Pig Pen

Title: | Pig Pen |
Director: | Jason Koch |
Writer(s): | Mark Leake, Jason Koch, Clint Kelly |
Cast: | Lucas Koch, Vito Trigo, Nicolete Le Faye, Josh Davidson, Michael Brecher... |
Genre(s): | Drama, Revenge |
Release Date: | 2015 |
Jason Koch came to my attention back in 2013 via 7Th Day, an awesome excursion into the mind of a serial killer! Reviewing the film I got an amazing honour by being quoted on the back cover of the latest release go 7Th Day in 2015.
Now it is 2015 and along comes Jason’s third film, Pig Pen. To say I was excited is an understatement of the century. Following the news updates and what have you I knew we would be in for another solid film. Then the Indiegogo campaign came a long and it was only natural for me to contribute!
Only recently my contribution from the fundraiser arrived, my very own copy, numbered and signed!
Pig Pen
…is the nickname the kids at school call Zack!
Living with his mother, life ain’t so hot. Hardly any food in the house, mother is a pill popper and God knows what else. She has a dream though, that is to get a good job working with computers to get the money needed to make a move forwards in life.
But there is one problem. A very nasty, controlling one at that. Her boyfriend Wayne. He tells her there is no hope, feeds her drugs and brings his friends over to fuck her.
Zack is told by Wayne to go out and fend for himself. Bring back $50.00 or he will be booted out. Thus roaming the streets he does what he has to to survive! Along the way he learns how life is cheap when you are at the bottom and that you better harden up or get chewed and spat out.
Then the worst thing in the world happens to the only person who cares for Zack. Wayne discovers Zack’s mother’s plans and teaches the cruelest lesson possible. He takes Zack and ties him up, a purchase for a Paedophile thrill killer.
Breaking loose Zack hits back in the most violent way possible, each blow and hack retribution for years of misery and heart ache!
“Go home you white trash piece of shit!”
For some life offers little hope. Going home isn’t such a great option!
When you are down and from the wrong side of town no one gives a fuck about you.
Life is cheap and you are just meat for the predators to feast on. Or you are the latest find for some do good-er to make themselves feel like a hero. Anyway you put it people just want you there while they benefit! When this passes you are just thrown off to the side with all the other garbage of humanity. A victim off in a gutter somewhere, a carcass with no more use.
Life becomes a day to day battle to just survive. If you are lucky and fit in in some way just maybe you will be treated special.
Jason considers Pig Pen a drama. I am going to go farther and use the term Black Drama!
Pig Pen is told through both present tense along with flashbacks to certain elements that add up to the bloody conclusion that leads Zack to his retribution towards Wayne. Unsure if others picked this up but the flash backs had an interesting aspect that I dug. Conversations felt that they came from a television show audio wise. At first it didn’t click, but then on the second scene of this I was like fuck hey I dig this!
Another class act character wise. Jason hit the target spot on with the people he got to portray his three main characters! Lucas Koch as Zack, Nicolette Le Faye as the mother and Vito Trigo as Wayne. Each brought something special to their characters, it felt real. Inter-relationship between mother and son then Wayne, who really has the air of a nasty cunt! But in mentioning these three everyone involved in this black drama plays their parts well.
Interspersed through the story line is Zack’s travels on the street and some hard lessons.
He witness a man being bashed to death by two men. These guys run off then the last of the victims life blows away as Zack watches on. Later Zack is knocked off his skate board and terrorised by two street thugs. One gets his back when a bigger fish arrives and blows his head off to teach others a lesson. He tells Zack he is smart for keeping his head down. Whet happens to Zack’s mother, which was quite nasty indeed! Our do-gooder finds out that some people just don’t give a fuck to his own detriment! Naturally, the ending with what Zack has to do to survive and reich retribution onto his tormentor, Wayne.
With this violence comes very well down effects from Jason’s team at Aftermath FX Studio www.aftermathfxstudio.com Everything just looks so damned good and nasty! It felt right for the storyline and the guys don’t hold back!
A deeply disturbing take on reality from the point of view of a person surviving at the bottom of the pond. Pig Pen doesn’t pussyfoot around and pretty things up! It is a take on the hardships of life in a broken home and out on the mean streets.
Irony in the end is the guy I quoted in the above having a bumper sticker stating “Choose Compassion”.
Jason Koch is a name to keep an eye on. Talented on a number of levels I have yet to be left feeling even the remotest disappointed to say the least! Jason has the talent to bring out the dark and disturbing, the horrific and along with all this, blood and gore! Truly creating future classics of the Underground / Indie scene from the start, at least with 7Th Day (2013) and Pig Pen (2015) anyway, I have yet to his debut experience Lamplight (2011)!
Pig Pen will be available through Dire Wit Films www.direwitfilms.com As you just read I highly recommend picking up a copy when you can! In the meantime visit the Face Book page https://www.facebook.com/Pig-Pen-806503509361272/ and hit the LIKE to show support to this masterpiece in Black Drama.