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.

Baby Driver

Baby Driver. Edgar Wright, 2017.

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Edition screened: TriStar Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Curse of the Puppet Master

Curse of the Puppet Master. David DeCoteau (as Victoria Sloan), 1998.

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Edition screened: Full Moon DVD, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Meg 2: The Trench

Meg 2: The Trench. Ben Wheatley, 2023.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.


Summary: Killing of CGI-osaurs by humans and other CGI-osaurs. 


Details: The first five minutes of the film is a computer-generated sequence showing prehistoric animals killing and eating each other to demonstrate the hierarchy of predators. The final thirty minutes of the film is a prolonged battle in which humans kill various types of prehistoric creatures that are attacking vacationers at an island resort.

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The Meg

The Meg. Jon Turteltaub, 2018.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.


Summary: Recurring killing of and by large sea creatures. Bloody, but no worse than films with ‘normal’ mutilation of fish for sport.


Details:

1) Numerous scenes of the giant shark attacking other sea creatures, with blood and body parts.

2) Two somewhat graphic scenes of humans killing large sea creatures. The first is when Rainn Wilson has depth charges dropped into the ocean, and we then see an enormous mangled bloody body alongside the boat. The second is the concluding action sequence in which Jason Statham graphically attacks and kills the megalodon.


** The small dog that swims toward the shark returns unharmed. **  


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Mysterious Object at Noon

Mysterious Object at Noon (Dokfa nai meuman). Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #875 in box set #873 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2, released 2017. Thai language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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The Omen III: The Final Conflict

The Omen III: The Final Conflict. Graham Baker, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included in 20th Century Fox The Omen Collection Blu-ray set, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.


Summary: Fox hunting.


Details: A traditional fox hunt with horses and hounds begins as 53:55. One fox is forced from his hiding spot at 54:38, caged, then released unharmed. A second fox is shot off-screen, found dead, then dragged through the woods to create a scent trail for the dogs through 58:51.



The Omen Collection includes:

The Omen (1976 Richard Donner)

Damien: Omen II (1978 Don Taylor and Mike Hodges)

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981 Graham Baker)

The Omen (2006 John Moore)

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The Omen (Moore)

The Omen. John Moore, 2006.

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Edition screened: Included in 20th Century Fox The Omen Collection Blu-ray set, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


Summary: Ferocious dogs attack trespassers in a cemetery. We see the men swing iron objects to hit the dogs and the gesture of punching the dogs in the face, but we do not see any actual blows land or injured animals.


The smashed bowl of goldfish from the original 1976 film is replaced here with a smashed potted plant. 


The Omen Collection includes:

The Omen (1976 Richard Donner)

Damien: Omen II (1978 Don Taylor and Mike Hodges)

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981 Graham Baker)

The Omen (2006 John Moore)


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Postwar Kurosawa

Postwar Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa, 1946-1955.

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Edition screened: Criterion Eclipse Series #7 5-DVD set, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 593 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


This 7th volume in Criterion’s Eclipse Series includes the following films. See individual titles for details.


No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)

One Wonderful Sunday (1947)

Scandal (1950)

The Idiot (1951)

I Live in Fear (1955)


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Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead. Edgar Wright, 2004.

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Edition screened: Included in The World’s End/Hot Fuzz/Shaun of the Dead 3-Pack, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


Summary: Early in the film, a man in a park prepares to bite the head off of a pigeon; no resolution shown.


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Sick of Myself

Sick of Myself (Syk pike). Kristoffer Borgli, 2022.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray, released 2023. Norwegian  with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.


Summary: A dog is harassed in one scene, timing uncertain. 


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Smile (Ritchie)

Smile. Michael Ritchie, 1975.

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Edition screened: Fun City Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Snatched

Snatched. Jonathan Levine, 2017.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Southern Comfort

Southern Comfort. Kate Davis, 2001.

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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: Several nauseating heaps of meat are cooked up, but no depictions of killing those animals.


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Take Me Naked

Take Me Naked. Michael & Roberta Findlay (as Julian Marsh and Anna Riva), 1966.

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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 71 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.


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The Third Eye

The Third Eye (Il terzo occhio). Mino Guerrini, 1966.

😿😿

Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, released 2022. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.


Summary: Taxidermy studio.


Details:

1) The first scene in the taxidermy studio provides an overview of Franco Nero’s projects, mostly birds but also some mammals including a white domestic cat and a deer (10:45-12:29).

2) A return to the taxidermy studio at 15:25 starts abruptly with the violent disemboweling of a dead hawk, followed by unclear but less violent tasks through 19:48. Action in the studio is intercut with scenes of the housekeeper cutting the brake line of the fiancé’s car and the fiancé driving away angrily. Ruh roh!

3) Dead parakeets on the floor of a large bird cage, 38:26-38:30.

4) A very upset parrot is tormented with a broom handle by deranged Frank Nero, 43:40-44:30.

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Vengeance Is Mine

Vengeance Is Mine. Michael Roemer, 1984.

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Edition screened: Film Desk Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Les visiteurs du soir

Les visiteurs du soir (The Devil’s Envoys). Marcel Carné, 1942.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #626, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.


Summary: Unkind and stressful situations for animals, although we see no actual harm come to them.


Details:

1) A trained bear has chains wrapped around his head and is led away walking upright, 6:38-7:00.

2) Lucifer smashes a vase of flowers in a hissy fit, and numerous snakes are released from the vase as it breaks on the floor, 1:29:10-1:29:13.



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Welcome to the Dollhouse

Welcome to the Dollhouse. Todd Solondz, 1995.

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Edition screened: Radiance Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


Two kids are playing in a little cubby house while the camera pans briefly to a dead bird in a box, 13:08-13:12.


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The Witch: Subversion

The Witch: Subversion (Manyeo). Park Hoon-jung, 2018.

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Edition screened: Warner Bros. Blu-ray, released 2020. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.


Summary: A pack of vicious dogs is released on a young girl 1:25:26. Cut to her covered in blood after killing them all, and we see one dog lying in blood, 1:25:46-2:25:49.


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The Witch in Love

The Witch in Love (La strega in amore/Strange Obsessions). Damiano Damiani, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, released 2022. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


Summary: Murdering of cats.


1) A dead cat is found among the plants, 25:26-26:33, strangled and with a rope around its neck.

2) A live cat with a rope around its neck is dragged through a courtyard, 1:25:52-1:26:07. The cat is sprawling, hissing and resisting in every way possible.


These scenes are easily skipped, leaving an interesting adaptation of Carlos Fuentes’ novel Aura.


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The World’s End

The World’s End. Edgar Wright, 2013.

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Edition screened: Included in The World’s End/Hot Fuzz/Shaun of the Dead 3-Pack, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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