Slachtvee

Belgium, where yours truly hails from, is already a very small country, and then we're still split up in a French speaking part and a Dutch speaking part. As a patriot and a movie fanatic, nothing frustrates me more than stumbling upon a film title from my own country I never heard of before. "Slachtvee"- roughly translated as "cattle for slaughter" - was completely unknown to me, even though it's from my favorite cinematic era (late 70s/early 80s) and featuring a sinister crime & vigilante plot that I worship as well.

Turns out I didn't miss out on a great Flemish cult gem after all, as "Slachtvee" is obscure and forgotten for a couple of very good reasons. The script and lead characters are very poorly developed, the ending is a ridiculously confusing mess, the action is minimal and disappointing, and the sole reason why the film is memorable is because it features lots of explicit real footage of cows being slaughtered in an abattoir.

The story revolves on the young and ambitious manager of an abattoir who seemingly has it all. Tomas is good as his job and madly in love with the big CEO's daughter Marie-Rose, but his dreams are shattered to pieces when, after a routine medical check, he hears he has inoperable lung cancer. Thomas breaks all contact with his fiancée, buys a gun on the black market, and decides to spend his few final weeks befriending prostitutes and killing criminals. Meanwhile, Marie-Rose desperately searches for her man because she has important news.

Despite a few clichés (although, maybe, they weren't clichés yet back then), the concept and ideas of "Slachtvee" easily could have resulted in a terrific and action-packed Eurocrime-thriller but, for some bizarre reason, writer/director Patrick Conrad opted to making a semi-psychedelic drama with lots of dialogues and absurdly implausible plot twists. The pacing is continuously interrupted, and you can't help wondering how cool this film could have been if only the plot was more straightforward and focused on the action. You know, like how the Italians made their crime thrillers. I would only recommend "Slachtvee" to people who consider become vegetarians, but still hesitate. The raw and shocking images of cows being killed, without sedation, and gutted are harrowing to watch. Luckily, the legislation and ways of working in these abattoirs have vastly improved over the years, but it nevertheless remains confronting.

This will be of interest for any admirer of European (mainly French or Italian) crime/noir films of the 70s/80s. It's a Belgian film, coscripted by the famous Jean Claude Carriere. The Production overall (direction, actors, production values) is above average. They make good use of original locations like warehouses and it has a nice musical score that makes use of a Moog synthesizer). The pacing is good and the plot goes straight forward. A top executive of a local slaughterhouse/meat factory leads a successful life and is going to marry his boss' daughter. When he all of a sudden gets diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer he loses all fears and he gets sucked into the local underworld. He starts a small crusade against some pimps and pushers only to find out things are not as simple as they appear. Some of the Brief slaughterhouse sequences in beginning and end will be shocking to some viewers but help to give the film a darker tone. Recommended.