Razorback (1984)

49% of users liked it
(2,631 ratings)

Before he directed the cult classic Highlander (1986), music video creator Russell Mulcahy adapted this stylish, tongue-in-cheek horror film from the novel by Peter Brennan. Gregory Harrison stars as Carl Winters, a grief-stricken American husband who has come to a remote corner of Australia to seek… More Before he directed the cult classic Highlander (1986), music video creator Russell Mulcahy adapted this stylish, tongue-in-cheek horror film from the novel by Peter Brennan. Gregory Harrison stars as Carl Winters, a grief-stricken American husband who has come to a remote corner of Australia to seek answers in the death of his wife, a TV journalist who was investigating a story on kangaroo poaching. Carl meets Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr), a man obsessed with hunting down what he says is an enormous razorback boar that consumed his grandson. Although he was acquitted, most of the locals believe that Jake murdered the boy himself and invented the crazy story about a giant pig. Jake tells Carl that he believes the razorback is also responsible for his wife's death. At first skeptical, Carl becomes a believer when he encounters the beast. He and Jake track it to a dog food processing plant, where the owners are illegally butchering kangaroos for industrial use. The factory operators are also feeding the dog food to the gigantic razorback, increasing its size and carnivorous appetite. Joined by farmer Sarah Cameron (Arkie Whiteley), Carl and Jake set out to kill the powerful mutant. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 36 min.
Directed By: Russell Mulcahy, Arch Nicholson (II)
Written By: Peter Brennan, Everett De Roche
Genres: Art House & International, Horror

In Theaters: Jun 1, 1984 Wide
On DVD: Aug 31, 1994
Studio: Warner Home Video

Critic Reviews

Clint Morris, Moviehole
Jaws with a wiggly tail! Ferocious and Fun!
Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily
The atmosphere of the Australian Outback makes this a decent oversized-creature-on-the-loose thriller.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Ken S

Great movie, bad giant pig.
Luke B

Razorback starts off rather grizzly. Killing off a child and thus cementing it's intentions. Razorback isn't gonna take any prisoners. Some years later, a female journalist shows up and through a surprising series of events, her fiancÃ© soon shows up. Razorback is Jaws with… More
Razorback starts off rather grizzly. Killing off a child and thus cementing it's intentions. Razorback isn't gonna take any prisoners. Some years later, a female journalist shows up and through a surprising series of events, her fiancÃ© soon shows up. Razorback is Jaws with a pig, but with a few novel twists. The outback setting is suitably dry and dead and very lonely. There was one character I could not stand. He ruined the film for me, and went from goonish comic relief to kneecap hacker. There was no consistency in the writing of this character or the acting and I genuinely hated every second he was on. Edit him out and this could have been really great.
Dr Blood

The "Mad Max" feel of the outback adds to the isolation and vulnerability of the main characters as they hunt the dreaded "razorback" before it finds them.
Matthew Y

The only reason I saw this was that a movie website ranked it as one of the best Australian horror movies. Considering Rogue was not on the list I should have known better. Razorback is a basic over-sized creature feature with a typical low-budget cinema quality screenplay and weak… More
The only reason I saw this was that a movie website ranked it as one of the best Australian horror movies. Considering Rogue was not on the list I should have known better. Razorback is a basic over-sized creature feature with a typical low-budget cinema quality screenplay and weak acting. Some people say the pig itself is impressive looking. That might be true but I wouldn't know because the total time it spends on screen wouldn't even equal 90 seconds. One interesting and well done dream sequence is the only real highlight here. The director went on to make Highlander so he obviously has something to bring to the table but this is not a film I'd want on my resume. Not worth your time at all, I've seen a few made for TV films that were better.
Ed Fucking H

A pretty amusing and entertaining "animal invasion" horror movie, ala Jaws, but taking place in the Austrailian Outback and dealing with an oversized mutant hog. Opening scene, a grandfather loses his grandchild to the beast. He is put on trial as nobody believes his story… More
A pretty amusing and entertaining "animal invasion" horror movie, ala Jaws, but taking place in the Austrailian Outback and dealing with an oversized mutant hog. Opening scene, a grandfather loses his grandchild to the beast. He is put on trial as nobody believes his story of an oversized Razorback Hog, but ultimately his charges are dropped due to lack of sufficient evidence that he was responsible. A few years later an American journalist goes to the outback to do a story on the plight of Kangaroos in the area. However she soons runs into the ghastly hog and meets an unfortunate fate, but not before having a run in with two horny hillbillies. This brings the womans husband to the outback to find out what went wrong. Eventually he has a run in with the beast as well, thus leading to the movies final showdown. This was actually the second time I had seen this and I think I enjoyed it a little more the first time, where I saw it on TV at a friends house over beers and spliffs. In the end it still wasn't very memorbale, but a lot more entertaining that time around. I think the movie suffers due to unoriginality and Austrailians seeming inability to take anything seriously. That being said this is still amusing, I just don't think it's anything overly exceptional. A good movie to watch with friends over beers I suppose, but nothing really special either. Still worth a watch for fans of 80's camp horror and horror comedies.
Barry L

This is such a nasty early eighties aussie flick with some damn fine pigs......very tense.
FanGirl B

It's just crazy bad. I saw this on "MonsterVision with Joe Bob (Briggs?)" That show was so funny, I almost forgot about it.