Leofwine_draca Mainstream character actor Marc Lawrence found himself blacklisted during the '50s and was forced to flee to Europe for a decade. On his return, he found himself producing and directing all kinds of low budget fare including PIGS, his only horror movie. This ultra-bizarre tale was made on a shoestring budget and pairs not one but two psychopathic characters in a very slow moving tale of murder and madness that's pretty predictable. Bizarrely the film fell foul of British censors although I don't really see why. The gore effects that pop up throughout the movie are shoddy and unrealistic with severed body parts oozing bright-red fake blood, although the cockroach running through the grue is pretty artistic and original.Beauty Toni Lawrence (daughter of the director) stars as Lynn, a girl who starts off getting raped by her dad. She murders him in self defence and is carted off to an insane asylum, escaping about five minutes later far too easily. Lawrence goes to live in the country, where she meets would-be suitors and inevitably ends up butchering them when they try to have sex with her or alternatively when she's reminded of her father. The film tries to get inside Lynn's mind and explore her disturbed character, so throughout we're subjected to cheesy childish rhymes and lots of disturbing squealing from the filthy pigs which send her insane. Lawrence isn't bad at all as the lead and is pleasing on the eye to boot.Her new housemate is crazy old Zambrini, played with sleazy relish by the director himself in an excellent little performance. Zambrini goes out grave robbing at night, finding corpses to feed to his beloved pigs. The pigs of the title are actually pretty disturbing, especially when they run around in the dark terrorising people, and the exploitation angle is played for all its worth. Unfortunately the rest of the characters are a bunch of stock clichés, like the dumb sheriff or the asylum guy, and the acting apart from the two leads is appalling. Generally, PIGS is a difficult film to sit through due to the snail-pace story and the poor production values. It's one of those films where everything happens in the dark and you end up with eye strain through trying to watch it. Irritating music and a stupid twist ending adds to the overall effect but PIGS not without charm; it manages to be disturbing and dumb in equal measure whilst the loony tag-team of the central pairing is enjoyable to watch.

Tromafreak Yet another Troma acquisition which was clearly meant for Something Weird Video. Pigs, aka, Daddy's Deadly Darlings is one of about a thousand inept, no-budget rural Horrors's from the same era. Few of which are not even half as inept as this one. Directed by Marc Lawrence, and starring daughter, Toni Lawrence, as a crazy person (Lynn) on the run after stabbing her pa to death, after a raping. This chick knows how to disappear, as she couldn't have found a more empty nothing of a town if she tried. Lynn finds work and a place to chill with local crazy person, Zambrini, a pig farmer. The fact that Lynn starts to kill people normally might not go over too well with the old man, but his extremely noisy pigs only happen to eat human flesh, so, he's actually glad to have her around. It's just a win-win situation. On the back of the DVD case, it says Pigs has paved the way for stuff like Last House On The Left, and The Hills Have Eyes, and well, it also refers to Pigs as a cult classic. Sorry, guys, but I wouldn't even call that an exaggeration. This is a terrible, dull pile of garbage and to be honest, I'm having a hard time thinking of stuff to say about it. Although, the fact that Pigs was clearly edited by someone who is legally blind, always makes me laugh. That really is the best part. Seeing pieces of scenes repeat themselves is rare, even in the world of B-cinema. So, Pigs definitely deserves extra points for that. Other than that, not really any gore to speak of (unless I missed it), and no witty one-liners to make you chuckle, and well, not really much of anything but terrible lighting, irritating squeals, and a keen little song which sorta reflects the premise. Not a good movie. Hell, not even a good B-movie, but if you like 'em bad, then you're in for a good time. 5/10

Coventry Ladies and Gentlemen, the hall of 70's exploitation obscurity proudly presents "Pigs", a movie made by, made for and – of course – largely revolving on … Pigs! Just in case you're looking for a totally incompetent yet strangely fascinating and one of a kind drive in class-sick, I warmly recommend this movie which Marc Lawrence (supportive cast member of such acclaimed classics as "Key Largo" and "The Asphalt Jungle") wrote, produced, starred in and directed entirely by himself! "Pigs", which is a much easier and equally appropriate title to use instead of the official "Daddy's Deadly Darling", blends two main story lines that are typical 70's exploitation guff (meaning: absurd and utterly tasteless), yet the wholesome feels refreshing and unique. The opening sequences introduce Lynn Webster. She's a beautiful and impressively voluptuous young girl who has just slain her father because he couldn't keep his hands to himself and a certain other body part inside his pants. One minor problem, however, Lynn refuses to accept her daddy is dead and she even escapes from the asylum to search for him. Why she desperately wants to be reunited with the guy who physically abused her is just one of the many weird kinks in the plot that remains unexplained and neglected. I guess it's because she's mentally unstable and those people tend to desire weird things. Anyway, she arrives at a remote countryside diner where funny farmer Zambrini employs her as a waitress. Zambrini has a couple of issues of his own, though. To a corpse he stole from the local morgue he explains how his pigs accidentally developed a taste for human blood. It started when they devoured a drunkard who fell asleep in their barnyard, but now they exclusively crave human flesh. The rest of the film is pure but amusing nonsense, with Lynn gradually losing whatever's left of her sanity and Zambrini desperately collecting corpses to keep his porkers satisfied. Jesse Vint stars as the handsome Sheriff investigating the odd events at Zambrini's farm and, like any other male character, he falls for Lynn's gorgeous rack. "Pigs" guarantees 80 minutes of uncompromising and demented 'Rednecksploitation' fun! Naturally it's a horrible film, complete with amateurish acting performances and dialogs that appear to have been written by the pigs, but trained admirers of cinematic 70's smut won't be able to resist it. The camera-work looks hideous, Marc Lawrence clearly never heard of editing and the make-up effects wouldn't even scare a child. "Pigs" also features a misfit but incredibly catchy theme song called "Somebody's Waiting For You" (misfit songs were almost obligatory in 70's drive-in classics) and the endlessly repeated "La la lalalla la la" tunes. Marc Lawrence donated the role of Lynn to his real-life daughter Toni, presumably to launch her career. It must have been awkward, for the both of them, to shoot all the sequences where she wears a revealing and too tight nightgown. Do I sense incestuous undertones? Sure, why not … Everything goes in the wondrously twisted world of 70's exploitation, right?

EyeAskance A doolally feature so disjointed that it makes you feel like you've been drinking Everclear all night, PIGS is one of the more underrecognized films in the 70s horror canon. An attractive girl fresh from the funny farm-(she killed her Father for you-know-what)-takes a waiting job in a Mayberry-hick diner operated by an old wacko who keeps a pen of flesh-hungry swine(a perfect disposal for those dead bodies that keep turning up).Enjoyable soup-kitchen quickie with a groovy bubblegum pop intro, PIGS is plenteous with off-base appeal, and is a moderately more proficient contribution than the standard hireling-level picture of its day.5.5/10