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An exclusive interview with director KEVIN LEWIS discussing the making of his latest horror film, PIG HILL.<\/p>\n
SYNOPSIS:\u00a0 \u00a0Carrie has been fascinated by the local legend of the pig people of Pig Hill, revolting creatures who breed and cause havoc in the area. As the tenth woman goes missing, Carrie can’t stop thinking that there could be more to these stories.<\/em><\/p>\nDirected by KEVIN LEWIS with script by Jarrod Burris, PIG HILL stars Shane West, Rainey Qualley, Shiloh Fernandez, and R.A. Mihailoff.<\/p>\n
KEVIN LEWIS is a filmmaker with a distinct directorial voice whose work I enjoy and respect, and who happens to be one of the nicest guys in the business. It was a joy to reconnect with Kevin for PIG HILL after conversations on his prior films, The Accursed<\/em> and the acclaimed Willy\u2019s Wonderland<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After multiple interviews together, the conversation between us doesn’t feel like a formal Q&A. There\u2019s an ease to it\u2014a shared shorthand\u2014that allows Kevin to jump straight into how PIG HILL works rather than what it\u2019s about. And for Lewis, that distinction matters. This is a filmmaker who thinks visually first, emotionally second, and structurally last.<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved movies that feel like waking dreams,\u201d Lewis says, citing Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/em>, David Lynch, and Italian giallo as long-standing touchstones. \u201cThat idea that you\u2019re awake, but something is\u2026 off. Reality keeps slipping.\u201d That philosophy became the backbone of PIG HILL<\/em>, a film he describes as deliberately moving between grounded drama and a \u201cfantasmic\u201d dream world without clearly announcing when one ends and the other begins.<\/p>\nKevin first encountered the project through familiar territory. One of his producers from Willy\u2019s Wonderland<\/em> sent him Jarrod Burris\u2019s script, adapted from Burris\u2019s novel. \u201cBy the time I hit the third act, I was like, \u2018I have to do this movie,\u2019\u201d Lewis recalls. What hooked him wasn\u2019t just the horror elements, but the thematic undercurrent. \u201cWe\u2019re living in this gaslighting, kind of grooming, isolating culture,\u201d he says. \u201cThe pig people are almost a MacGuffin. The real horror is psychological.\u201d<\/p>\nThat thematic focus immediately dictated the film\u2019s visual grammar. Working closely with cinematographer Tyler Eckels, Lewis set out to create a clear\u2014but flexible\u2014division between the real world and the nightmare spaces of Pig Hill. \u201cThe real world is Carrie\u2019s normal life, Andy\u2019s normal life,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat stuff\u2019s more classical\u2014sticks, Steadicam, nice clean moves.\u201d Once the film enters the barn, the cave, and the pig visions, that stability collapses. \u201cThat world is grungy, expressionistic. Dutched angles. Weird compositions. Shifting POV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Point of view was crucial, especially in the cave and barn sequences. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be her POV,\u201d Lewis insists. \u201cIt\u2019s very dreamlike, and it\u2019s what she\u2019s seeing. You\u2019ll notice there\u2019s never a master shot in there.\u201d That choice was intentional\u2014by denying the audience a clean overview, Lewis forces them into Carrie\u2019s subjective experience. \u201cYou\u2019re not watching it happen. You\u2019re inside it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Color becomes a storytelling language of its own. \u201cRed is the past,\u201d Lewis says, \u201cbut it\u2019s also the past bleeding into the present.\u201d As the film progresses, the palette intensifies, drifting from naturalism into full giallo territory\u2014deep reds, blues, greens. In the barn, those colors curdle into muddy browns and burning oranges. Lewis fought hard to include fire in those sequences. \u201cIt\u2019s primal,\u201d he says. \u201cCaveman stuff. Burning disgust.\u201d<\/p>\n
That obsession with tactile, memorable imagery extended to the pigs themselves.\u00a0 Kevin admits he was anxious about the design. \u201cI didn\u2019t want it to feel like just some pig mask,\u201d he says. \u201cIt had to stick. It had to be something you don\u2019t shake.\u201d Jason Baker\u2014known for designing The Black Phone<\/em>\u2019s Grabber mask and his work on Terrifier 3<\/em>\u2014handled all pig-related effects, from masks to puppets to the deeply unsettling pig baby. \u201cJason did such a great job,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cWe looked at tons of references together, and we just kept pushing until it felt right.\u201d<\/p>\nEven the distinction between the adult pig mask and the child pig mask was carefully considered. \u201cThat kid pig is very specific,\u201d Lewis notes. \u201cIt\u2019s tied to Uncle Jack. It needed to feel different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casting carried the same weight. \u201cThis was not an easy movie to cast,\u201d Lewis says plainly. When Shiloh Fernandez finally committed, it marked a turning point. \u201cWhen Shiloh said yes, I was like, \u2018Okay. Now we\u2019ve got the movie.\u2019\u201d He describes Fernandez as \u201ca fire that just keeps burning,\u201d while Rainey Qualley brings what he calls a \u201ctranscendent quality\u201d that keeps the audience emotionally tethered, no matter how strange things become. Shane West, meanwhile, grounds the film. \u201cYou feel for Andy,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cHe\u2019s humble. He\u2019s been through something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin was particularly focused on the brother\u2013sister dynamic between Chris and Carrie. \u201cChris is always overwrought, always tweaking,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd Carrie\u2019s constantly defending him, excusing him. That tension is there from the start.\u201d Andy, by contrast, is revealed slowly. \u201cYou don\u2019t really know him until the third act,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cBut the breadcrumbs are there. Eventually, they make a full cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the edit, Lewis and his longtime editor Ryan Liebert faced the challenge of shaping a dense, twist-heavy narrative into something propulsive. \u201cThe assembly was like two hours and ten minutes,\u201d Kevin laughs. \u201cWe had to get ruthless.\u201d Still, clarity mattered. \u201cI knew some scenes dragged, but I also knew I needed the information.\u201d One experimental solution involved a montage Lewis pitched as feeling \u201clike a videotape rewinding,\u201d flashing through fragments as the story snaps into focus. \u201cRyan took that idea and just crushed it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Sound ultimately became the glue holding everything together. Composer Emoi\u2019s score is neither traditional horror nor conventional drama. \u201cIt\u2019s more sound design than score,\u201d Lewis says. Inspired by Dead Calm<\/em>, Goblin\u2019s\u00a0 1977 Suspiria<\/em>, and Lewis\u2019s own habit of listening to The Cure throughout production, the music breathes, squeals, and blurs into the environment. \u201cWe used breath sounds, pig squeals\u2014stuff that messes with you,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou don\u2019t always know where the music ends, and the sound begins.\u201d<\/p>\nEditing and score worked in tandem to reinforce the film\u2019s central goal. \u201cI stopped worrying so much about whether everyone would \u2018get\u2019 everything,\u201d Lewis admits. \u201cI just wanted it to feel right. I wanted the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of the conversation, PIG HILL emerges as a natural evolution of Kevin Lewis\u2019s sensibilities\u2014more confident, more visually aggressive, and less interested in hand-holding. It\u2019s a film designed to linger, to haunt through image and mood rather than explanation. Talking with someone who clearly understands his rhythms, Lewis seems comfortable leaving a little mystery behind.<\/p>\n
And let’s not forget what Kevin has coming down the pike for us as he talks about that as well!<\/p>\n
TAKE A LISTEN. . .<\/strong><\/h2>\nby debbie elias, exclusive interview 12\/05\/2025<\/p>\n
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PIG HILL is available on VOD from Cineverse.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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