Piggy review – thrilling and contemplative sun-drenched Spanish horror

The metallic smell of blood and the salty aroma of fresh meat make up the familiar scent wafting from a butcher's shop. The vocation is proudly passed through generations like a family heirloom. In Piggy, however, the butcher’s daughter resents the inheritance. Our heroine is called a “pig” and oinked at on the regular by a bunch of mean girls whose unrelenting bullying knows no bounds. But while the shop is a backdrop in this striking blend of coming-of-ager and horror-thriller, the opening shots of a slaughterhouse, sharpened knives, and bloody fingerprints are a sign of what’s to come.

A hit at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Carlota Pereda's Piggy is a surprisingly sun-drenched but increasingly bloody adaptation of her award-winning short film of the same name. The film’s introduction gives us introverted Sara (Laura Galán) bearing the brunt of a trio of merciless bullies. One afternoon, they attempt to drown her, before stealing her clothes and leaving her to walk home in her underwear. Watching on is a mysterious bearded man (Richard Holmes) who, like a twisted guardian angel, decides to take justice into his own hands. He kidnaps the perpetrators, leaving Sara to watch on, mortified, as her tormentors vanish.

Left in ethical purgatory, Sara has a decision to make: go to the police or exist in quiet bliss for a little longer. This is the film’s main contemplation, but not its only one. Piggy is, at the same time, a compelling and nuanced portrait of the growing pains of a young, fat woman facing adolescence. Despite the warming colour palette of the sleepy Spanish countryside, there’s nothing rose-tinted about this depiction of self-conscious youth; bubblegum-stained lips are wiped clean as the sweetness of childhood turns bitter.

Sara (a modern homage to the slasher film’s awkward teenage girl) proves a brilliantly multidimensional character as she wrestles with her relationship with the rampaging stranger, prone to leaving her sweet snacks in his wake. Galán delivers a performance unobstructed by typical stereotypes, brilliantly encapsulating a quiet teenager who's fiddling with suppressed emotions, sharing her overbearing mother’s (Carmen Machi) outline, and grappling with new realms of courage doused with empathy.

Piggy may not be perfect, but it ultimately serves as a considered depiction of fatness, unlike The Whale – soon to populate cinema screens and filmic discourse – a more manipulative portrait of obesity that views the fat body as grotesque. Despite a somewhat muddled final act, Piggy’s avoidance of shallow and didactic reflections on body size mark it out as a real treat.

Piggy is released in UK cinemas on January 6.