Pig Killer
by Chad Ferrin

Pig Killer promises to be a terrifying film inspired by real-life serial killer Willy Pickton, but instead devolves into something needlessly long and fails to entertain.

Jake Busey kills it as the lead, and the practical effects and gore in the film are fantastic, so I don’t understand why, with the budget they clearly had, the film ends up like a puzzle with mismatched pieces.

If the messy, boring plot had focused solely on Willy and his dirty deeds it may well have been a success, but the introduction of far too many characters that were both unnecessary and silly really contribute to why this just didn’t work well for me. The junkie subplot felt like an afterthought, and really the question I need answered is, why were there so many scenes of people just driving around in cars? If you want to make a movie about Willy, do it. If you want to make a movie about one of his victim’s lives and how it all ends up for her, do that. Don’t put the two together in a sandwich that tastes terrible.

I get the appeal of wanting to make a trashy exploitation film, but this misses the mark in more ways than one and hyper-sexualizes far too much. There’s definitely a way to display how childhood traumas guide the actions of psychotic adults, and this just wasn’t it. Not to mention the eye-roll inducing, poorly timed butt sex joke that wasn’t even funny.

I would also be doing anyone a great disservice without absolutely questioning the soundtrack. Is it 80s nostalgia? Is it bar room karaoke? One can’t tell.

As you can see, I put about as much effort into this review as was put into the script. The actors deserved better and an exploitation piece of Willy Pickton should have been handled with greater precision.

I received a copy of this film in exchange for an honest review.