An interview with 'Pig Death Machine' director John Moritsugu

Interview by Bob Ignizio

John Moritsugu has been making committing his unusual visions to cinema since 1985, usually in collaboration with his wife Amy Davis. He kept up a fairly steady pace, releasing such features as MY DEGENERATION, MOD FUCK EXPLOSION, and SCUMROCK until writer's block struck for about a decade. He finally got past that with the help of Davis, and the result is his latest film, PIG DEATH MACHINE, which screens this weekend at the Cleveland Cinematheque. I recently had the chance to ask John about his career and latest film, and this is what he had to say.

Pig Death Machine (May 23rd and 24th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[PIG DEATH MACHINE screens Friday May 23rd at 7:30 pm and Saturday May 24th at 9:30 pm. No one under 18 admitted.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Mixing influences from the east coast “Cinema of Transgression” movement spearheaded by Nick Zedd and the comedic shock value epics of John Waters with a candy-colored plastic eroticism reminiscent of Gregory Dark's misanthropic pornos, John Moritsugu's PIG DEATH MACHINE proudly and boldly proclaims that the spirit of underground film is alive and well in the twenty-first century. Of course it's a lot harder to shock with mere sex and violence these days, so aside from a delightfully unerotic sex scene involving two girls, one wearing a pig mask, PDM doesn't really try. Which is not to say for a minute that this film is anything less than profoundly weird and disturbing.