MEAT KILLS
****
Directed by Martijn Smits.
Starring Caro Derkx, Sem Ben Yakar, Emma Josten.
Netherlands, 2025, 86 mins
Reviewed as part of Tubi FrightFest 2026
Mirthe (Caro Derkx), a naïve young activist in the Netherlands, joins the radical “Animal Army” who attempt to free animals bred for slaughter. She captures Iphone footage inside a neighbouring abattoir pig farm, and gives the footage to the “Army” who plan to break into the farmer’s house at night in protest. She joins the activists, lead by the charismatic Nasha (Emma Josten), and as their midnight activities go beyond industrial espionage and spraying slogans on walls, things begin to spiral out of control.
The film’s tone shifts from home invasion to straight horror as the “Army” start to terrorise the farmer’s family, labelling them “pig killers”, and hiding behind rubber pig masks. They brand one of the family’s sons with a pig’s ID badge in his ear, to make him feel the pain the animals do, and drag the other son to the slaughterhouse. Mirthe decides this has to stop, but by then it is of course too late.
Caro Derkx is excellent as the fragile (anti-) heroine Mirthe, described contemptuously as “always insecure at school, [who] always wanted to be one of the cool kids” and therefore likely to fall for the “blue hair and piercings” extremist vibe the activists offer. When she goes fullscale CARRIE on (all) her capturers, you realise why schoolkids should think twice about picking on the class geek.
Bart Oomen as the Farmer Jonas, similarly gives a particularly good turn as a demented rural pater-familias, turning on the activists for revenge as he chains them up in the slaughterhouse. He declares grimly: “Let’s see if those pigs pity you too”, as he metes out some extremely rough justice, and says chillingly of the animals’ death squeals: “I don’t hear it anymore…I don’t smell the blood any more”. Is he a demented killer (both of animals and humans), or just a misguided father trying to protect his family and livelihood? Is Mirthe a confused young woman who wants to make the world a better place, or a psycho turning on her friends?
Director Martijn Smits ensures the viewer never feels too much sympathy for any side. There’ll be no tears shed for the activists as they try to free the pigs but mistreat their fellow humans, nor the farmer’s family who wreak revenge on the activists, and eventually not even for the pigs themselves.
Smits skillfully creates a bloodstained world where a 21st century TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE meets CARRIE with just a touch of ANIMAL FARM – and where pigs and humans are equally savage and disposable. It’s an insightful, if graphic, horror…and guarantees you’ll never look at a bacon butty the same way again.
Nina Romain