guest review: pig hunt (2010) by the video vacuum – spooktoberfest 2011.11

PIG HUNT (2010) **

A couple of friends have nothing better to do than to go into the woods and hunt giant pigs. Like any horror movie worth its salt, our main characters have to have an odd encounter with the weirdo locals at a general store before trucking off into the woods. Once they are securely out in the middle of nowhere, our heroes proceed to look for the legendary “Ripper”; a 3000 pound killer pig responsible for the death of the main dude’s father. Along the way, they kill some redneck, which causes his inbred clan to come after them looking for vengeance. They also run smack dab into a cult of marijuana-growing lesbians who worship the Ripper and make sacrifices in its name.

All of this leaves them with very little time to actually hunt the damned pig, I’m afraid.

Pig Hunt has some funny little quirky moments that keep it from being just another run-of-the-mill monster mash. (I like the scene where the owner of the general store drew our heroes a map on the nude body of a centerfold.) You could argue that the film tries too hard to be quirky, but if you’ve seen as many Giant (Insert Any Random Killer Animal Here) Movies as I have, you sorta appreciate any effort to deviate from the usual flight plan. Easily the best thing about the flick though is the music by Les Claypool.

If you came to the party looking for a movie about pigs being hunted, you will be severely disappointed as the title is kind of a bait-and-switch. The pig attacks are preciously few and far between and you have to wait until the last 10 minutes of the film before you get to any kind of serious hog action. When the pig shit finally does hit the fan, it’s fairly decent; yet it’s too little, too late.

That seems to be this movie’s M.O.: Try the audience’s patience and make them wait until the breaking point for something cool to happen. Take for instance, the naked lesbian cultists. Why even put them in the movie if you’ve got to wait 75 freaking minutes before you get to them?

I guess this was a movie made by hunters for hunters. You see, when you go hunting, you have to be very patient and wait forever for something to happen. So it sorta makes sense for the flick to be paced the same way.

Another thing about Pig Hunt that’s a bit lackluster is the cast. The film sports a cast of unknowns that really aren’t up to the task of carrying an entire picture. What the flick really needed what the presence of a veteran character actor to give it a little oomph. Can you imagine someone like a Powers Boothe or the late Charles Napier as a grizzled Great White Hunter type? Unfortunately all we have in the cast are your standard issue Idiot Victims and Redneck Types.

Pig Hunt was directed by Jim Isaac and it’s a vast improvement over his previous film, Skinwalkers; but not up to the high standards he set with Jason X.

 

check out mitch’s opposite-of-vacuum site: the video vacuum