Squeal Review: A Discomfiting Fairy Tale
The "once upon a time..." joyful endings popularised by Disney princesses and imaginative storytelling are what fairy tales, as we know them today, evoke. While some of the earliest fairy tales portray gruesome tales that highlight the dark side of human nature, their true origins are even deeper. Squeal, directed by Aik Karapetian (who also co-wrote the script with Aleksandr Rodionov), is a dark comedy that combines a befuddling tone and an unsettling experience. It is situated somewhere between the macabre fairy tales of the past and the happy endings audiences are accustomed to seeing today. Even though some of these contradictory parts don't work well together, the overall effect is still unpleasant.
When searching for his father in a "place he's never heard of," Samuel (Kevin Janssens), sometimes known as Chef sam, comes finds a pig galloping down the middle of the road. sam doesn't know exactly where he's heading and doesn't understand the language of the area. He brings the woman he meets while looking for the pig home with him, and she offers him a place to stay. But Kirke (Laura Silia), the woman, doesn't live alone. They cage Samuel up naked, treat him like a pig, feed him slop, and threaten to chop him up as pig chow before her father, a pig farmer, arrives. Things might get better once Samuel wins over the farm's owner by helping Kirke, and a possibly supernatural pig might even point Samuel in the direction of salvation.
Squeal steadily uncovers an unpleasant and disturbing story beneath its austere surdata-face as the farmer's ambitions for Samuel come to light. A shocking scenario that emphasises the concepts of control features Samuel turning more and more ferocious, crawling down on his knees, and barking like a dog while dressed in a suit. Janssens gives his all as Samuel, who is simultaneously perplexed by his captors and slowly devolves into a Stockholm Syndrome-like state that contradicts the situation he's in. Even so, he can't help but attempt to flee, and in one terrifying sequence, he manages to locate a car before Kirke discovers him.
In the end, Squeal benefits from this dreamy quality. The movie introduces other farmers who keep a man like an animal as well, however this time the man is kept as a dog-like creature. Squeal provides intriguing ideas by demonstrating how men of wealth exercise influence and power over those they can. When viewed through the lens of a fairy tale, it never goes far enough, which ultimately looks like a squandered opportunity for the movie.