This is a very suspenseful film that ironically pivots on the notion that cruelty to animals in one form is a sign of mental illness while in another form is masculine and aligned with God and Country.

As you probably know, the film opens with a father saying a prayer just as he and his son kill a deer. From that point forward, the hunter and god-loving father is pitted against another character who, among other things, tortures a dog. We are provided with a number of scenes where animals, patriotism, faith are emphasized. One scene is when the hunter brings venison to his family's friends' dinner party and the veterinarian mother remarks that she can't cut the "meat" since she is a veterinarian. The veterinarian's daughters asks the hunter's son, "don't you feel bad" about killing an animal, to which the son replies, "my dad would say 'do you feel bad eating a McDonald's hamburger'?" I said all of this symbolism relating to animal cruelty is ironic because an actual deer was killed in the first scene. It wasn't a pretend killing, but a real one. At the end of the film, the Humane Association disclaimer states that it "monitored SOME of the animal action and no animals were harmed in THOSE scenes." Clearly, the AHA monitored the scene where the anti-hero chokes a dog, NOT the scene where the deer was killed.

Of course, the producers "pragmatically" thought that it is okay to kill a deer since hunters routinely do that and the main character is a hunter. Not in my book. Killing is wrong. It is especially wrong when it is for nothing more than a scene in a movie. Movies are fake. They are fakes of reality. So, real killing does not belong in fake realities.

Animal cruelty and associated allegories and symbols figure prominently throughout the film. I am discounting the layers of meaning and symbolism in the film, but only the actual death of an animal.