PIGS (1972)
aka DADDY'S DEADLY DARLINGS Directed by Marc Lawrence
Troma DVD
THE FILM
Pigs has everything. It's an early 70s exploitation penny pincher, promising blood-lusting hogs and a girl with a hot knife. When the end credits roll, it still has everything. Unfortunately, somebody cut the brainstorming sessions short. Then they made the movie anyway.
Haphazard and quick moving, Pigs (aka Daddy's Deadly Darlings) is the directorial debut of the late Marc Lawrence, an actor mostly known for gangster roles in the 1940s before his blacklisting in 1950. Pigs was his second and last job behind the lens. He also wrote the script, one that kicks off with a woman murdering her father after being raped by him. Who was the lucky chanteuse to land the leading role? Why, it's Toni Lawrence, daughter of Marc! Oh, the guilt.
Lynn Hart (Toni Lawrence) is on the lam. Escaping from an asylum after murdering her rapist father (don't worry, we don't see it), she lands in a moldy backroom shack, currently owned by ex-circus kook Zambrini (Marc Lawrence). Zambrini's diner/mold shack shares space with his pen of flesh eating pigs. For the rest of the film, Zambrini feeds corpses to the pigs at night, while crazee train Lynn makes good with a knife. Soon, Mr. Z realizes the advantages of fresh meat and starts using Lynn's victims as piggy chow. There's a little gore here and there. All's well until Zambrini realizes the truth: you can't keep a good nutjob down.
Freudian art-life jiving aside, Pigs is a stilted weirdie with a clear disregard for normal execution. The camera movement is jagged, the soundtrack is often abrasive (random screeches from both humans and pigs), and the editing has a screw loose. Shots sometimes repeat themselves for anywhere from a split second to three. Visually, it'll keep you guessing, especially when you throw in the dreary locales. While this is all certainly grand, the plot of the film, along with the magnetism of the characters, loses steam about halfway through. Pigs feels like a shoebox version of Tobe Hooper's later Eaten Alive; just without that flicker of absorption. If there was something more to grab onto, the strange techniques would have had a best friend. Mostly though, they're the odd kid out.
There's this bubblegum-psych song that keeps popping up throughout Pigs, repeating the words "keep on driving" on an endless cycle. That's some good advice.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Now we're talking! This film is hilariously dark. The full frame print is overly tweaked in the contrast department, with blacks that overtake everything and colors that hurt your eyes. There's a fair amount of dirt and scratching. As mentioned earlier, split second frames repeat themselves often, escalating to a few seconds each towards the end of the film. I've never seen the old Paragon release under the title Daddy's Deadly Darlings, so I can't tell you if the darkness and chops have always been there. The mono sound was extremely loud. Watch out for the squeals.
EXTRAS
Just a few screens of decent production notes on the film and the Lawrence family, topped off with nine Troma trailers, shorts, and promo reels. Of course, there's the usual Lloyd Kaufman introduction, a standard on every DVD the company releases (regardless of their involvement with the film). This intro is actually kind of funny. Just a little.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you've got to see the underdeveloped but well intentioned Pigs, make it a rental. There's a spark of cracked 1970s filmmaking and some genuine creeps, but not enough to keep it fresh for 80 minutes. Sorry, Lynn.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 01.26.06 | 
It's Toni time
Shock therapy bird
Star struck
Ketchup mishap
|
