Meat Kills – Movie Review | Fantastic Fest (2/5)

MEAT KILLS is a new Dutch horror slasher (org. title: Vleesdag) that doesn’t quite deliver what I was hoping for. Screening at Fantastic Fest 2025, where I suspect audiences will still have fun with it. Read our full Meat Kills movie review here!

MEAT KILLS (org. title: Vleesdag) is getting its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025. I can’t imagine the film festival audience won’t have a blast watching this. However, it does objectively leave a lot to be desired. Too much, really.

All the characters are ultimately unlikable, and while the practical effects are good, they are also a tad too sloppy for me. The same goes for the story that has way too many holes. Yes, I am admittedly quite disappointed in this one.

Continue reading our Meat Kills movie review below.

Joining the Animal Army

The plot of Meat Kills sounds intriguing enough for an animal lover such as myself. Well, to a point, as I have no desire to become a radical activist. I still believe in love and dialogue over hate and violence.

Though I understand those who have lost faith in it. These are indeed trying times.

Mirthe (Caro Darkx) is a person who has lost faith in dialogue and wants to take action. That’s why she secured a job at a local pig farm as a way to earn her way into the radical activists known as “Animal Army”.

While working at the pig farm, Mirthe documents the abhorrent conditions the animals are living (and dying) in. This becomes her ticket for acceptance, but also the highway to criminal and very violent actions.

Soon, events spiral out of control, and instead of avenging the pigs, it becomes a battle for survival. For everyone, really!

Plenty of potential in the plot

While I was ultimately disappointed in Meat Kills, much of it has to do with the obvious potential of the movie. I mean, it’s a horror slasher that plays out at a local pig farm, which is somehow also a slaughterhouse.

Now, I don’t mean to nitpick (and yet, I absolutely will), but everything about the location just feels off. It’s both a farmhouse for a family, pigs are being bred and raised, and it’s a fairly big slaughtering facility?!

DON’T WORRY, IT COULD BE WORSE

This movie with pigs, slaughtering, and murders got just 1 out of 5 >

It’s just too much for one small family-owned location. Also, I recognize that much of this is for the purpose of the story, but it still needs to make sense. And having a filthy slaughterhouse where everything is somehow “on” even when it’s not being actively used is just stupid.

Then again, if this were my main issue with the movie, I could get past it. What I cannot get past is that everyone is ultimately unlikable and idiotic in their behaviour.

From the whole “running up the stairs when you should be running out the front door”-trope highlighted by Sidney Prescott in Scream almost three decades ago, to “twists” that are as predictable as they are stupid.

Meat Kills is getting its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest

Meat Kills (org. title: Vleesdag) comes from director Martijn Smits and screenwriter Johan Paul de Vrijer. I wish I had liked this more than I did. I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it due to the plot, but that’s sort of the point.

Also, I recognize that I probably wasn’t supposed to root for any of the people in this movie, but that just does not work for me. If I don’t care for or about them, then I don’t care whether they live or die, and what is left to keep me going?

Whatever happens at this one farm, it doesn’t change anything. And again, I recognize that this is the point, but it sure isn’t one that the filmmaker is busy making. It’s all about wild kills and crazy practical effects.

Well, I need more!

The actors in this cast all delivered what the script required. Their characters just weren’t nuanced (or not in believable ways), which they can’t change.

Meat Kills is getting its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025 in Austin, Texas. While Austin is more of a liberal big city, Texas is definitely farming country as well, so it seems only appropriate that it premieres there.

Meat Kills will also be playing at Sitges International Film Festival, which is arguably one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. Spain is another place famous for amazing pork products, so again, an interesting location.

Details

Director: Martijn Smits
Writer: Paul de Vrijer
Stars: Caro Derkx, Derron Lurvink, Sem Ben Yakar, Emma Josten, Bart Oomen, Chardonnay Rillen, Tommy Zonneveld, Sweder de Sitter, Juliëtte van de Weerdt