American Psycho filmmaker Mary Harron is back with another horror entry — this one in collaboration with PETA.
The short film, created as a call to action to end the use of monkeys and other animals for laboratory testing, opens in a prison cell. A prisoner is seen from the back with their head in halo device held together with screws. “I was born in this prison,” the person says in a voiceover. “Ripped from my mother before she could hold me in her arms. I wasn’t ever given a name, only a number. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. Nothing ever changes — only the pain and who’s causing it.”
The prisoner then receives an injection in their arm. “I’ve never seen the sun, only the lights they shine in my eyes. I’ve heard them say I can’t feel anything. But I can. I feel everything,” the prisoner says as screws are tightened and drilled into their skull, and blood drips down their face. Just then, the view changes to reveal a terrified monkey restrained in a similar fashion.
“I’m working with PETA to call for an end to the use of monkeys and other animals in laboratories, and I hope this video shines a light on the immense pain that experimenters inflict on tens of millions of animals every year,” Harron said in a statement about her collaboration with the organization.
The short film’s debut comes on the heels of PETA filing a lawsuit against the National Institute of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health as a way to enforce “the constitutional right to receive communications” from imprisoned primates. PETA alleges that monkeys born in laboratories are often forcibly removed from their mothers and confined to steel cages for an entire lifespan while undergoing barbaric trials and experiments for testing.
See Harron’s clip below.