Pig Hunt (2008)

 

Technically, this is more "clichéd hillbillies hunt city folk with some pigs on the side" but I guess that didn't quite have the same ring to it. A shame though. More films should try this, who knows what weird classics we would have had?

Imagine calling 'Jaws' 'Oversized Fish With the Munchies'. 

So yes, a bunch of young city folks head out to the boondocks to go and hunt some wild boar. Our lead apparently grew up in this country and they're headed to his uncle's old cabin. The uncle passed away, seemingly due to alcohol abuse, but others talk about The Ripper, a mystical huge boar. 

There is something running loose, as the film is quick to let us in on the secret, even if we don't see the beast itself. 

Pretty soon, our cast of mostly unlikable characters comes across a band of hillbillies led by musician Les Claypool, which doesn't bode well and we get quite a lot of 'Deliverance' vibes. If that reference means nothing to you, time to check out that film first. They even get visited by two of our leads' old friends who are played as wacko inbred weirdos and it does get a little grating at times. They do in fact all hunt boars, but they also come across a massive marijuana plantation and a cult of sorts, led by a big dude carrying a massive knife and a lot of hot ladies, usually topless.

Oh, and they keep and worship the enormous boar that everyone talks about. 

People die, shenanigans, the end.

As far as B movies go, this isn't too bad. Sure, you won't care about any of the characters, let alone remember their names and most of them are insanely annoying. Most egregious of these is the one friend who thinks he's a soldier and who carries a Magnum .44 to the hunt. He can't shoot for shit, but does get the hillbilly revenge plot going when he shoots one of those guys for no real reason. The second most annoying are the two hillbilly brothers, whose actions and behaviour make no sense in the least. It's actually fun to see people die left and right, because maybe apart from our lead couple everyone is just grating. Well, the cult leader is engaging at times, even if he does ham it up to the max. 

There is some gore and some nudity of sorts (well, boobs), but they did manage to create a cool animatronic of the massive pig and it looks okay. It doesn't move all that well, but the head is fairly animated and the design does look cool. Just try not to see the people operating it as the whole body is supposed to move, as you can tell that behind the head it's probably two to four people covered up that are doing the leg action, as those don't move the way pigs' legs move. It's like one of those zebra suits with two people inside. 

It's an okay timewaster, but nothing more. If the characters were better fleshed out and better written, this would have benefited enormously, but as is, it's decent pigsploitation. If you want better, you'll need to watch 'Razorback'.