After a series of encounters, a vicious serial killer uses his operations as a pig farmer for the cover he needs to carry out the crimes he commits to placate his damaged upcoming, and when an equally damaged young woman comes into his life she finds herself the next potential target of the madman.

Overall, this is a fun enough genre effort. One of the finer aspects here is that this one manages to provide a solid background on the exploits of the killer. Given a rather novel approach here with the mistreated pervert who just so happens to kill women due to the in-depth relationship status that this utilizes with the constant flashbacks reminiscing on the bullying he suffered as a kid as well as the incestuous nature of his relationship with his mother. This all provides the kind of cliched if still worthwhile setup for the kind of story that's being told here as the type of sleazy antics on display as an adult focus on the graphic dismemberment of the corpses in full detail. This provides the kind of graphic gore and sleaze with how it deals with showing the sexuality at the heart of the matter to provide some likable factors. There are some issues with this one. The main one here is the overlong and excessive running length that comes with some rather unnecessary sidestories that cause this. As so much of the exploits of his crimes revolve around the systematic dismemberment of his victims before feeding them to his pet pig, a lot of this grows increasingly repetitive following the same admittedly disturbing setups but it's not enough to overcome how familiar a lot of this is. That also extends to the cliched amount of setup at play here involving the daughter's drug-induced lifestyle that draws her together with him that follows so many cliched and familiar tropes that run the film out far longer than it should detailing her home strife and then later meeting him that runs through a lot of the film. These are what end up holding the film down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Graphic Full Nudity, heavy drug use, and sex scenes.

Having read a book on the pig farmer Robert Pickton, I was familiar with most of the details in the film. Jake Busey is well cast as the serial killer. He and his brother inherited a large farm and sold a portion of it for a couple of million dollars. They hosted parties with attendees being mostly bikers and drug addicted prostitutes. Cocaine was provided by the genial hosts and after many years of missing sex workers the Canadian cops took an interest in the mystery.

A massive pig is the costar and he is extremely well fed by Robert with the severed body parts of the wayward women.

Unfortunately, the accompanying soundtrack is loud and intrusive. The main artist actually performs live at a party and the man has no musical talent and he should change career paths.

A former porn star named Ginger Lynn is cast as Robert's incestuous mother. The storyline is not for the squeamish.

Luckily, I stayed past the final credits as there is a scene with Pickton in jail reminiscing over his final body count.

Other than a solid lead performance by Busey, I was unimpressed with Killer Pig.

Serial killers will always be a curiosity for many of us. It takes us to the edge of society, and we are able to witness the most heinous acts of depravity from the safety of our armchairs. And although Netflix has a good stronghold on qualitative serial killer documentaries, Pig Killer chooses to go with the "based on a true story" moniker and run with it.

When we first meet Pickton, he's already well-established in his routine. There's very little insight into his beginnings, except for brief flashbacks of him having rather passionate sex with his own mother (played by the legendary Ginger Lynn). This is probably the most unsubtle way to suggest that Pickton himself was born out of depravity and humiliation. In fact, when Pickton picks up his first victim Brenda (Bai Ling), he asks her to call him "Piggy". This could possibly be the handle that he was bullied by since many had also commented on his farm-like body odour.

The "Brenda incident" as we shall call it, is probably the best insight into Pickton's misogynistic rage. And her murder is only the beginning, as we're then treated to some necrophilia, dismemberment, and disposal - all under the watchful eye of Balthazar, his muscle-bound hog.

What is rather odd (I found) is the tongue-in-cheek approach taken to the proceedings. Pickton isn't painted as the embodiment of evil as such, but rather a misguided pervert who happens to kill women. And there are subtle (and not so subtle) attempts at dark humour strewn about the place. This does give the movie an entertainment factor, well, before you have to slap yourself on the wrist and remind yourself that you shouldn't be enjoying such sleaze at all.

Overall, Pig Killer is more enjoyable than I would like to admit. Jake Busey does his dad proud with his own shade of mentally deranged and if you're a hardened horror movie fan, Pig Killer is a real treat.