framptonhollis Now, other people seem to find this to be a GREAT film, a MASTERPIECE, but I don't necessarily find it to be either of those things. That doesn't mean I found it to be bad, it was a quite interesting documentary short, that did genuinely disturbed me.It is a very simple premise, it is just footage that was shot inside a slaughterhouse, with some narration. It is very fascinating, although highly unsettling, although it didn't really change my life. As I said, I was highly disturbed throughout the film, and for a good purpose, but it didn't make me become a vegetarian or a vegan. I guess at this point I'll never become a vegetarian/vegan.However, just because I'm not a vegetarian/vegan doesn't mean that it won't make YOU possibly think of becoming one! I can fully understand why someone would be affected by the horrific imagery in this documentary film would start thinking way more about what they eat and how it's made.

MisterWhiplash I should give some disclosure: I eat meat, not every day but enough to consider myself a fan of things like steaks and burgers and hot dogs and the occasional ribs (chicken is another matter). Watching Blood of the Beasts is, basically, enough to make anyone who's ever bitten into any of what I've mentioned completely sick to your stomach. Or anyone for that matter: the bluntness of the camera, of looking straight on and abstracting these images of a slaughterhouse in Paris, is the bravest thing imaginable. I'd compare it to Resnais' ability to keep the audience focused on the horror of the holocaust. So much horror shown right in front of us where it's impossible to look any other way.It is what it is, and it's all the more shocking. Heads cut off, limbs town, skulls bashed, organs ripped and blood flowing down the concrete into drains, lambs shaking as they're still living, I could go on and on, but it's crucial to experience it. It will make even the most hard-bitten meat lovers nearly come to tears. The film-making is intense because of its objectivity: while Franju is choosing what to show us, it is all what makes up this slaughterhouse. It's an act of surrealism of Bunuel in Un Chien Andalou or even Land without Bread almost by going into such a depth of ultra-realism (maybe the slicing of the eyeball comes closest to recognizing the "ugh" factor that for 5 seconds is made nearly 20 minutes here) that it becomes like something of a work of poetry- dark, hellish poetry that would give Burroughs nightmares. Staggering work, completely unforgettable. Don't watch this alone if you're a vegan!

Macholic The film opens by showing life in a Paris suburb and the portal to a slaughterhouse with its monument of a bull in brass and then we move inside the slaughterhouse. The camera is like a fly on the wall, it sees everything but never interact or interfere with what's happening. And for anyone not raised on a farm where they did their own slaughtering, this is indeed a shocking document: A horse collapses in 1 second as it is shot with a bolt pistol in the head and a cow tumbles after a hammer with a long pipe on the hammerhead has been buried in its skull. But that is just the starter on this blood feast. The main cause being numerous calves beheaded and a row of sheeps having their throat slit and in between that animals being flayed and gutted. The slaughterhouse has its own stream in the floor, where rivers of blood is running from the slaughter. I can imagine urbanized children having nightmare for weeks after seeing this film..and their parents forsaking the meat for vegetarian delicacies after this remorseless view of the animals demise to satisfy the meat-eaters cravings. I am a vegetarian myself, not out of conviction, but because I was raised that way and as a such, I am thankfully free from dealing with the dilemma of wanting the meat but not wanting to deal with the the killing and butchery. Today death of animals has become a remote affair to most people, out of sight, out of mind. Not so when you see this film. Black and white images can indeed be gruesome, color just wouldn't have made this film worse. Even the squeamish should find the courage to view this film, just once! This is what death looks like when a real artist trains his lens on it, it is beautiful too! 10/10

Claudio Carvalho In the periphery of Paris, the fate of horses, cows and other animals in a slaughterhouse is detailed in this short documentary. My first comment about this disgusting short is that fortunately it is not in color. I believe that there are two possible views of this short: technically, my opinion is that it is perfect. The shootings of Paris, the cinematography, the camera, the skill of the workers, in this regard everything is perfectly shown. However, the theme is simply awful and of a completely bad taste. I do not know if George Franju was vegetarian, but probably his intention showing the slaughter of animals, inclusive of an offspring, was to make the viewers become vegetarian. I believe most of the pseudo-intellectual readers will not like my review, but that was my impression of this documentary. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "O Sangue das Bestas" ("The Blood of the Beasts")