Sara (Laura Galán) works at the family butcher shop which is struggling now that the cheaper grocery store has established itself in town. Between the family business and Sara’s weight, she is an easy target for the slimmer, cooler girls in town who ridicule her relentlessly. One day at the pool, Maca (Claudia Salas), Rodi (Camille Aguilar), and Claudia (Irene Ferreiro) steal Sara’s clothes and towel, forcing her to walk home in her bathing suit. When she does arrive back in town, people are worried as the three girls have not returned to their homes, and soon Sara becomes the prime suspect in their disappearance. 

Carlota Pereda writes and directs Piggy, a feature-length adaptation of her short, Cerdita (2018). Premiering at the 2022 running of the Sundance Film Festival, it was picked up by Magnet Releasing which distributed the film through Hulu after its limited theatrical run. The 99-minute thriller is carefully constructed so that it never quite goes where audiences are expecting, the synopsis conjuring up memories of Catherine Breillat’s Fat Girl (2001) mixed with Brian DePalma’s Carrie (1976), Piggy is a unique voice by an up-and-coming creative that mixes its mystery with plenty of gruesome and upsetting moments highlighting the potential cruelty of teenagers. 

Galán gives an incredibly affecting performance, and Pereda really challenges audiences in the first fifteen minutes of her film as the clique of popular girls puts Sara through absolute hell; ridiculing not just her weight, but her family as well, posting their torments online for the world to see. Already working in a 4:3 frame, Rita Noriega’s cinematography also works to capture Sara in as unappealing and harsh a light as possible. For much of this opening, the film teeters into some very concerning territory, but Pereda slowly builds up trust with the audience that despite all of this, she is on Sara’s side and not seeking to hurt her any more than necessary. It is inherently a dirty practice that comes with the territory of revenge narratives, but there is more to Piggy than the simple concept of a revenge film would imply. Galán, reprising her role from Cerdita, is fully committed to the role and delivers a fearless performance that is wonderful to see evolve and change over the course of the film until the final act where she triumphantly claims her redemption. 

What helps break Piggy away from some of the same criticisms levied towards Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale (2022), that they were using their subject’s weight as a way to invoke a sense of horror and disgust in their audiences, is that after the initial setup, Sara’s size is mostly left alone. There is a powerful moment of awareness towards the middle of the film when she lashes out at her mother (Carmen Machi) who reacts with a brand of tough love at the accusation that she does not help Sara lose weight to fit in better with the other kids in town. This rift in the family dynamic was always present, but this latest spat helps to widen it and it further explores how her father (Julián Valcárcel), always the softer of the two parents, shows his support towards his daughter. It is a nice dynamic, but not the main focus of the story, which belongs to a stranger (Richard Holmes) who was present the day at the pool when the girls went missing. 

Holmes is in a mostly silent role here and operates with a mysterious menace, never far from the action but quite clearly still has his hand involved. It is the motivation that is the driving question here, and while Pereda’s script could have used some more fleshing out on who he is and why he is here, there is still enough that he does not feel totally underwritten. In a way, he acts as a bit of a guardian angel towards Sara as the film does not hide that he is the one who kidnapped the popular girls after witnessing what they did to Sara, but if one drills down any deeper into his motivations things get much hazier. Thankfully, Pereda avoids the temptation to turn this into a bloody and brutal courtship dance, so audiences are largely left to assume that this stranger is just a nomadic sadist, but it would have been nice to have a bit more insight into this man. 

The film is not devoid of romance, or rather, lust, and its inclusion leads to some interesting dynamics, albeit a touch under explored. Pedro (José Pastor) hangs out with the popular girls and looks like he just got done his senior year at whatever school the latest CW teen drama is set. Falling outside of Sara’s immediate family, he is underwritten and underexplored like many of the other ancillary characters, but Pastor still manages to work the screen with a sincere, himbo charm. As the film develops and Sara and Pedro grow closer together, again, Pereda swerves away from any true romantic subplot, but she still allows Pedro to develop as a character in his own compassion towards Sara. It does feel like it grows into a genuine recognition of Sara’s humanity after the initial contrivance, which is a testament to Pereda’s ability to work in subtlety even after opening the film with the intent to cause such a knee-jerk reaction by dialing up the cruelty and the emotion. 

Piggy is a tough film, and one that goes far beyond what the poster and the elevator pitch would lead one to believe. In earnest, the range and scope which the story takes is an incredible balancing act. There is a point where the police begin investigating a missing bull and it feels like an unnecessary bit of quirky texture, but Pereda brings it all home in a satisfying way. If anything, the film could have used just a few extra minutes to allow for some more intense exchanges between the various circles of characters as the groundwork is all there, and the cast does so well in their roles, that Pereda could have afforded to be a little more gratuitous in her writing because it was so engaging and exciting. While we still come away with a full picture, we feel like we are still missing something, but truly that feeling is just our wish to have seen a little more and been allowed to peer into this world just a little longer. It is gruesome, and twisted, but there is also a surprising and invigorating confidence that exudes from the film and lures its audience in with shocking accuracy.