Pigs (1973)
You can almost feel the dirt under your fingernails as you scratch the surface of this exploitation film and find a decent psychological thriller underneath
Grimy, sludgy, and well acted while it has extremely shoddy and sometimes jumpy editing make “Pigs” a perfect cocktail for 70s grindhouse/drive-in madness.
While watching so many golden age crime and noir films in recent years I developed a fondness for supporting player Marc Lawrence, who was active well into the 2000s thanks to the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Joe Dante loving his old repertoire. When I found out that Lawrence directed a movie— a grimy and sleazy early 70s horror movie— and that it is distributed by Troma, I was all in.
Marc’s daughter Toni plays the lead here, as a young woman that murders her father when he attempts to rape her. She’s locked away in an asylum when it becomes clear that she can’t come to terms with the fact that her father is dead and she killed him. She escapes after some shock therapy and hides out on the farm owned by a man played by her real life father Marc Lawrence, where people often disappear and whose pigs have developed a taste for human flesh.
Originally released as Daddy’s Deadly Darling, Pigs fits right in with movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Last House on the Left. You can almost feel the dirt under your fingernails as you scratch the surface of this exploitation film and find a decent psychological thriller underneath. For all it’s grime and sleaze, it’s good in the right ways, and bad in the best ways!
You can see Pigs on Troma Now, the streaming service for all of Troma Entertainment’s films. The first month is free! Just go to watch.troma.com to sign up and get access to thousands of films from the ever growing Troma library.