, she’s torn. What has she to gain by telling a truth that might only undercut the pain she feels her enemies brought on themselves? There’s pressure on her to offer any possible insights once the girls are declared missing, but also internal pressure not to—the killer’s still out there, and his attention is flattering. He’s a good-looking guy, after all. Can the two of them actually be together while offing their Spanish town’s worst people? Think Heathers if Martha Dumptruck were the protagonist and love interest instead of Veronica.

Abusive types are often drawn to women who present themselves as vulnerable victims, which is probably why the stranger has eyes for Sara. But what if his motives are actually purer? He’s less actively abusive to her than her supposed friends, and vulnerable women often seek power in finding assertive men. But like the narrative lure of cathartic vengeance, this line of thinking is a bit of a trap. Pereda’s not looking to make anybody feel good, onscreen or in the audience, but rather show that violence of all kinds simply perpetuates a brutal cycle. This includes the passive-aggressive variety, like the cruel diet-shaming Sara’s mother engages in, even as she threatens to fight anyone who calls her daughter fat.

Much of the movie presents itself as Sara’s dilemma while the authorities start closing in, but the bloody poster delivers on one part of its promise—the third act goes full horror, complete with the abandoned meat factory and moral-dilemma decisions of the Saw franchise. As much as Piggy certainly has points to make about passive-aggressive status quo maintenance versus open violence, it unabashedly delivers enough terror, tension, and gore before it’s done.

While Brendan Fraser draws preemptive criticism for playing a sad obese man in prosthetics for The Whale, Galán voluntarily puts herself out there in relatively little clothing, baring most of her body for a film whose shame-inducing title will forever be associated with her. She does her utmost as an actress to bring out the most unflattering aspects of Sara’s insecurity, in a fearless performance of a character full of fear. There’s nervous hair-chewing that sees SNL’s Mary Katherine Gallagher’s armpit fingers and raises, but it doesn’t demand our pity just for pity’s sake. Not all of Sara’s choices are good ones, and she can’t necessarily be trusted to do the right thing when lives are on the line. But that makes her all the more human.

While Piggy offers moments of avoidance that provide much needed relief, it’s a whole town’s avoidance of baggage that causes problems in the first place, not to mention Sara’s mom’s inability to see her daughter’s problems unto they’re screamed in her face. The only character to really confront miscommunications face to face, properly, is the killer, who has the patience to do it with Sara and nobody else. Given the rest of his behavior, it’s not like that’s worthy of a gold star.

Other than offering the possibility that people can finally be empathetic when the suffering before their eyes is so blood-soaked as to be overt, this is not a film in the business of offering comfort. It bleakly suggests that we’re on our own, and maybe need the push that a glimpse at the alternative provides.