Film Review: Squeal

About Squeal (2008) A dysfunctional rock band’s road trip takes a disastrous detour when their van breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Desperate to find help, the group stumbles upon a genetic experiment gone wrong and finds themselves trapped in a mutant-inhabited den of carnage.

Starring: Allison Batty, Kevin Oestenstad, Stephen Dean, Joe Burke, Kelly Jean Badgley

Directed by: Tony Swansey

Runtime: 79 minutes

Studio: E1 Entertainment

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Review: Squeal

Tony Swansey’s gruesome horror is Animal Farm meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a family of human/pig hybrids, the result of an experiment gone wrong, have sought refuge at an abandoned farm. Anyone unfortunate enough to wander into the vicinity is soon captured and brutally slaughtered. After watching one hapless fool killed at the outset, our focus turns to a band who hit the road to play some shows. Mika Hakkinen lookalike Mark (Kevin Oestenstad), Travis (Stephen Dean) and Tom (Joe Burke) are the band members and are joined by their manager and Mark’s girlfriend, Valerie (Allison Batty), as well as two groupies Travis has invited along – Mindy (Kelly Jean Badgley) and Cindy (Esther Claire). There’s a lot of friction in the group usually caused by the outspoken Travis and things do not improve when Tom crashes the van after swerving to avoid what looks like a child in the road. Mark, Valerie and Tom head back to a gas station for help but as it gets dark the nightmare begins for the group.

What do you do if your friends have gone for help and you’re left to watch over the van? If you’re Travis you have a threesome with your groupies but the fun is cut short by a pig man that abducts the trio and takes them to the farm. Mark, Valerie and Tom also end up being captured and thrown in cages. They’re not the brightest group either. Tom gets himself captured because he spots the pig man and a pig woman having sex in a barn and he decides to watch! When Mark manages to release Travis he abandons everyone and runs outside shouting which alerts the pig family and all six friends end up captured. The security in the farm is pretty poor too given how many times the friends escape but they can never get completely away. It’s clear that not all are going to survive and once the pig man gets to work on them it isn’t pretty.

Squeal is significantly less than 90 minutes but it does feel like a slow film in the build up. The characters are annoying so you’ll not be overly concerned what becomes of them. Once they end up on the pig family’s farm the violence begins though a lot of it is implied rather than on camera. There are brief snippets about the experiment that has created the man/pig hybrids but this element of the story is thin to say the least. The acting isn’t bad but it’s not inspiring either and with a limited budget we don’t get a good look at the pig woman. The pig child is plain bizarre, applying make-up in one scene while the pig man decides Valerie will look much nicer in a summer dress. Inevitably, the final stages of the film involve just a couple of the characters but the conclusion is both unsurprising and unsatisfying.

I’ll avoid any jokes about pigs and just say Squeal is severely lacking. A limited budget, the thin storyline and a group of characters that are hard to like derails this somewhat. If you’d have stuck pig masks on the family in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre then you may have ended up with Squeal. The difference is that Tobe Hooper’s film was eerie, had more of a story and better performances to elevate it away from the pit of obsolescence where Squeal is destined to sink.

Verdict: 1/5

(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)

About the Author:

I was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England and have always been a bookworm and enjoyed creative writing at school. In 1999 I created the Elencheran Chronicles and have been writing ever since. My first novel, Fezariu's Epiphany, was published in May 2011. When not writing I'm a lover of films, games, books and blogging. I now live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with my wife, Donna, and our six cats - Kain, Razz, Buggles, Charlie, Bilbo and Frodo.

David M. Brown – who has written 779 posts on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave.

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