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Piggy

1/10

Stars: Martin Compston, Paul Anderson, Louise Dylan, Ed Skrein, Neil Maskell, Josh Herman, Jumayn Hunter, Roland Manookian

Director: Kieron Hawkes

An excuse for sickeningly excessive violence on screen, Hawkes' film plumbs new depths in the Brit crime-flick genre. Photographed in rotten colour, it centres on Joe (Compston), a mild loner who describes his life as 'the progression of the almost sane'.

He sinks further into self-despair when his extrovert brother John (Maskell) is involved in a pub brawl which results in his subsequent death at the hands of the thugs he confronted, led by the murderous Jamie (Skrein).

Alone in his dingy flat, Joe is visited by Piggy (Anderson), who claims to have been best buddies with John at school, and persuades Joe to embark with him on a campaign of revenge, with Piggy beating the five yobs involved to death, one by one.

The rest of the film is a catalogue of bloody details, with Joe gradually relishing the visceral thrill of it all. That's more than an audience will, especially given the doomy slowness of scenes between the extreme violence. Anderson and Compston give decent performances in a repugnantly lost cause.

David Quinlan

UK 2012. UK Distributor: Metrodome. Colour by Movietech.
106 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 0, Swearing 3.

Review date: 30 Apr 2012