PIGSKIN **** USA 2015 Dir: Jake Hammond. 14 mins
Made at Florida State University, this extremely well crafted, well-acted short follows a long line of American horror films offering gruesome metaphors for traumatic adolescent experiences.
Isadora Leiva gives a striking performance as a self-conscious, self-harming, bulimic teenager preparing for a date with a hunk and strangely haunted by an apparent disfigured apparition. A grim study of our body image-obsessed culture and of the thin line separating teenage alienation and self-destruction, this empathetic character study is wedded to horrific imagery, and pays off with a visceral finale leaving us to make up our own mind. Stand-outs are Leiva’s convincing, three-dimensional portrayal and the terrific soundtrack, including contemporary electronica from The Chromatics (“Kill for Love”) and Desire (“Under Your Spell”).
Review by Steven West