And the cost is considerable in this uniquely compelling horror thriller based on Pereda’s short film on the same theme. Pereda and Galán negotiate a fine line of exploitation in unflinchingly critiquing the peer group bullying and pressure exerted on body types that don’t fit consensual approval. But just like beauty, isn’t exploitation in the eye of the beholder? Any genre filmmaker worth their salt knows that prurience is a valuable resource to manipulate. By now we all know that it’s politically correct for real women to have curves, but Piggy confronts audiences with the challenge of accepting and feeling empathy for someone who would ordinarily be considered morbidly obese, posing yet again the supposition that morbidity might also be in the eye of the beholder. The adjectives capsize in upon themselves for being so relative and judgmental and, let’s face it, just downright wrong, and admittedly unnecessary.
How is one to escape this spectatorial conundrum of being caught in a vise of media-endorsed body images that don’t look anything like your own body? Comparison is, after all, the thief of joy, right? It doesn’t matter how goodlooking you are, whenever you compare yourself with others there will always be someone better looking. Always. How, then, is one to be content in their own skin, accepting the body they have? And what if someone who likes your body as it is—a murderous psycho, let’s say—champions the cause against those who don’t? Even if, at first, you’re intrigued they do, though you’re not completely convinced you want them to?
What Piggy succeeds at best through its use of the torture porn genre is exploring all the emotional nooks and crannies of self-laceration; the insecurities and doubts that generate confusion; the way someone can torture themselves. Can you fall in love with a psycho who starts torturing those who bully you? Is it enough to have a common enemy for attraction, even arousal, to happen? And at what point do you forgive those who bully you and come to their defense if need be? Even if it's against the person who came to your defense?
It's complicated, and Piggy doesn't shy away from all those complicated questions that, really, no body can truthfully answer except the person tormented by them. So after all the shocking brutality of Piggy, it seems absolutely appropriate at film’s end that Sara gets to climb onto Pedro’s scooter, put her arms around him and rest her head on his strong back. That the audience believes she deserves it is attributable to Galán’s fearlessly honest performance and Pereda’s fiercely compassionate direction.
Of related interest: Alfonso Rivera’s Cineuropa interview with Pereda.
