Pigs (1973 film)

Pigs is a 1973 American horror film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Marc Lawrence and currently distributed by Troma Entertainment. The film stars Toni Lawrence as Lynn Hart, an escapee from a mental hospital who meets a man named Zambrini (played by Lawrence), once an ex-circus clown who, after an accidental head injury, was briefly thought to be dead, but miraculously survived. Zambrini now owns a ramshackle motel, diner and pigpen somewhere in California. Lynn takes a job as a waitress at the diner after Zambrini hires her and, soon afterward, kills a lecherous local man who fell for her earlier with a straight razor she had previously found in her bathroom after she takes him to in her room in the hotel and makes love to him that night, which turns into assault. She does this solely because doing so reminds her of her sexually abusive father (whom she killed after he raped her one night; this was the incident that drove her insane in the first place). To cover up the murder, Zambrini then chops up the man's corpse with a hatchet and feeds the pieces to his pigs (the pigs have previously become accustomed to eating only human flesh after breaking out of the pigpen one night, then killing and eating a sleeping drunk by taking him unaware and overpowering him by sheer numbers; Zambrini has fed them human flesh ever since, mostly with corpses he gained illegally by graverobbing cemeteries at night).

Pigs
Promotional release poster
Directed byMarc Lawrence
Produced byMarc Lawrence
Donald Reynolds
Written byMarc Lawrence
Fanya Foss
StarringToni Lawrence
Marc Lawrence
Jesse Vint
Paul Hickey
Katharine Ross
Music byCharles Bernstein
CinematographyIrv Goodnoff
Glenn Roland
Edited byIrv Goodnoff
Distributed byTroma Entertainment
Release date
  • May 23, 1973 (1973-05-23)
Running time
80 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Pigs premiered on May 23, 1973 in Detroit, Michigan under the title The Pigs. The film then received a theatrical release in 1984 as Daddy's Deadly Darling, and has been re-released under a large number of other titles ever since, including Daddy's Girl, The 13th Pig, Blood Pen, Horror Farm, Roadside Torture Chamber, The Killer, The Killers, Lynn Hart, The Strange Love Exorcist, Lynn Hart, the Strange Love Exorcist, The Strange Exorcism of Lynn Hart and The Secret of Lynn Hart.

Cast
  • Toni Lawrence as Lynn Hart, a.k.a. Lynn Webster
  • Jesse Vint as Sheriff Dan Cole
  • Catherine Ross as Miss Macy (credited as Katherine Ross)
  • Paul Hickey as Ben Sharp
  • Iris Korn as Annette
  • Walter Barnes as Doctor
  • Erik Holland as Hoagy
  • William Michael as Deputy
  • Jim Antonio as Jess Winter - Man from Hospital
  • Bone Adams as Truck Farmer
  • Larry Hussmann as Gas Attendant
  • Don Skylar as Oil Worker
  • Marc Lawrence as Zambrini

Release

Pigs premiered on May 23, 1973 in Detroit, Michigan under the title The Pigs, and according to Lawrence, the distributor offered free bacon to the audience at the event, most of which was cautiously returned after it was over.[1] In 1977, Donald Reynolds filmed an additional prologue and epilogue for the film that initially played under the title Daddy's Girl.[1] After shortening the prologue from Reynolds' cut, the film was released theatrically on November 6, 1984 by Aquarius Releasing as Daddy's Deadly Darling.[1]

Reception

Bill Gibron of DVD Talk wrote that the film "plays like a schizophrenic's version of The Farmer's Almanac", and lamented the lack of "killer swine" in the film.[2] Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com wrote that the film "isn't the animals-gone-wild adventure it might appear to be", but commended the film for "exploring the destruction of sexual abuse, the pain of isolation, and crumbling of untreated minds."[3]

References
  1. Ackerman, Bill (May 10, 2016). "Pigs (US DVD/Blu-ray review)". Diabolique Magazine. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  2. Gibron, Bill (May 18, 2005). "Pigs". DVD Talk. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  3. Orndorf, Brian (March 19, 2016). "Pigs Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved January 6, 2020.


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