‘Pig Hill’ Director on His Wild Horror Movie, Almost Dying From COVID

Kevin Lewis first made a reputation for himself in the horror community by helming the 2021 movie “Willy’s Wonderland,” during which a mute Nicolas Cage performs a janitor preventing Chuck E. Cheese-esque animatronics that are possessed by the souls of cannibal serial killers. It’s fairly the hook, however just as his largest indie film yet was taking off, his life practically got here to an end.

“I had COVID at the time and was very close to death,” Lewis says. “I was saying goodbye to my family, and that was pretty intense. So when I got through that, it was carpe diem, seize the day.”

Indeed, Lewis is all smiles while discussing his latest darkish imaginative and prescient, “Pig Hill,” obtainable Tuesday on VOD through Cineverse. Based off of a local legend out of Meadville, Pennsylvania, “Pig Hill” is about Carrie (Rainey Qualley), a lady investigating lacking people in the space and is launched to the legend of mutant inbred pig people. Things get significantly darkish and surreal from there.

Lewis was impressed to helm this out-there imaginative and prescient after he read the ebook that Jarrod Burris’ script adapts, Nancy Williams’ novel “Pig: A Supernatural Thriller.”

“It’s based on true folklore for decades and decades that these people have grown up with about the pig people,” Lewis says. “I just thought it was such a fascinating story. It’s a horror movie, but it’s more like psychological horror, and there’s a lot of drama to it. To me, good horror is drama. So the idea of it being grounded in something … There’s a real Pig Hill, and what’s crazy is you go to these bars and restaurants, and they’ve got pictures of missing women, like milk carton pictures, like it’s true. It’s a small town, and you go in, and they have a Pig People Beer. So the legend is really big out there.”

Appropriately, “Pig Hill” was shot on location in Meadville, which helped Lewis obtain the spooky aesthetic he was aiming for with the materials.

“I love horror and the fact that it’s good drama,” he says. “But you can build an interesting, creative world with colors and mood and still get the truth of Meadville, and the fact that these people would exist and live in this town. So that was the balancing act.”

When it involves indie movie shoots, administrators are normally working against the clock with a shoestring price range. But Lewis says his brush with dying modified his filmmaking philosophy, and he now embraces such challenges.

“Going forward and making these movies, it’s very freeing,” he says. “Hollywood will beat you down, man, it’s hardcore. And I’m a hardcore boss in my head as well. So coupled with that, it’s very difficult. But ain’t nothing hardcore as what I faced in the hospital with COVID. I don’t want to say it’s a breeze, but I’m just enjoying the moment. Even when it’s tough — sometimes money falls out, or schedules shift around, can’t get the talent or whatever. I just try to enjoy the moment.”

With that sunny disposition, Lewis has an ever-growing record of initiatives he’s working on: There’s “Oak,” an city fable about an oak tree that involves life; a noir thriller called “Misdirection”; and a Jeremy Piven-starring horror comedy called “Driver.” He has a voracious need to create, to strive new genres, take new dangers. And he’s contemplating his legacy as an indie filmmaker.

“I’m just committing myself to a body of work,” Lewis says. “Some people get hung up on ‘This movie’s got to be perfect’ or ‘This, that and da, da, da.’ And I get that. I’m a little older now. I’m reflecting back on things. I just want to create and work with good people and make cool projects. Not every one is going to be A+. I’m working in the indie space, with budgets and time and all that. But I just like creating and committing to a body of work, and looking back at making a legacy, my little minuscule cinematic footprint in this world.”

And when one in every of his motion pictures hits the proper viewers, Lewis says there’s nothing prefer it.

“A couple of months ago, I met a kid, and he loved ‘Willy’s Wonderland,’” he says. “It inspired him to start making movies with his iPhone. I thought, ‘That is the coolest thing.’ If someone saw my work and it inspires them, that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about paying it forward.”

Watch the trailer for “Pig Hill” below.