It seems that once upon a time there were two sisters who owned a pig farm. Sounds idyllic and rustic enough, but this ain't a fairy tale. The younger of the sisters, red-haired Bettie (a very charming Catherine Trudeau) is perfectly content in life to feed her pigs, run a hip-hop fan club, all the while carrying a baby for a sterile couple nearby. Bettie's older sister Sthepane (Isabel Richer) is not quite so simple hearted, however. She's got a weakness for gambling that's landed her in hot water all over, and she and her sister are now in danger of losing the farm. In her desperation, Stephane makes some shady dealings that she hopes will get her back in the black. Things naturally don't quite work out like she hopes.

In serious debt to a pair of frightening dope-smugglers (psychotic Paquette and thick, brooding Chose(aka Thing), played with zeal by Marcel and Verraeult), Steph agrees to let them grow some of their 'product' on her farmland. When various other parties come collecting, however, she makes the decision to sell Paquette and Chose's stash out to them as a means of settling up. But Steph underestimates the ferocity and suspicion of her criminal acquaintances, and they crash her home in search of what's theirs.

Around the same time, as fate would have it, Bettie comes due with her baby, which brings the foster parents a-running. A self-important snob and his overanxious, timid wife, they arrive just when things are starting to heat up with the crooks, who try desperately to restrain their vicious natures and fool the parents-to-be that they are just distant relations here to help, all the while keeping the sisters under a watchful, murderous eye. It's a performance that is alternately amusing and terrifying to watch.

Double crosses intersect with one another, twists start to multiply, and after not very long it becomes clear that a happy ending is by no means guaranteed in this movie. The performances are uniformly good...I was particularly struck by the villains, especially Jean-Nicolas Verraeult's Chose. On the surface an unarticulate hulk, but whose occasional bursts of thought bely a lot going on beneath the surface, making him all the more frightening.

This is a white-knuckler in parts, and all parties do not make it out safely on the other side, even some of the ones you'd bet good money would. And if Hollywood had made this flick, your bet would probably be pretty safe. That's the charm and joy of the lower budget discoveries...anything goes. And for what is, ostensibly, a traditional crime thriller, PIG'S LAW serves up more than enough honest charm and chills to make it work. Available, as far as I can tell, only in Canada, this is a flick worth watching if you can track it down. My only disappointment? Not enough pigs. Hey, they ARE mentioned in the title...

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