Pigs (1973)

"They're not pigs, you know... They're dead people." - Miss Macy

aka: Daddy's Deadly Darling
aka: The 13th Pig
A disturbed lady finds a pig farmer with nasty secrets of his own.
Starring: Toni Lawrence, Marc Lawrence, Jesse Vint, Catherine Ross, and some pigs

Link to IMDB

We meet a young lady named Lynn as she travels across the country, seemingly fleeing from something in her past. She arrives at a small diner in the middle of nowhere, and gets room and board in exchange for working as a waitress.

The diner's owner is a strange guy named Zambrini who is currently caught in a dispute with his neighbour, Miss Macy. She claims that Zambrini has been feeding dead people to his pigs, and although we know that is in fact quite true, Sheriff Dan has found no evidence on the matter.

We know why Zambrini is so strange (he sure loves digging up dead bodies to feed to his pigs,) but Lynn remains a mystery. We don't know why she's on the lam, but she's definitely a very troubled person.


Eventually, the extent of Lynn's derangement is revealed when she kills a local man that was trying to seduce her! But Zambrini isn't upset about having a dead body to get rid of, because now his pigs can have some fresh meat to chomp on.
Lynn and Zambrini sort-of develop a curious bond over their dark secret, but Sheriff Dan is beginning to suspect that something fishy is going on at the diner.

  Sheriff  Dan                                Zambrini

This is a very peculiar movie indeed. It walks the line of being a gritty grindhouse flick, while also skillfully made enough to come across as a traditional thriller of the 70's.
The focus is on how Lynn is haunted by her past, instead of the horror of a "pig rampage" that the title might conjure in your imagination, and it explores how Zambrini and his pigs start messing with Lynn's already disturbed mind.

"Everybody's sick. Everybody running away from something." - Zambrini

The plot does move rather slow, but I was never bored. Even the simplest scenes are portrayed with a touch of the bizarre, making all the characters and situations feel as though they exist in a dreamlike trance. Lynn really starts going bonkers, and since her turmoil is always accompanied with the sound of pigs oinking, I called it "going boinkers."

With not much violence or attempt at full-blown horror, it's the weird atmosphere and eccentric characters that make this such an oddly compelling piece of weirdo cinema. It's not for everyone, but I can appreciate why Pigs has earned its cult status.


Be sure not to miss:
- The music is really odd sometimes. Lots of twangy hillbilly rock that doesn't fit the atmosphere.
- Pig prints.
- Rats enough!

Internet review:
"Pigs is an absolute wonder to behold." - Vince5

Should I watch it?
It's not for casual viewers, but it's a solid cult movie.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube. (This version is the preferred director's cut.)

Pigs gets...