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.

U-V titles


click Title for details Animal Violence Immaculate Corpse
Ugetsu monogatari Clean The elusive top
The Ultimate Degenerate Clean The expansive middle
The Ultimate Pleasure Clean The expansive middle
Umberto D. Minimal The expansive middle
Umbrellas Clean The expansive middle
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Clean The expansive middle
Una sull'altra Clean The expansive middle
The Unchanging Sea Clean The expansive middle
Uncle (Jires) Clean The expansive middle
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives Clean The elusive top
Uncle Yanco Clean The elusive top
Unconscious London Strata Clean The expansive middle
Uncut Gems Minimal The expansive middle
Under Night Streets Clean The expansive middle
Under the Age  Clean The expansive middle
Under the Ice  Clean The expansive middle
Under the Skin Minimal The expansive middle
Under the Sun of Satan Clean The expansive middle
Under the Tree Substantial The expansive middle
Under the Volcano Clean The expansive middle
Underground (Asquith) Clean The expansive middle
Underground (de Antonio) Clean The expansive middle
Underground (Kusturica) Substantial The elusive top
The Underneath Clean The expansive middle
The Undertaker Clean The expansive middle
Underworld Clean The expansive middle
The Undesirable Clean The expansive middle
Undulations Clean The smeary bottom
Unearthly Stranger Clean The expansive middle
The Unfaithful Wife Clean The expansive middle
The Unholy Child Clean The expansive middle
Uninvited (Clark) Substantial The smeary bottom
The Uninvited (Allen) Clean The expansive middle
The Unknown (Browning) Minimal The expansive middle
Unknown (Collet-Serra) Clean The expansive middle
Unmasked Part 25 Clean The expansive middle
The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz Substantial The expansive middle
Unrelated Clean The expansive middle
An Unseen Enemy Clean The expansive middle
Until the End of the World Clean The expansive middle
An Untitled Film Heavy The expansive middle
Untitled (For Marilyn) Clean The expansive middle
The Untouchables (De Palma) Clean The expansive middle
Unveiled Clean The expansive middle
Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr. (Eclipse 33) Clean The expansive middle
Uranes Clean The expansive middle
Usher Clean The expansive middle
The Usurer Clean The expansive middle
Utopia: Seasons 1 & 2 Substantial The expansive middle
Vacancy Clean The expansive middle
Vagabond Minimal The expansive middle
Valentino: The Last Emperor Clean The expansive middle
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders Substantial The expansive middle
Valhalla Rising Clean The expansive middle
The Valley Heavy The expansive middle
The Valley of the Bees Heavy The expansive middle
The Vampire Doll Substantial The expansive middle
Vampire Ecstasy Clean The expansive middle
Vampire Hookers Substantial The smeary bottom
Les vampires Heavy The expansive middle
I Vampiri (Freda) Clean The expansive middle
Vampyr (Dreyer) Clean The expansive middle
Vampyres (Larraz) Clean The expansive middle
Vampyros Lesbos Minimal The expansive middle Matta Malitte
Van and Schenck: The Pennant Winning Battery of Songland Clean The expansive middle
Van Gogh (Pialat) Clean The expansive middle
Vanilla Sky Clean The expansive middle
The Vanished World of Gloves  Clean The expansive middle
The Vanishing Clean The expansive middle
Vanya on 42nd Street Clean The expansive middle
Vapors Clean The expansive middle
Varda by Agnès Minimal The elusive top
Velvet High Clean The expansive middle
La venganva del sexo Clean The expansive middle
Vengeance Is Mine (Imamura) Minimal The expansive middle
Vengeance Is Mine (Roemer) Clean The expansive middle
Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns Substantial The expansive middle
Venus in Fur Clean The elusive top
Venus on the Half-Shell Clean The expansive middle
La Vérité Clean The expansive middle
Vernal Equiox Clean The expansive middle
Vernon, Florida Substantial The expansive middle abject stupidity
Veronica Mars Clean The smeary bottom
Véronique and Her Dunce Clean The expansive middle
Versus: Ultimate Edition Clean The expansive middle
The Very Eye of Night Clean The expansive middle
A Very Long Engagement CleanThe expansive middle
Very Ralph CleanThe expansive middle
Vibrations Clean The expansive middle
Vice Academy Clean The expansive middle
Vice Academy 2 Clean The expansive middle
Vice Academy 3 Clean The smeary bottom
Vicky Cristina Barcelona Clean The expansive middle
Victory Thru Film Power Clean The expansive middle
Videodrome Clean The expansive middle
Videohome Clean The expansive middle
A View from a Hill Clean The expansive middle
View from the Top Clean The expansive middle
A View to a Kill  Clean The expansive middle
La Villa Santo Sospir Clean The expansive middle
Village of the Damned Clean The expansive middle
Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain Clean The expansive middle
Vincere Clean The expansive middle
The Vineyard Clean The expansive middle
The Violation of Claudia Clean The expansive middle
Violent Saturday Minimal The expansive middle
The Virgin Spring Clean The elusive top
The Virgin Suicides Clean The expansive middle
Viridiana Clean The elusive top
Virtual Encounters Clean The expansive middle
Visions in Meditation #1-#4 Clean The expansive middle
The Visitants Clean The smeary bottom
The Visiteurs du soir Clean The expansive middle
The Visitor Minimal The expansive middle
A Visitor from the Living Clean The expansive middle
Viva Clean The smeary bottom
Viva l'Italia! Clean The expansive middle
Viva Maria! Clean The expansive middle
Viva Varda! Clean The expansive middle
Vive le tour Clean The expansive middle
The Vixens of Kung-Fu Clean The expansive middle
Viy Minimal The expansive middle
Vladimir et Rosa Clean The elusive top
The Voice of the Moon Clean The expansive middle
Voice Without a Shadow Minimal The expansive middle
The Voices Substantial The expansive middle
Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry Substantial The expansive middle
The Vomit Gore Trilog Substantial The expansive middle
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