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.

N titles


click Title for details Animal Violence Immaculate Corpse
Nada Heavy The expansive middle
Nadja in Paris Clean The expansive middle
The Naked City Clean The expansive middle
Naked Girl Murdered in the Park Clean The expansive middle
Naked Lunch Minimal The expansive middle
Naked Sexes Clean The expansive middle
The Naked Zoo Clean The expansive middle Sterno
Napoléon Minimal The elusive top
Napoleon Dynamite Minimal The expansive middle
Narc Clean The expansive middle
Nashville Clean The elusive top
Nasty Nurses Clean The expansive middle
Nathalie Clean The expansive middle
Nathalie Granger Clean The elusive top
Native Land Clean The expansive middle
Natural Born Killers Substantial The expansive middle
Naughty Girls Need Love Too! Clean The expansive middle
Naughty Network Clean The expansive middle
Naughty Nurse Clean The expansive middle
Naughty Words Clean The expansive middle
Nausicaa Clean The expansive middle
The Navigators Clean The expansive middle
Nazi Basters & Bombshells Minimal The expansive middle
Necktie (Lanthimos) Clean The expansive middle
Necrology Clean The expansive middle
The Neighbor Substantial The expansive middle
Neil Young: Heart of Gold Clean The expansive middle
Nekromantik Heavy The expansive middle
Nekromantik 2 Heavy The expansive middle
The Neon Deon Clean The expansive middle
Never Let Go Substantial The expansive middle
Never on Sunday Clean The expansive middle
Never Sleep Alone Clean The expansive middle
The Never-Starting Story Clean The expansive middle
New Battles Without Honor and Humanity Minimal The expansive middle
New Improved Institutional Quality … Clean The expansive middle
The New Land Substantial The expansive middle Natural History
The New Tale of Zatoichi Clean The expansive middle
The New Testament Clean The expansive middle
New World (Park) Clean The expansive middle
The New World (Malick) Minimal The expansive middle
The New York Hat Clean The expansive middle
New York Stories Clean The expansive middle
News from Home Clean The expansive middle
Next Door (Sletaune) Clean The expansive middle
Niagara Clean The expansive middle
Night and Fog Clean The expansive middle
Night and the City Clean The expansive middle
A Night at the Roxbury Clean The expansive middle
The Night Before Christmas (Selick) Clean The expansive middle
The Night Bird Clean The expansive middle
Night Caller Clean The expansive middle
Night Court (Foy) Clean The expansive middle
Night Creatures Clean The expansive middle
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Clean The expansive middle
The Night Hustlers Clean The expansive middle
Night Mail Clean The expansive middle Britten/Auden
Night Music Clean The expansive middle
Night of the Bloody Apes Minimal The smeary bottom
Night of the Comet Clean The expansive middle
Night of the Demon Clean The expansive middle
The Night of the Hunter  Clean The elusive top
Night of the Living Dead Clean The expansive middle
The Night of the Shooting Stars Minimal The expansive middle
Night of the Spanish Fly Clean The smeary bottom
The Night of the Strangler Substantial The expansive middle
Night Owl Clean The expansive middle
Night Tide Clean The expansive middle
A Night to Remember Clean The expansive middle
Night Train Clean The expansive middle
Night Watch Clean The expansive middle
Nightbeast Clean The expansive middle
Nightbirds Substantial The expansive middle
Nightmare Clean The expansive middle
Nightmare Alley Clean The expansive middle
Nightmare Sisters Clean The expansive middle
Nights of Cabiria Clean The expansive middle
Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 1  Substantial The expansive middle
Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 2 Substantial The expansive middle
The Niklashausen Journey Clean The expansive middle
Nine Queens Clean The expansive middle
The Ninja Trilogy Clean The expansive middle
Ninja III: The Domination Clean The expansive middle
Nishi Ginza Station Clean The expansive middle
No al no: Visca el piano! Clean The expansive middle
No Country for Old Men Minimal The expansive middle
No End Clean The expansive middle
No Greater Love (The Human Condition I) Heavy The expansive middle
No Hard Feelings Clean The expansive middle
No Home Movie Clean The expansive middle
No More Excuses Clean The expansive middle
No Regrets for Our Youth Clean The expansive middle
No Such Thing Clean The expansive middle
No, the Case Is Happily Resolved Clean The expansive middle
Non-Stop Clean The expansive middle
Noriko's Dinner Table Clean The expansive middle
Norma Rae Clean The expansive middle
Norte, the End of History Minimal The expansive middle
The Northman Substantial The expansive middle
Nosferatu (Herzog) Clean The expansive middle
Nosferatu (Murnau) Clean The expansive middle
Nostalghia (Tarkovsky) Clean The elusive top
(nostalgia) (Frampton) Clean The elusive top film
Note to Patty Clean The expansive middle
Notes on the Circus Clean The expansive middle
Notorious Clean The expansive middle
La notte Clean The elusive top
Le notti bianche Clean The expansive middle
November Minimal The elusive top
Now, Voyager Clean The expansive middle
Now & Later Clean The expansive middle
Nude a Go Go Clean The expansive middle
Nude on the Moon Clean The expansive middle
Number, Please? Clean The expansive middle
Number 13 (Wilkie) Clean The expansive middle
Number 13 (Yule) Clean The expansive middle
The Nun (Corin) Clean The expansive middle
The Nun (Rivette) Clean The expansive middle
Il Nuovo Mondo Clean The expansive middle
Nurse Sherri Clean The expansive middle
N.Y., N.Y. Clean The expansive middle
Nymphomaniac, Volumes I & II Substantial The expansive middle
Nymphomaniac, Volumes I & II: Extended Director’s Cut Substantial The expansive middle Bach
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