Pig (1998 film)

Plot

Running about 23 minutes, Pig is a disjointed, heavily stylized and minimalistic film depicting a serial killer (Williams) journeying out to an abandoned house in Death Valley where he proceeds to ritualistically murder an unidentified man (Hollan). The film details their unspoken relationship through sadomasochism and symbolism.

The movie opens with the scene of the black-garbed killer preparing to disembark from a small house. The individual places several items into a brief case, appearing among them a deck of cards, a notebook, and a copy of the children's novel Mr. Pig and Sonny Too — an actual publication written in 1977 by the American author Lillian Hoban.

The individual closes up his brief case, standing upright and turning to reveal on camera the bleeding, half-naked body of another man lying prostrate on the floor. The living man kicks aside the corpse of the dead one and continues downstairs, placing his belongings into a black car and driving away along a deserted road.

The driver continues through the outstretched desert with power lines lining the side of the dirt trail. His vehicle passes an outcrop of rocks with an inscription painted on its face. Although perhaps being unintelligible, it appears to read either as "ELLE" or "ELLIE". Another sign crops up immediately after, written in black, reading Dead Man’s Point though this is almost unreadable.

The film cuts to another individual, the unidentified man (Hollan), masked in white bandages covering his head. He wanders through the desert until reaching a telephone pole and sitting down, cross-legged.

The driver's car pulls up to the side of the road, and the masked figure enters on the passenger's side. The two drive down another path and stop at a small house. Upon exiting the vehicle the film continues to a shot of the driver/killer leading the masked figure by a rope which binds his wrists, all the while carrying his brief case. The dilapidated doorway to the house is shown to have the number "1334" laid out in small bones at the top, otherwise adorned with dominoes, a crucifix, caution tape, a glove, a knife, and various photographs of someone's arms and head being bound.

As the camera zooms onto the door frame, the scene cuts to the victimized masked man's arms being tied with gauze tape, and then finally at the bottom of the doorway a box of dominoes opens up to reveal a keyhole. Through the keyhole a pig mask can be seen sticking through a broken wall. It is revealed that the killer is wearing the mask and pacing about the house.

The scene cuts again to a corridor in the house—the word "Look" is graffitied along the wall where the masked man is bound at the wrists to a rope connected to the ceiling. The camera spins around the room before showing the two men outside again, this time the masked victim being led by his rope into a cellar. There the victimizer empties his entire brief case, among his things a deck of pornographic cards, a large metal key, a wig, a black die with a chaosphere engraved on one side, a bondage mask, gloves, a chain, a bowie knife and other assorted cutlery, a cleaver, a pair of pliers, papers, at least two pairs of scissors, a plastic funnel with a feeding tube, and (perhaps most importantly) a book entitled Why God Permits Evil, among other items.

The captor places his hand on the head of the now once-more bound-to-the-ceiling victim and pulls part of the bandage-mask from his eye, exposing his darting gaze and sense of fear. A collection of pliers, knives, scissors, syringes, and other instruments from the briefcase can be seen below.

In the next scene the killer is turning through the ages of Why God Permits Evil, revealing strange, graphic art and religious quotes. The camera then cuts to the victim, his head still gauzed, with the feeding tube in his mouth. The killer pours what appears to be blood through the funnel, into victim's mouth, causing him to gag and choke, spitting it up onto his naked torso.