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.

Zombie Flesh Eaters

Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombie / Zombie 2 / Woodoo). Lucio Fulci, 1979.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. Original English or Italian language tracks. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Details: A zombie appears to take a bite out of a shark during their underwater battle, but the shark swims off happily after chomping on the zombie.

Bonus Points! …
In the tiny makeshift hospital on Zombie Island we see cages of hamsters and rabbits, apparently for experimental use by the doctor as he tries to solve the mystery. Considering the famous violence and gore of the film, it seems inevitable that we will see these poor animals tortured to death. But No! Maybe Fulci just never got around to it, but the lab animals are never touched.

Bonus Points Multiplier! …
The dirt streets of the village are full of wandering dogs, chickens, and goats. If this were a coming-of-age story set in Ohio about a couple of fun-loving guys who have a stupid band, the mere presence of meandering animals means you can count on at least one being pointlessly murdered. So take a setting of extreme poverty in a tropical environment, add Voodoo culture and you get … No Animal Killing? Almost unbelievable.

Zombie Flesh Eaters is know by many other titles, partially because Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was released in Italy as Zombi, leading to the re-titling of ZFE as Zombie 2 to eliminate and expand confusion. Call them what you like, just don’t call them late for dinner.

Zombie Flesh Eaters is considered to be one of the best Zombie films ever, one of the best Italian horror films, and often one of the best horror movies of the 70s.

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