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.

Audrey Rose

Audrey Rose. Robert Wise, 1977.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.


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


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Curse of the Blair Witch

Curse of the Blair Witch. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999.

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Edition screened: Included on Lionsgate Blu-ray The Blair Witch Project, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 44 minutes.


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


This mockumentary originally was made for TV as an introduction and promo for the feature film The Blair Witch Project. It’s amusing, well made, and holds up much better than expected. If you like the feature film you probably will like this shorter teaser at least as much.



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Eno

Eno. Gary Hustwit, 2024.

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English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.


Summary: Eno considers killing a fly.


A friend provides these comments at Letterboxd. Check their other content also!


A wonderful anti-auteur, non-linear music journal (the word “bio” is false here because it implies someone else is telling the story. Rather, here, the software is randomly selecting files from a database, which can be added to at anytime—even after the film has been aired). This is the first ever generative film with millions of possible variations making it different every time you see it. 


But the generative mode of the film is but a complement to Eno themself who embodies the philosophy the film speaks to. Their emphasis on integration and surrender; the way they incorporate and are inspired by nature; their reframing of genius to scenius; and how they approach art as a fluid movement across a spectrum rather than remaining in fixed points; and even their equalising idea of suggesting that beyond all individual artistic conceptions, at the basis, all art is merely trying to convey emotion (similar to Deleuze’s affect theory); all this serves to show Brian Eno as one of the greatest living artistic minds and surely the first ever posthuman musician. Such an enjoyable experience. Every artist should see this!

(The one flaw was Eno wanting to kill a fly and so their symbiotic ideas of co-existence apparently falls short of including other animals. Eco, but still speciesist. Thus, eco Eno still has ego.)


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Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Rob Hedden, 1989.

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Edition screened: Included in Paramount Friday the 13th: 8-Movie Collection DVD set, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


Summary: During the opening credits we see a rat emerge from an open drum of slime in an ally. He comes to the surface and makes his way to the rim, soaked in gross goo, and stares at the camera clearly expressing that he is a professional rodent actor whose contract did not include being thrown into a drum of slime. At the 1:20:45 mark we return to Manhattan’s famous Slime District and see a dead rat floating on the top of another open drum.



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Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Volume 5

Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Volume 5. Joseph W. Sarno, 1966.

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Edition screened: Film Media/Film Movement Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Combined runtime of feature films approximately 176 minutes.


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


Volume 5 of the Sarno Retrospect Series includes:


Moonlighting Wives (1966)

The Naked Fog (1966)



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Lethal Ladies Collection

Lethal Ladies Collection. Cirio H. Santiago and Don Schain, 1974-1981.

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Edition screened: Shout! Factory 2-DVD set, released 2011. English language. Cumulative runtime of three films approximately 230 minutes.


Summary: Too Hot to Handle includes a cockfighting scene. The other two films have no particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


The Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature ‘Lethal Ladies’ Collection includes:


Firecracker (1981 Cirio H. Santiago)

TNT Jackson (1974 Cirio H. Santiago)

Too Hot to Handle (1977 Don Schain)


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The Lower Depths (Kurosawa)

The Lower Depths (Donzoko). Akira Kurosawa, 1957.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #239, released 2004. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.


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


The Criterion release also includes Jean Renoir’s 1957 adaptation of The Lower Depths.


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Moonlighting Wives

Moonlighting Wives. Joseph Sarno, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Film Movement’s Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Vol. 5 Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in this gently erotic film.



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The Sex Perils of Paulette

The Sex Perils of Paulette. Doris Wishman, 1965.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.


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


In this film, we share Paulette’s discouragement as she walks around NYC while nothing happens.   


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Zombie for Sale

Zombie for Sale (Gimyohan gajok). Lee Min-jae, 2019.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray released 2020. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.


Summary: Two brief scenes around the six minute mark suggest that a domestic rabbit has just been murdered. There is no violence, blood or other evidence, and an inattentive viewer probably would miss the entire implication.


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