Audrey Rose. Robert Wise, 1977.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Curse of the Blair Witch
Curse of the Blair Witch. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999.
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Edition screened: Included on Lionsgate Blu-ray The Blair Witch Project, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 44 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This mockumentary originally was made for TV as an introduction and promo for the feature film The Blair Witch Project. It’s amusing, well made, and holds up much better than expected. If you like the feature film you probably will like this shorter teaser at least as much.
Eno
Eno. Gary Hustwit, 2024.
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English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.
Summary: Eno considers killing a fly.
A friend provides these comments at Letterboxd. Check their other content also!
A wonderful anti-auteur, non-linear music journal (the word “bio” is false here because it implies someone else is telling the story. Rather, here, the software is randomly selecting files from a database, which can be added to at anytime—even after the film has been aired). This is the first ever generative film with millions of possible variations making it different every time you see it.
But the generative mode of the film is but a complement to Eno themself who embodies the philosophy the film speaks to. Their emphasis on integration and surrender; the way they incorporate and are inspired by nature; their reframing of genius to scenius; and how they approach art as a fluid movement across a spectrum rather than remaining in fixed points; and even their equalising idea of suggesting that beyond all individual artistic conceptions, at the basis, all art is merely trying to convey emotion (similar to Deleuze’s affect theory); all this serves to show Brian Eno as one of the greatest living artistic minds and surely the first ever posthuman musician. Such an enjoyable experience. Every artist should see this!
(The one flaw was Eno wanting to kill a fly and so their symbiotic ideas of co-existence apparently falls short of including other animals. Eco, but still speciesist. Thus, eco Eno still has ego.)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Rob Hedden, 1989.
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Edition screened: Included in Paramount Friday the 13th: 8-Movie Collection DVD set, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.
Summary: During the opening credits we see a rat emerge from an open drum of slime in an ally. He comes to the surface and makes his way to the rim, soaked in gross goo, and stares at the camera clearly expressing that he is a professional rodent actor whose contract did not include being thrown into a drum of slime. At the 1:20:45 mark we return to Manhattan’s famous Slime District and see a dead rat floating on the top of another open drum.
Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Volume 5
Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Volume 5. Joseph W. Sarno, 1966.
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Edition screened: Film Media/Film Movement Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Combined runtime of feature films approximately 176 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Volume 5 of the Sarno Retrospect Series includes:
Moonlighting Wives (1966)
The Naked Fog (1966)
Lethal Ladies Collection
Lethal Ladies Collection. Cirio H. Santiago and Don Schain, 1974-1981.
😿😿
Edition screened: Shout! Factory 2-DVD set, released 2011. English language. Cumulative runtime of three films approximately 230 minutes.
Summary: Too Hot to Handle includes a cockfighting scene. The other two films have no particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature ‘Lethal Ladies’ Collection includes:
Firecracker (1981 Cirio H. Santiago)
TNT Jackson (1974 Cirio H. Santiago)
Too Hot to Handle (1977 Don Schain)
The Lower Depths (Kurosawa)
The Lower Depths (Donzoko). Akira Kurosawa, 1957.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #239, released 2004. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Criterion release also includes Jean Renoir’s 1957 adaptation of The Lower Depths.
Moonlighting Wives
Moonlighting Wives. Joseph Sarno, 1966.
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Edition screened: Included in Film Movement’s Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Vol. 5 Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in this gently erotic film.
The Sex Perils of Paulette
The Sex Perils of Paulette. Doris Wishman, 1965.
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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
In this film, we share Paulette’s discouragement as she walks around NYC while nothing happens.
Zombie for Sale
Zombie for Sale (Gimyohan gajok). Lee Min-jae, 2019.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray released 2020. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.
Summary: Two brief scenes around the six minute mark suggest that a domestic rabbit has just been murdered. There is no violence, blood or other evidence, and an inattentive viewer probably would miss the entire implication.
The Ballad of Crowfoot
The Ballad of Crowfoot. Willie Dunn, 1968.
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Edition screened: Included in the Clearcut BD in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.
Summary: Buffalo hunting.
Details:
1) Historical clip of white people hunting buffalo and the field of bleached bones they leave behind, 3:04-3:23.
2) Quick historical clip of a buffalo falling after being shot (less than half a second), 9:33.
The Boxer’s Omen
The Boxer’s Omen (Mo). Kuei Chih-hung, 1983.
😿 😿 😿
Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Shawscope: Volume Two, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.
Summary: Ritualistic killing and torture of two chickens.
Details: Two psychic battles between a boxer-turned-monk and practitioners of Black Magic consume over half of this film’s runtime. In the first battle, the evil sorcerer performs outrageous rituals in his (lab?, game room?) decorated like the waiting area for the scary show at an amusement park. The monk sits calmly in a temple and counters his attacks. The second battle is rooted in arcane Thai magic, alluringly psychedelic rather than spooky in the traditional Chinese or Japanese taste. Both sequences hinge on the mystical power of stop-action claymation.
Although the evil magicians’ spells hinge primarily on the persecution of rubber animals, two live chickens also are cruelly victimized. The killing of these chickens compromise what otherwise would be a uniquely entertaining film.
1) From 16:32 through 18:25, a silly rubber bat is repeatedly killed and resurrected. The final minute of that sequence includes a real black rat which the sorcerer repeatedly pretends to bite into and spits simulated rodent blood on various Halloween decorations from aisle #2 in Home Depot.
2) This scene of ritual conjuring continues to include real vipers having their venom ‘milked’ (ick) into a glass container, through 24:22. The snakes do not appear to be particularly annoyed or even interested in the fact that rubber spiders are then supercharged with their venom.
3) A live rooster is decapitated and his blood thrown around to generate more evil rubber bats, 43:17-44:10.
4) A real crocodile is provoked with a weapon, then a rubber prop is used for the ensuing scene in which the fake crocodile is eviscerated and used as a resurrection coffin for a female demon, 58:10-59:27.
5) A live chicken’s protruding anus is sliced off and eaten family-style as part of the demon resurrection ritual, 1:03:41-1:04:15.
A Child Is Waiting
A Child Is Waiting. John Cassavetes, 1963.
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Edition screened: Watched in a theatre. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Clearcut
Clearcut. Ryszard Bugajski, 1991.
😿😿😿
Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: Ritual and hunting violence.
Details:
1) A Native American calmly bites the head off of a small living snake and spits it out, 30:04-30:11.
2) A fish in a stream is speared with a pointed branch and pulled from the water, 48:28-48:43.
3) Lunk-head hunters can’t find the poor moose they’ve shot through the neck, but we see the animal lying in agony, 54:04-54:12.
4) A small spider is eaten alive, 54:45-54:50.
The Clearcut BD in the Severin box set also includes:
The Ballad of Crowfoot (1968 Willie Dunn)
You Are On Indian Land (1969 Michael Mitchell)
Consume (2017 Brunello Baino)
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