Sundance Film Festival 2022 Screening – If PIGGY, aka Cerdita, proves anything it’s that teenagers have a shocking propensity for cruelty regardless of country. In this case, writer-director Carlota Pereda takes us to rural Spain where an “overweight” girl finds a dangerous ally after being ridiculed by mean girls. Pereda spins a yarn of newfound power to explore how far a scorned person might go to exact revenge. While not as graphic as I was expecting, the flip of the script in a conventional story along with the compassionate take on ridicule is a fiendish journey through a moral miasma.

Rubenesque Sara (Laura Galán) sits huddled behind the display case of her parent’s Butcher shop. Headphones on she has her nose buried in homework only occasionally glancing outside. There is a town festival is taking place and the street is alive with action. Soon, Maca (Claudia Salas), Roci (Camille Aguilar), and Elena (Pilar Castro) come into the shop to pick something up on their way to the pool for some fun. Later the three girls make a cruel post on social media that calls Sara and her parents the three little pigs. But that’s nothing.

Waiting for the major crowds to vanish from the local pool, Sara finally decides to go for a swim on her own. Only one other person, Desconocido (Richard Holmes), is there and she feels the coast is clear to enjoy herself. That is until Maca, Roci, and Elena return to the pool to pick something up, and the three decide to begin tormenting Sara again. This time, they get even nastier and steal all of Sara’s belongings. Broken and sad, Sara walks back home to the village and cuts through a forest path to avoid more ridicule from more cruel teens. That’s when she encounters the man from the pool. Desconocido, who now has Sara’s three torturers in the back of his van. They are beaten, bloodied, and in danger. Sara says nothing and the drifter leaves her alone.

Holmes’ performance is nearly wordless and perfectly counters not just by his bearish good looks, but by his concern for Sara. He is the one person in town that not only defends her but even exacts nasty revenge on those who harmed her. The film does lean into Sara’s persecution a bit much, almost to a grueling degree, but it is soon turned around to where you begin to root for the drifter. Selling it though rests on the capable talents of Galán and her wonderful performance as Sara. Galán carries this film on her portrayal of a ridiculed teen with no outlet aside from sugary treats. Her transition from quiet victim to a woman in charge is triumphant cheer-inducing.

Carlota Pereda’s PIGGY is a clever revenge thriller that mixes Last House on the Left and a bit of Mean Girls, resulting in an upended, if a bit extreme, coming-of-age horror film.

7 Out of 10