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After eating tainted pork, a simpleminded woman turns into a genius and a botanist gains the ability to talk to plants. Cult hero writer/director Jon Moritsugu hasn’t made a film in more than a decade. His new partially-Kickstarter-funded lo-fi feature Pig Death Machine—cowritten by and starring his longtime muse and partner Amy Davis—is an exercise in garbage aesthetics not unlike Harmony Korine’s 2009 film Trash Humpers. Both directors gleefully mine the gutters and recognize the importance of their respective roles in the underground. Both seemingly LOVE to remind you that all the accepted mainstream rules about making films can and should be smashed into tiny bits, and both Moritsugu and Korine hate wimpy soundtracks, instead using the butchiest and best punk, metal, and weirdo rarities they can find. Unlike Korine, Moritsugu finds broad comedy in the world, and like much of his past work, Pig Death Machine is an absurdist social satire—this time featuring a small New Mexico town and two women who eat some freaky contaminated pork. One of the women, played by Davis, enjoys a higher IQ and some spiritual enlightenment after eating the bad meat. The other, played by the young Hannah Levbarg, can suddenly hear the voices of all of her houseplants after she eats the same rotten pig. Moritsugu makes a scene-stealing cameo in the film’s intro, playing a pig-tailed, freckle-faced prostitute. It’s all great weirdo fun
