The Herd
The Herd
| 11 August 2014 (USA)
The Herd Trailers

A number of kidnapped and trafficked women find themselves imprisoned in a squalid medical facility. For Paula her continued survival relies on her basic human function. Escape, on any level, is seemingly impossible as the women are condemned to a life of enforced servitude at the whims of their captors; for one reason only – their milk.

Reviews
Horst in Translation ([email protected])

"The Herd" is a 20-minute live action short film from 2014 directed by Melanie Light and written by Ed Pope. The tagline here is "You are a product" and maybe you already guess correctly what to expect here. This film puts women in the perspective of cattle and shows us their way of torture, violence and humiliation until other humans reap from them what they want for their products. So yes, this is a strong statement not just in favor of vegetarianism, but even of veganism. People (even vegetarians like myself) may have different opinions in terms of what they think is the right approach to their lifestyle choice. I personally believe drastic isn't bad at all, but everybody should still decide for themselves and you should never want to impose or lifestyle on others, no matter what it is. This is why I am a bit critical with this movie, even if I basically agree with the message and I also think drastic radical images can help people to make them understand what it is exactly that they are doing to living creatures (=animals). I personally think this film comes down to a bit too much of screaming and heavy scenes and it certainly could have been kept under 15 minutes, maybe under 10. The ending is pretty good though. Go check it out.

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Emma Maguire

This film mightn't have been made for me. I'm a meat-eater, and I cannot become a vegetarian because of health reasons.That being said, the performances are excellent. The cinematography is as well. It's a harrowing take on an issue that is very important.The thing is, when you add humans into an equation it becomes very hard to distinguish your original message. I get that the dairy industry is terrible, but portraying it as such via the use of humans adds a dimensionality that just isn't there when you take the dairy industry at face value. I worry for the women in this film, rather than the cows that this film represents. The message is lost underneath the horror.

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The Couchpotatoes

I'm gonna be the first to review this short movie apparently. I finally found it yesterday on the web after hearing about it a while ago. It might be short but it is for sure brutal. I had no problem watching it at all except the animal abuse in the end credits. Because that is the reality how animals have to live now and that's hard to watch. Being a vegetarian myself I can only applaud that they make movies like this one to open the eyes of the carnivores amongst us. People should watch this and maybe some will seek alternatives to their daily food and drink consumption. Instead of drinking milk they could drink soy or almond milk. I drink only almond milk and I feel better physically and mentally with it. Now for the movie itself, it's well done, the actors are not the greatest ever but they did their job good, the story is very brutal but needs to, just because the message has to be clear. This is what happens on daily basis with the animals so I don't think the movie should show anything else. Well done, certainly worth a watch if you might think about becoming a vegetarian or even better vegan.

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