Pig Hunt (Fangoria Frightfest)

After a terrible hour, this managed to turn into something I actually enjoyed. The gore and creature effects are great, even if limited to the last 20 minutes.Opening scenes in horror movies are significant. We may not get into major reveals of our monster’s appearance or nature, but we often get glimpses of its capabilities or motives. And if the “I’ll be right back” red-shirt and his intestines are the paint, then the screen is our canvas. Based on the first few minutes of Pig Hunt, I’m immediately disappointed with my movie decision this evening. We see neither claw nor tusk nor tooth nor silhouette of our monster, and not one laceration of any sort is presented. Just someone screaming as something presumably horribly happens to him off-screen until he eventually silences and blood flows into frame. Yes, we know it was a giant boar because we read the movie title; and yes, we know this movie is probably gonna’ suck now.BUT… for those patient viewers among you, this B-movie will indeed eventually pay-off in the end.Heading out on a hunting retreat, John (Travis Aaron Wade; Living Among Us, Supernatural) takes his girlfriend (Tina Huang; Arrow) and his buddies to his newly inherited family cabin. They get directions from some strange folks at a gas station who warn them of The Ripper, a 3000-pound boar that wanders the woods. Sounds legit.The writing is every bit as terrible as off-the-street-amateur acting, and both the editing and camera work are wretched. Director James Isaac (The Horror Show, Skinwalkers, Jason X) really hits below his weight class here. Knowing his other work, I am forced to wonder how this movie was so phoned-in compared to Jason X (2001)—and say what you want about that movie, but it was REALLY fun to watch and it knew exactly what it was. And while Pig Hunt will eventually wander into entertaining territory, it’s not until after we’ve wandered the boring woods for about 75-80 minutes! BUT… again, this movie will “eventually” pay-off.The first 60 minutes feel like a porn screenplay got adapted into a super-low budget horror. The special effects department must have called in sick because the gore was generally absent for the first two acts. Our first two deaths are 100% off-screen and when we see a severed horse head it is completely uninspired. For those who care, there’s some dude-butt, hippie Xena Warrior Princess cultists living in a van, and a lot of toxic masculinity.Eventually there’s a really brutal bone-protruding leg break and a boar is sloppily-gorily gutted, giving us some minor sense of hope that this DVD isn’t going to turn into a coaster or a frisbee in the near future. But it’s not until the second half of the final act that we come across reasons to actually support this film.A half-dead chomped-alive dude is missing chunks from his arms and legs, and it is deliciously bloody. In these final 15-20 minutes, we FINALLY see our giant boar monster and, you know what, it’s awesome! I loved the practical effects. Its snotty skin covered in sparse thick hairs and horrible gashes; its big dead white eye wanders and blinks; its big animatronic mouth is littered with crooked chipped nightmare teeth… it’s a Hellbeast for sure. The thick opaque snot on this thing is unreal! Where has this thing been all movie!?!?!I spent an hour making the best of this weak flick until everything thankfully came to gory fruition in the end. I bought this blind and, against all odds, I do not regret it. My recent obsession with giant killer boar films did not lead me astray. Now on to the Australian movie Boar (2017)!

I love a good creature feature pitting man against beast! This movie has a lot more to offer than the title or cover art would suggest. The massive boar is cleverly only seen in bits & pieces throughout the movie until the end when you get to see the battle scarred creature up close. At first I was bothered wondering why they made the boar look so grotesque, but after watching it a second time & realizing this animal has been hunted & many efforts have been made to bring it down made its terribly scarred appearance make a lot more sense. This movie is layered with multiple storylines that all come together proving the human condition to be potentially just as monstrous as any creature nature can throw at you. Watch & listen for the music of bass playing genius Les Claypool who makes a special appearance as the patriarch of the deadly clan. So in the tradition of "Deliverance" we get to see a west coast version of the buddy adventure gone bad. Not only do they have to survive the legendary man killing boar " The Ripper", but a "Manson" like cult who supports themselves by growing pot is also out to get them as well as the clan of mountain folk just itching to go all Hatfield & McCoy out of vengeance! All while the main character is on a private quest to find out what happened to his uncle!!! Sound crazy well it is but with its solid acting & awesome soundtrack & decent special effects it manages to work out much better than you would think. For the price its well worth checking out. I am not fixated on budget & rate movies by whether or not they achieve in entertaining me, so keep that in mind! I am well aware this is not a candidate for a Academy award & I'm pretty sure so was the director. But if your looking for some suspenseful horror to take your mind of the horror's of every day reality you might want to give this movie a try. I know I was happy to add it to my collection of man v.s. beast's movies. After introducing the European wild hog & with escaped huge domestic's going feral after only a couple of generation's there really are some giant & deadly wild Boars all over America!!! Many hunters consider them more dangerous than bears!

WOW! What a ride! I found this gem of a movie on Netflix Streaming movies and it was love at first watch. Pig Hunt has it all! We possibly have found the Hillbilly homestead from Deliverance. There is a Redneck Mad Max chase scene, 3,000 pound killer pig (one ugly SOB), a baby from said 3,000 pound pig with a human hand and other unidentifiable human body parts in its stomach (a nod to Jaws here perhaps), hot babes in a hippy commune in the California mountains (nude in a pool), Blood and Gore by the truckload, great soundtrack and a great George Orwell quote at the end. The camera work is spectacular, the pacing is great, the special effects second to none, the direction, writing and acting top notch, a great script and believable dialogue, characters you can actually like or hate, a great soundtrack, a great script and believable plot. Oh and a 3,000 pound killer pig!

Not exactly hog heaven, I'm not entirely certain they knew what they wanted to do with this movie so they did everything. If frantic is your taste, this would be it. A giant snowball from hell gathering up everything in its path as it barrels down on you. There's no escape, few survive (which is always the case, but I actually like a high body count in these types of movies). The pig was a bit plastic looking but that's okay, it made its point. Don't tread on me.I didn't keep it. Glad I saw it. And yes, if there's a Pig Hunt 2, it'd watch it also.And what a great DVD cover!