Piggy
Spanish filmmaker Carlota Pereda's debut is an ambitious and gory horror film about revenge and structural violence
During a blazing hot summer in rural Extremadura, in Western Spain, Sara (Laura Galán) spends her holidays between her parents' butcher shop and secretly going to the local swimming pool. She is avoiding her classmates, who harass her and call her piggy because she is overweight. Sara's family is oblivious to this bullying and don't understand her introverted behaviour.
One day after lunch, she goes to take her daily swim, but three girls from her school are there. They almost drown her while filming it on their phones, and when they finally leave, they take Sara's clothes with them. On her way home, having a panic attack and wearing only her bikini, she sees a man kidnapping her bullies. They ask her for help, but, scared and confused, she lets him abduct them.
Carlota Pereda's ambitious debut asks morally defiant questions, and they all seem to come from a very personal place. It’s no accident that Piggy, out of all its set-up's possibilities, morphs into a horror movie. Pereda establishes parallels between bullies and slasher villains and visualises the anxieties of being a teenager who experiences violence – explicit or implicit – every day.
Piggy's ever-changing tone and twists don’t necessarily reach narrative excellence, but this brutal coming-of-age film is always playful and intriguing, and alongside the gore, Pereda makes space to grapple with societal issues. The result is a metaphor for how violence, even when invisible, is all around us – and we just have to fight it.
Released 21 Oct by Vertigo; certificate TBC