Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind

Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind (Delírios de um anormal). José Mojica Marins, 1978.
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Edition screened: Included in Anchor Bay 5-DVD set The Coffin Joe Collection, released 2009. Portuguese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: Inappropriate handling of animals.

Details: From 1:06:35 through 1:11:23 we see five 2- or 3-second sequences of mice suspended by their tails or toads suspended by their bodies in front of a pair of breasts.

Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind tells the story of a man, an esteemed psychiatrist no less, who has fallen under the power of Zé do Caixão and believes that the fictional character is a real threat to his marriage and his sanity. The victim’s fellow psychiatrists are not able to help, so they call Zé himself to provide bedside consultation explaining the difference between films and reality. After much struggle, a breakthrough is reached and the mentally afflicted man comes to understand that it’s just a movie . . . I won’t ruin the surprise at the end, but it rhymes with Or Is It?

Marins’ films are a big coffin-shaped mixed bag. Recurring ideas tend to be more harangues than themes, visual concepts show both continuity and disregard of style, and macabre props and images often succeed in making the viewer think of hell and torture, one way or the other. The long hallucination sequences in Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind provide a 15-year retrospective of the Coffin Joe films, and this is accomplished in an effective, comparatively enjoyable way.

And Marins does not just provide clips. Film elements are remixed and rarified in bursts that suggest both nightmare imagery and the latin disco culture in which Hallucinations was made, often resulting in a superior aesthetic product. Such is the case with scenes of tarantulas crawling on the bodies of sleeping girls from The Strange World of Coffin Joe, more effective in 4-second bursts alternated with contrasting images than in the original longer sequence. Two early Coffin Joe films included elaborate Welcome To Hell sequences, quite costly and extravagant comparatively, but suffering from excessive length and poor acting. The edits of both Hell sequences in Hallucinations provide us with the best images diced into interesting montage recalling Kenneth Anger, rather than too-long parades of the damned around puddles of evil goo. With the preceding films fresh in my mind, I noticed that many elements in Hallucinations actually were outtakes or alternate shots, often in color when the source films were presented in B&W. Many other elements were not recognized by me, possibly deleted scenes or originating in films not in the Anchor Bay box set, or new to Hallucinations.

The big triumph in Hallucinations probably is Marins do-over of the opening dance sequence from Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures. The presentation in Strange Hostel is mesmerizingly horrid with the adjective trouncing the adverb, due largely to an obvious lack of rehearsal. Big tough-looking Brazilian women in chiffon harem pants, looking at one another nervously, trying to synchronize their lunging and arm swinging. I think Marins realized that this could have been awesome but lacked polish even by his standards. The second effort in Hallucinations is far superior, somewhat awesome. The girls and costumes are more attractive, the choreography and sets are better, and there has been substantially more rehearsal.  It should be clarified that Harem Dance 2.0 is not the opening sequence for Hallucinations. That spot is reserved for a hunchback dwarf who strikes a drum while ceremonially circling an attractive bikini-clad woman.

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