Wild Boar follows a group of geocachers who stumble upon a cluster of bloodthirsty mutant pig people. That's it.
Wild Boar Review
Wild Boar is what happens when a guy known for make-up and special effects decides to take a shot at directing a micro-budget Hills Have Eyes homage, but with a slight monstery twist. That pretty much sums up this movie. As is often the case with situations like this, the quality (and most of the budget) is poured into the effects work with everything else being an afterthought. Which means you will be forced to tolerate a swath of garbage to get to the pig fun.
I will say that I went into Wild Boar with only the expectation to see some fun practical effects, and this film has that in spades. I couldn't help but recall the incredibly frustrating and disappointing Barge People and how uninventive the effects work and action sequences were. While Wild Boar leaves a lot to be desired, it knew what made it worth watching and delivered on that front.
The practical effects are the one and only highlight, but examining the visceral and grotesque mutants is a nasty joy all to itself. The detail put into some of them feels beyond what the budget likely called for. With many films of a similar ilk producing a fraction of this quality, it was a pleasant surprise. It feels like a rated-R Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' villain origin story, but, you know, awful.
Sadly, the rest of the film is virtually unwatchable. The writing and acting are abysmal, with only spurts of technically sound camera work. If it weren't for the fantastic 80s practical pig mutants, this movie would have been a complete waste of time. In fact, it was admittedly tedious even when the mutants were on screen, but torturous when they weren't.
As tends to happen in films like this, the creators seem to be convinced the only way to get the film seen is to spread through word of mouth, usually through shock value. The film feels like an attempt at capturing what little magic can be found in Rob Zombie's grittiest attempts and the torture porn of The Hills Have Eyes, making for a shallow, nasty, and yet somehow boring picture that fails to master anything it likely hoped to achieve.
The chances were that a likely-microbudget movie about killer mutant pig men wasn't going to impress in a review and this film doesn't beat those odds. But, the film at least had an element of it I found impressive through the practical effects, mutant suits, and attention to the visual details. But everything else is so bad, it's hard to recommend beyond just enjoying the screenshot above.
Horror Rating System
Horror Qualifier: 9/10
Horror Quality: 5/10
Film Quality: 2/10
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