{"id":340253,"date":"2025-12-10T03:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340253\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T03:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:31:13","slug":"pig-hill-director-on-his-wild-horror-movie-almost-dying-from-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340253\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pig Hill’ Director on His Wild Horror Movie, Almost Dying From COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKevin Lewis<\/a> first made a name for himself in the horror community by helming the 2021 film \u201cWilly\u2019s Wonderland,\u201d in which a mute Nicolas Cage plays a janitor fighting Chuck E. Cheese-esque animatronics that are possessed by the souls of cannibal serial killers. It\u2019s quite the hook, but just as his biggest indie movie yet was taking off, his life nearly came to an end.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had COVID at the time and was very close to death,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cI was saying goodbye to my family, and that was pretty intense. So when I got through that, it was carpe diem, seize the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, Lewis is all smiles while discussing his latest dark vision, \u201cPig Hill<\/a>,\u201d available Tuesday on VOD via Cineverse. Based off of a local legend out of Meadville, Pennsylvania, \u201cPig Hill\u201d is about Carrie (Rainey Qualley), a woman investigating missing people in the area and is introduced to the legend of mutant inbred pig people. Things get seriously dark and surreal from there.<\/p>\n

\n\tLewis was inspired to helm this out-there vision after he read the book that Jarrod Burris\u2019 script adapts, Nancy Williams\u2019 novel \u201cPig: A Supernatural Thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s based on true folklore for decades and decades that these people have grown up with about the pig people,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cI just thought it was such a fascinating story. It\u2019s a horror movie, but it\u2019s more like psychological horror, and there\u2019s a lot of drama to it. To me, good horror is drama. So the idea of it being grounded in something \u2026 There\u2019s a real Pig Hill, and what\u2019s crazy is you go to these bars and restaurants, and they\u2019ve got pictures of missing women, like milk carton pictures, like it\u2019s true. It\u2019s a small town, and you go in, and they have a Pig People Beer. So the legend is really big out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAppropriately, \u201cPig Hill\u201d was shot on location in Meadville, which helped Lewis achieve the spooky aesthetic he was aiming for with the material.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love horror and the fact that it\u2019s good drama,\u201d he says. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it comes to indie film shoots, directors are usually working against the clock with a shoestring budget. But Lewis says his brush with death changed his filmmaking philosophy, and he now embraces such challenges.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGoing forward and making these movies, it\u2019s very freeing,\u201d he says. \u201cHollywood will beat you down, man, it\u2019s hardcore. And I\u2019m a hardcore boss in my head as well. So coupled with that, it\u2019s very difficult. But ain\u2019t nothing hardcore as what I faced in the hospital with COVID. I don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s a breeze, but I\u2019m just enjoying the moment. Even when it\u2019s tough \u2014\u00a0sometimes money falls out, or schedules shift around, can\u2019t get the talent or whatever. I just try to enjoy the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that sunny disposition, Lewis has an ever-growing list of projects he\u2019s working on: There\u2019s \u201cOak,\u201d an urban myth about an oak tree that comes to life; a noir thriller called \u201cMisdirection\u201d; and a Jeremy Piven-starring horror comedy called \u201cDriver.\u201d He has a voracious desire to create, to try new genres, take new risks. And he\u2019s considering his legacy as an indie filmmaker.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m just committing myself to a body of work,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cSome people get hung up on \u2018This movie\u2019s got to be perfect\u2019 or \u2018This, that and da, da, da.\u2019 And I get that. I\u2019m a little older now. I\u2019m 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\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd when one of his movies hits the right audience, Lewis says there\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA couple of months ago, I met a kid, and he loved \u2018Willy\u2019s Wonderland,’\u201d he says. \u201cIt inspired him to start making movies with his iPhone. I thought, \u2018That is the coolest thing.\u2019 If someone saw my work and it inspires them, that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. It\u2019s all about paying it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the trailer for \u201cPig Hill\u201d below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Lewis first made a name for himself in the horror community by helming the 2021 film \u201cWilly\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,17839,206,17840],"class_list":{"0":"post-340253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-kevin-lewis","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-pig-hill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}