Piggy (2022)

Piggy is a Spanish horror movie that came out in 2022 in the language of Spanish. Based on this short film. Might want to watch that first. More info down the post.

How I watched: Hulu 

For the short of it: This movie is about a teenager who is relentlessly bullied but things take a disturbing turn leaving her with a moral dilemma after witnessing something grave. 

The long of it? Well...

Just wanted to get this out of the way but this movie is really something. I watched this last night and I was still in awe of the direct impact of the social commentary of this movie that I was lying awake in bed for hours just dwelling on it. You can say it "shook my shit" up. Absolutely not for the faint hearted. Please heed this warning if you have any kind of weight issues/disorders. 

Sara is our main character and is obese. She helps her family run this butcher shop in this small town community of Extremadura, Spain. She has extremely low self esteem in which we can see, albeit partially, where it stems from. Her motherfucking family. They suck, to put it kindly. They are part of that no nonsense lets coddle you crap. If anything, they have such disdain and lack of empathy for their daughter. Even her little brother is well, a little brother. But that's expected anywhere. It's very depressing to see not just one but two of your parents just have a disturbing lack of genuine yet minimal baseline nurture towards their obviously depressed daughter. They show no authentic love or support system of any kind. Which seems to be unfortunately common in a lot of households. They seem to have more focus on running their shop as a priority to even bother to share the same level of importance towards her mental well being.

On top of this, she is a target of bullying by 3 women in particular. 2 of them just entered the shop and had this fake smile on their faces. One of them, Claudia, even says "Hi" to Sara! I'm which we can infer that they used to be friends but parents are too naive to put 2 and 2 together. However, it becomes apparent that she is very much a willing participant even if it's passive.

Much to Sara's horror, she finds out though social media that one of them posted a picture of her and her parents inside the butcher shop with the captions "Three little piggies". It absolutely destroys her. And judging by the comments (can't read spanish but ya know what I mean!) there's a seemingly endless amount of comments jumping on that bandwagon.

Sara pretty much bottles all these feelings. With parents like them, would you blame her? However, she can never hide the torment on her face. 

Not too long after, she decides to want to go to a local outdoor swimming pool but more specifically when there's no one there. So there she is and arrives alone but the second she is about to hop in the pool, out pops another man. OH SHIT, she thinks and shocked and tries to hide herself out of shame. The bigger surprise is when she sees her bullies on the bridge overlooking the pool.

There's a main bully, Maca, who usually does most of the heckling. This bitch is extremely brutal and unrelentless in her insults. She keeps calling her piggy and even attempts to drown her with a lifeguard net. It's a very disturbing scene for me to watch. Very triggering. 

Somewhere down the line, the other man leaves during the heckling they even bring the guy into it saying they're a couple or something. WTF.

So this major bullying scene goes on way too long then it should have and they finally end their incessant insults. They just slam the door on their way out and steal all of Sara's clothes and belongings which also included her fucking phone!!!!

Humiliated and embarrassed (nevermind there was no one else around but just the mental torture she was put through) she cries on her way home. She's running en route home on this dirt road when another car pulls up to her and then THEY taught her! It's a group of guys this time. Extremely sad and triggering scene as well. They record their harassment of course since they're pieces of shit. 

She turns on a different road now which is going through the woods and she encounters this white van idling. Very quickly she puts 2 and 2 together that the the man from the pool has attacked and abducted the these girls. Claudia begs Sara for help through the back panel but Sara just stares back, shaken. The man in the driver's seat looks back at her. And Sara just gives a hesitant wave to him and away he drives off.

Disturbing, huh?

I suggest watching the short film first. Mostly because everything you just read is almost exactly what happens in this original short 13 minute film on Youtube. Same actress reprised her role for this full length movie. Told ya I suggested you watch the short first. Sorry if I spoiled it for ya.

The rest of this movie is the crisis she is put in. She literally just witnessed an abduction! Also, being traumatized by her tormentors, she's hit a fork in the road on what to do. However, plot does progress and in a very weird ass way. 

It really wouldn't feel right to just spill the beans on what ends up happening in the movie but I will say I was still left in awe in what Sara chose to do. It's such a brilliant movie. Another interesting but not so clear cut of a bullied kid's revenge kind of movie, ya know? 

Laura Galan really carried the fuck out of this movie playing Sara. This movie would literally be nothing without her. She didn't have to say all these lines to tell us her pain, it says it all on her body language and face. She is able to create all these emotions of frustration, sadness, hopelessness and everything else in between. I felt that was a key role in this movie the fact it should how much she conveyed suffering in silence. I am just so blown away by her acting. There was a lot of screen time when she is in her bathing suit and being taunted. Man oh man, she is just phenomenal and dedicated in this role. I personally would never be comfortable enough to wear her bathing suit needless to say in front of millions of people (watching, filming etc.) 

As of this posting, it's only available on Hulu and Sundance as it premiered on the latter back in January 2022 and theatrically released in Spain in October 2022. So yeah, you can say this movie is relatively fresh in the streaming world at least. I'm sure you could look it up on various youtube videos or on a wiki article if you really want to know BUT nothing gives you bigger impact than watching it for yourself which I highly recommend. 

Really sad movie but the realism (for the most part) is the real horror of this movie.

It's a brilliant movie but I am a little concerned about people's thoughts towards the killer. I shouldn't say more on that. 

Update: This blog has an interesting spike in views stemming from this exact post. Not sure where the source is from but thank you people for taking your time out of your day to read my random blabber. I'm aware my writing/grammar skills are borderline insufferable. Lo siento. Please keep in mind this is only a hobby I do in my spare time (which means no annoying ass ads welcome here!) Feel free to check out my other side blogs linked in the side bar. Thanks! 

So with that being said, what is my verdict?

The social commentary in here is just wild

If you are interested in watching Piggy, then please CLICK HERE to see which streaming services you can watch it on via the free streaming guide app, JUSTWATCH!

There was your Spanish horror movie of the day, head on over to my sister blog for your Spanish Metal Band of the Day!