Piggy, When Body-shaming Gets Noticed by a Killer
As a directorial debut for a feature film, Carlota Pereda’s Piggy was one of my most anticipated 2022 films. I can say without a doubt this coming-of-age Grindhouse horror movie was definitely worth the wait. In a similar vein to another favorite of mine, Family Dinner, Piggy 2022 puts a very real teen with very real problems at the center of a small and tightly woven universe. Sara lives in a small village. She spends her afternoons doing work in a butcher owned by her family. Sara is heavy-set and as a result of her circumstances is relentlessly bullied by local girls in the neighborhood.
The title is not the type of wham bam thankyou mam narrative either. Instead Piggy chooses overt but modest psychologically bound insights to fuel its story. Sara isn’t weak. As a central character with everything pitted against her, she just chooses her moments with more care than usual. In the summer she likes to swim but instead of going to the local river when it’s heavily populated with judgment and cruelty, Sara goes a bit later. She wears a bikini, loves music, and knows how to handle her brother and father most of the time.
“They Call Me Piggy”
However one afternoon, Sara is seen by her bullies and mocked, teased, and pushed underwater. The posse of mean girls don’t stop at just ensuring she feels like her life is in danger but they follow through by stealing her clothes and, her backpack. Unbeknownst to her, a man had also been in the pool unseen, only emerging from underwater as Sara, distraught gets out. They lock eyes and she surveys the area where her missing items should be. With no phone, no clothes to protect her, and just the blistering afternoon heat, Sara heads home on foot.
Adding insult to injury, a car full of local boys see her plodding along and decide to add to her discomfort by behaving as though they mean to attack her. They untie her bikini top and laugh and say sexually loaded things before driving off once again leaving her stranded with a cruel and unbearable long walk home.
Piggy Go
The tension is palpable as Sara rounds a clearing and comes up on a running van. The driver drops her towel out of the window onto the dirt and as they lock eyes, it’s easy to recognize this is the same man from the pool. Sara can see inside the dirty back windows of the van astonished to see one of the girls who spent the afternoon making her life miserable screaming for help. A silent pact passes between this man and Sara before he drives away.
What’s left of the Piggy movie narrative never ceases to bring poignant reminders. Sometimes life throws intense and dangerous times our way. We are also faced with moral choices that should be easy to navigate but are not. Sure, Pereda’s story here is fiction, but Sara’s character is ignited by her decisions and the film is all the better for it. The relationship that forms between this young girl and the mystery murderer adds a special something rare in horror movies of its kind.
The finale for the Piggy film is ferocious, vicious, and heartbreaking all at the same time.
Piggy aka Cerdita is rated
4 the hero you need when you don’t want to be a hero out of 5
Piggy the Movie
Director and writer: Carlota Pereda
The cast of “Piggy” full movie is Claudia Salas, Carmen Machi, and, Pilar Castro.
Distributed by Magnet Releasing (USA) and produced by Morena Films.
Language: The Piggy movie comes in its original Spanish Language as well as dubbed options to watch. I highly recommend watching Piggy with subtitles as the dubbed version was not of good quality.
Where is Piggy 2022 Available to Watch/Stream?
Piggy aka Cerdita is streaming on:
