An international advance review of Pig Killer (USA, 2022), a horror film about Robert William “Willy” Pickton (born in 1949), the Canadian serial killer and former pig farmer believed to have murdered around 50 women between the 1980s and 2002, who is currently serving a life sentence.
The film is directed by Chad Ferrin, whose previous work includes the impressive horror film The Chair, starring Bill Oberst Jr. (Circus of the Dead), and the nostalgic, violent survival horror film Parasites, with Robert Miano and Joseph Pilato (Day of the Dead).
Ferrin once again demonstrates his skill as a writer and director, bringing this true story to the screen with a subtle streak of black humor that heightens its madness and perversity.
The filmmaker focuses on one of the most prolific serial killers in Canadian history, exploring parts of his life, particularly his methods and family background. The result is a well-developed portrayal, brought to life by an outstanding Jake Busey (Starship Troopers, Enemy of the State, Identity, The Predator), who delivers a masterful performance.
From the outset, Pig Killer lifts the curtain on Pickton's atrocities with a bloody feast of pigs feeding on human flesh. This was how the serial killer disposed of his victims: feeding them to his animals after sexually abusing them, strangling them, slitting their throats, disemboweling them or killing them with antifreeze injections, and finally cutting their bodies into pieces.
Jake Busey inhabits the role of this feared, vicious psychopath with remarkable skill, portraying his life, madness, violent sexual encounters and murders, while flashbacks reveal a bitter past of abuse and humiliation. His savagery erupts as he dismembers his victims, tearing their bodies apart before returning to public life and pretending to be harmless, both to society and to his brother David, played by Lew Temple (The Devil’s Rejects).
Pig Killer revisits the horrors inflicted by the murderer, drawing on his instability and the terror he instilled in his victims to capture the depravity and fixation on death embedded in his mind. Subtle nods to earlier cult films emerge throughout: Torso (1973) in the dismemberment of bodies, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) in the hunt for victims, and Maniac (1980) in the sense of squalor that permeates Ferrin’s film.
Alongside its accomplished direction and screenplay, Pig Killer benefits from excellent cinematography that further enhances its quality. Joe Castro’s effective practical effects also deserve recognition, making even the goriest sequences convincing, from the butchering of bodies to a syringe plunged into an eye. The latter is surely a tribute to Lucio Fulci's Dawn of the Dead.
