DVD

I blame Russell Mulcahy for my curious love of killer pigs in horror. Ever since I first saw his 1984 giant boar flick Razorback I've never been one to shy away from a spot of porcine violence. Sadly, it seems that very few filmmakers share my passion for bacon-flavoured terror, and as such I've had to make do with re-watching Mullcahy's aforementioned slice of Oz-ploitation (which, I still find to be his most satisfying film... yes, even more so than Highlander), that bit in the otherwise forgetable Evilspeak where Clint Howard unleashes a horde of Satanic pigs on a naked chick having a shower and re-reading Clive Barker's wonderfully weird short story Pig Blood Blues.

Lesbian cult
So imagine my delight when a copy of the Pig Hunt DVD fell into my hands recently. This one seemed to have it all - scary rednecks, a weird lesbian cult and, best of all, a 3,000-pound murderous black boar! And it's from director Jim Isaac, who previously gave the world Jason X... what could possibly go wrong?

To be honest, not very much as it turns out. While it doesn't really hold a candle to Razorback, there's no getting away from the fact that Pig Hunt is a seriously messed up flick! Sure, it all starts out simply enough with a group of friends from the big city heading out to the country to hunt wild pigs, but before long it all goes haywire as wacky new ideas are thrown in on top of one another, alongside a rather underdeveloped piece of social commentary about contemporary America - all of which guarantees that you have absolutely no idea where the story will go next. If there's one complaint, it's that the giant pig doesn't really get involved in the action until the final act. But there's so much crazy s**t going on in the preceding 75-minutes that you really don't notice or care about the lack of big pig action!

Rampaging rednecks
When it comes to the disc itself, Pig Hunt also scores fairly well. The anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer is unlikely to win any awards, but it does seem to do a fine job of replicating what I can only assume is an intentionally grim 'n' gritty piece of genre filmmaking. The picture is riddled with grain, which only serves to help boost its grindhouse credentials, but still manages to do an excellent job with the rich colour palette. For the most part the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix concentrates on subtle atmospheric effects, but the sequence in Chapter 11 where the naked lesbian cultists start luring the rampaging rednecks to their doom with the aid of hidden speakers around the woods grabs your attention with excellent use of positional audio effects all around the soundstage.

Liberal dose of craziness
After all of this, the lack of supplementary features is a bit of a disappointment. The only bonus included on the disc is the film's trailer, which is a real shame as I'd have loved to have had a commentary from writers Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson where they try to explain how the rednecks, lesbians and and giant killer pig are supposed to work as an allegory for America and the war in Iraq. Still, given the low cost of the disc (it can easily be found for less than a tenner) and the amount fun it serves up, Pig Hunt is still well worth checking out if you like your horror mixed with a liberal dose of craziness.

G2 Pictures, Region 2 DVD, £13 approx, On sale now
HCC VERDICT: 3/5