Quick Synopsis: Sara is an overweight teen who witnesses a stranger kidnap a group of girls who bully her on a regular basis. She is torn on whether to keep quiet or report what happened in this Spanish horror.

This has been described as “rural horror”, I feel that does a disservice to it. Carlota Pereda doesn’t approach this as a standard slacker full of bloodshed and cheap kills. Piggy is something different, it’s an intense character study that delves into the effects of bullying, morality, and bystander syndrome.

The characters in Piggy are so well-written. Sara is incredibly easy to root for, and the bullies are easy to root against. The bullies are terrible people, utterly despicable, but you need them to be. If they were just name-calling then the moment where Sara leaves them to nearly die would make her seem like a bad person. But the trauma that those characters put her through, where they not only try to drown her but then steal her clothes and make her run home in her swimming clothes (which leads to a group of guys attempting to sexually assault her) makes you completely understand her reluctance to help. The bullies cry out for her help, and she understandably reacts with a “nah, fuck you” attitude. Importantly, the audience still feels sympathy for her. It would be so easy for the audience to see her as a spiteful, vengeful character, but because of the way she’s written, you’re with her all the way.

It helps that her bullies don’t really redeem themselves. There’s no “we’re sorry for what we did, we were wrong”. In fact, when Sara arrives where they’ve been kidnapped, one of the girls still thinks it’s a good idea to call her “Piggy”. Keep in mind, Sara is armed with a shotgun and knowledge that there is nobody nearby who would be able to place her there if she did shoot someone. Not the smartest choice.

The likeability of Sara is helped by the actress playing her. Laura Galan is perfectly cast. I hope this leads to more for her, as she deserves it. Despite the character being a teen, Laura herself is actually 35. You wouldn’t think it though, she clearly remembers the awkwardness of being a teenager, where you both want to hide away from the world, but also show everybody who you are. I don’t know whether the hair-chewing was her choice or the director’s, but it works. To be honest, it’s probably a good thing she’s not played by an actual teenager, I can’t begin to imagine the psychological damage which could inadvertently arise from a teenager playing a character where her physical size is mocked and belittled constantly.

Whilst it’s not a “horror” horror, there are some very unsettling scenes. The moment where the killer attacks the house is pretty damn chilling, especially because of how understated it is. There’s no grand music giving you a sense of foreboding, it’s played straight and very real, which makes it more disturbing. That underplaying of cinematic conventions doesn’t always work though. There are some story points which you might miss because they were only shown briefly, not discussed. So if you sneeze (or if you’re paying attention to the subtitles and not the scene) then you may find yourself wondering what happened to certain characters. It was originally a short, and there are times when you can tell that. Where it seems like it’s just running in circles trying to find its narrative place. It’s not incredibly obvious, but if you keep the fact that this was a short in mind, then you will notice it.

So in summary, pretty damn impressive. Not as blood-soaked as you’d expect, but incredibly real.