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.

The People Under the Stairs

The People Under the Stairs. Wes Craven, 1991.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: Killing of a dog.

Details:
1) A Rottweiler is electrocuted and whimpers to the floor, apparently dying, 33:58-34:10. He reappears soon, apparently fine.
2) Everett McGill stabs something through a wall at 1:02:35, and we see the Rottweiler collapse again through 1:02:58. 
3) The truth of the stabbing is revealed as the dog collapses yet again and finally dies, 1:03:42-1:03:46.

There are some laudable aspects of this film. Most prominent, the plot condemns exploitation of impoverished tenants by greedy landowners, and generally mocks crazy white people and their abusive behavior. Beyond that, some people are into Sean Whalen and dig his performance as Roach, the lead Person Under the Stairs. Finally, we have Wendy Robie and Everett McGill (Nadine and Big Ed in Twin Peaks) as the insane antagonists, delivering funny, good performances at about the same time they are popular in Lynch’s TV drama.

In order for a viewer to consider this a passably “good” film, one of those three specific attributes must be appealing. If you aren’t interested in the social justice message or in one of the cult performers, The People Under the Stairs is 100 minutes of frantic people chasing each other through endless secret passages in a huge house, and you are wrong if you think, Oh that might be entertaining.


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