Fantastic Fest 2025 –Meat Kills certainly isn’t for the faint of heart or squeamish. It’s a gruesome and brutal film with plenty of blood and guts. Think Hostel only with animal rights activists and farmers. Most likely, there’s an audience out there for this film. Gore hounds, put this one on your radar.
Hailing from the Netherlands, the film was directed by Martijn Smits and written by Paul de Vrijer. It opens with its lead, Mirthe (Caro Derkx), filming the slaugther of pigs inside her place of employment. She then brings the footage to a local animal rights group, led by the militant Nasha (Emma Josten). This group makes PETA look mild and tame by comparison. At one point, the group strings up one of their members and pretends to bleed him out. This, of course, causes onlookers to walk away in disgust. Whatever message the group wants to send isn’t heard because of their extremist tactics.
Eventually, the group recruits Mirthe into their “Animal Army.” Sporting pig masks, they up the ante and decide to terrorize the local farmers and their children. More specifically, they invade the home of Jonas (Bart Oomen) and essentially hold his kids hostage. The home invasion elements are downright terrifying, especially the close-ups of the pig masks. One of the children, Jerrie (Juliëtte van de Weerdt), is sick, yet that doesn’t mean the group lets her go. Meanwhile, Mirthe and Nasha accidently murder the oldest son, Jacco (Derron Lurvink), quite viciously, I must add. Before that point, Nasha zaps his head with electrical tongs, so he can feel what the pigs feel before slaughter. They also tag the ear of another one of Jonas’ kids. Even the biggest animal lover will have a tough time sympathizing with the Animal Army, considering their brute tactics.
By the halfway point, the film shifts from a home invasion movie to a revenge tale. When Jonas discovers his murdered son, he unleashes payback against the Animal Army. Through and through, the deaths within this film are ghastly. Again, this film resembles the wave of films from the 2000s, like Hostel and the New French Extremity movies. Fans of that era of horror should really dig this movie and its creative kills.
In this feature, there really are no good guys. The Animal Army is so extreme that it’s hard to buy into their cause. Mirthe serves as a moral compass, stating repeatedly they’ve gone too far, but she doesn’t exactly run away from the group. Jonas’ revenge is understandable, but he also takes it to the extreme. There’s really no middle ground here, on either side. Meanwhile, the youngest son, Jonathan (Sweder de Sitter), pleads with his father to ease off on the revenge. He also has a friendship with Mirthe, since they worked together. This adds another layer that feels a bit too underutlized, along with character development more generally. At one point, for instance, we learn that Jonas lost his wife. However, he only mentions this once or twice and her absence isn’t fully felt. It’s a missed opportunity. It’s also unclear why or how the Animal Army got into activism in the first place. At least the leading females, Mithe and Nasha, deserved deeper development.
Meat Kills is a punishing filming that doesn’t skimp on the horror, revenge, and bloodshed. This film serves up one gruesome dish. Gore hounds, take note and keep an eye out for this one. It’s lean and mean.
