Film Review - Boar (2018)

A rural Australian town becomes the literal stomping ground of a gigantic blood crazed boar. Can the plucky locals band together with a visiting family to halt its vicious rampage?

Director Chris Sun delivers a full throttle monster pig picture that succeeds in the crucial areas of b-movie madness and also manages to achieve a surprisingly solid narrative along the way. The cast is judicially assembled, populating the movie with identifiable characters we can root for.

Man Mountain Nathan Jones steals the show as the intimidating yet loveable Bernie, serving as the focal point for much of the action and the humour in the zingy script. There is even a witty meta reference to his role in Charlie’s Farm.

The all-important creature effects are fabulous with a thankfully scant reliance on CGI, preferring instead to utilise earthily visceral practical means. The beast appears muscular and powerful and you can almost smell the foul odour of this grotesque swine. POV shots enhance the killer set pieces and intensify the peril. Boar makes overtures towards the Jaws blueprint of drip-fed creature revealing but is not afraid to place its rogue brute front and centre.

The gore is a juicy mixture of grue and wince-inducing sound design that escalates with each attack, complemented by some savage aftermath shots.

The gorgeous scenery is expansively captured and the night segments refuse to hide behind the murky darkness leaving the whole thing looking far more aesthetically pleasing than you might expect.

Breezily vicious and intimately dramatic you should definitely make this your next speedboat sized killer pig flick.