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.

Claire’s Knee

Claire’s Knee: Six Moral Tales #5/6 (Le genou de Claire). Éric Rohmer, 1970.

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Edition screened: Blu-ray included in Potemkine box set Coffret Éric Rohmer, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror. Various directors, 1915-2021.

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Edition screened: Severin Blu-ray box set, released 2021. Various languages with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 28 hours and 23 minutes.


Summary: Some films in the set have images of dead animals or depictions of violence to animals. Click on individual titles for details as they become available. 


This wonderful set from Severin includes diverse supplements of high quality and interest, and the following features:


  • Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (Kier-La Janisse, USA 2021)
  • Eyes of Fire (Avery Crounse, USA, 1983)            
  • Crying Blue Sky (Avery Crounse, USA, 1983)           
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Sam Weiss, USA, 1972)           
  • Transformations (Barbara Hirschfeld, USA 1972)           
  • Backwoods (Ryan Mackfall, UK, 2018)           
  • Leptirica (The She-Butterfly) (Djordje Kadijevic, Serbia, 1973)           
  • Štićenik (Djordje Kadijevic, Serbia, 1973)           
  • Devičanska Svirka (Djordje Kadijevic, Serbia, 1973)           
  • Witchhammer (Otakar Vávra, Czechoslovakia, 1970)           
  • Viy (Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov, Soviet Union, 1967)           
  • Satan Exultant (Yakov Protazanov, Soviet Union, 1917)           
  • The Queen of Spades (Yakov Protazanov, Soviet Union, 1916)           
  • The Portrait (Wladyslaw Starewicz, Soviet Union, 1915)           
  • Lake of the Dead (Kåre Bergstrøm, Norway, 1958)           
  • Tilbury (Viðar Víkingsson, Iceland, 1987)           
  • A White Spot in the Back of the Head (Viðar Víkingsson, Iceland, 1979)           
  • The Dreaming (Mario Andreacchio, Australia, 1988)           
  • Kadaicha (Stones of Death) (James Bogle, Australia 1988)           
  • Celia (Ann Turner, Australia, 1989)           
  • The Rabbit in Australia (CSIRO documentary, Australia, 1979)           
  • Alison’s Birthday (Ian Coughlan, Australia, 1981)           
  • Wilczyca (Marek Piestrak, Poland, 1983)           
  • Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (Janusz Majewski, Poland, 1970)           
  • Clearcut (Ryszard Bugajski, Canada, 1991)           
  • The Ballad of Crowfoot (Willie Dunn, Canada, 1968)           
  • You Are On Indian Land (Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell, Canada, 1969)           
  • Consume (Mike Peterson, Canada, 2017)           
  • Il demonio (Brunello Rondi, Italy, 1963)           
  • Dark Waters (Mariano Baino, Russia/UK/Ukraine/Italy, 1993)           
  • A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, UK, 2012)           
  • Anchoress (Chris Newby, UK, 1993)           
  • Penda’s Fen (Alan Clarke, UK, 1974)           
  • The Pledge (Digby Rumsey, UK, 1982)           
  • Robin Redbreast (James MacTaggart, UK, 1970)           
  • The Sermon (Dean Puckett, UK, 2018)           
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