Author Robert Mailer Anderson plumbed the depths of his life in the California north woods with his novel “Boonville,” in 2001, a tale of hippies, rednecks and yuppies in the Anderson Valley. He’s at it again – in a different format – with “Pig Hunt,” a horror-action-comedy film co-written with his cousin, Zach Anderson, which plays at midnight today and Saturday at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore in San Francisco.
The gist: A group of multi-culti San Francisco friends go to the woods hunting for a 3,000-pound pig and run into life-or-death trouble with survivalist mountain folk and a hidden cult.
The $6 million indie, filmed in 33 days in Northern California with local actors and music by former Primus bass player Les Claypool and was co-produced by director Robert Mailer Anderson and director Jim Isaac (“Jason X”). Genre fans will find all the prerequisites: blood and guts, car chases, drugs, violence and (occasional) naked women. For the more cerebral city film snob, the script is peppered with sociopolitical commentary and one-liners.
Horror flicks have propelled director-producers to greater fame – notably Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead” and “Spider-Man”); and James Cameron (“Piranha Part Two: The Spawning,” “Titanic”).
Mailer Anderson is patterning himself after John Sayles (“The Secret of Roan Inish,” “Lone Star,” among others.) Wait. “Make that a more intense, fun-house-mirror reflection of John Sayles,” he said.
What they’re saying about “Pig Hunt”:
Went to see the 35mm premier of PIG HUNT last night in San Francisco as a midnight movie, primarily because the director and producer were going to be there to talk about the movie. They were no-shows, just a “sorry” xerox on the ticket booth glass 30 minutes before showtime. Kind of a bummer. The movie isn’t that bad, it’s a fun horror flick with some surprisingly good acting. What’s messed-up, however, is that while they show a sweet boar head of “The Ripper,” the 3,000-pound killer boar, they don’t show the whole animal. Totally defeats the purpose of a movie about a killer pig that stands about six feet tall at the shoulder and weighs more than most cars, when they don’t show the animal in perspective with people.
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Comment by Scott Sigler 04.11.09 @ 10:09 am