★★★★☆
Big girls don’t cry, they exact bloody vengeance — at least that’s the expectation raised by Piggy’s publicity poster, which depicts an overweight teenage girl drenched in gore à la Carrie. But while this intelligent Spanish slasher gleefully sloshes on the high-tension splatter, it also delights in inverting generic tropes, dishing up a lip-smacking level of moral complexity.
Sara (Laura Galán reprising her role from a 2019 Goya-winning short), a small-town butcher’s daughter, is relentlessly fat-shamed by a trio of mean girls. So Sara’s conscience is tested when she stumbles across the three bullies being carted away in a van by a big bad serial killer (Richard Holmes). Will Sara squeal?
It all goes a bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the final act, but elsewhere there’s a beguiling and beautifully assured naturalism to the writer/director Carlota Pereda’s potent debut. The true horror here lies in casual human cruelty, and Galán’s fearless performance makes her one of the most memorable survivor girls in recent movie history.
18, 90min
In cinemas
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