Because you just can't know too much about horse sex, filmmaker Robinson Devor and his writing partner Charles Mudede, who collaborated on 2005's critically acclaimed narrative film Police Beat, have joined forces once again, this time to tackle the difficult task of exploring the death of a man who had sex with a horse. The idea for Zoo came from a real news story: In July of 2005, in the town of Enumclaw, Washington, outside Seattle, a man died of a perforated colon as a result of having sex with a stallion. The case was widely reported on both within Washington and around the world, and as a result bestiality, or sex with animals, was made illegal in Washington.
Prior to the death of this man (whose identity was protected by most Washington media, who referred to him only by his online moniker, "Mr. Hands," the name under which he posted videos of himself engaging in sex with stallions), sex with animals -- while not something that most people who engaged in would go around talking to their friends and neighbors about -- was perfectly legal. Mr. Hands and his friends in the zoophile community (and really, I could have lived the rest of my life without knowing much as I know now about this particular form of sexual deviancy) weren't doing anything wrong, strictly speaking.
The background story -- a man who died as a result of engaging in anal sex with an Arabian stallion -- was the subject of a good deal of dark humor of the sort that tends to proliferate around any behavior that makes people feel very uncomfortable. It was almost easier, in the first days after the news of the "horse sex case" first hit the Seattle newsstands and airwaves, to joke about the horse sex without thinking too much about the real person whose life had ended as a result of his foray into bestiality. Devor, to his credit, takes the high road here, staying far away from the path of seeking humor in the death of this Seattle father.
Seeking to understand the mindset of the zoophile community, Devor takes us into their world, through re-enactments and interviews with the two men who dropped Mr. Hands off at the hospital that night. Although they left quickly, they were caught on a security camera and tracked down; once their association with the Enumclaw horse sex case came to light, their lives were forever changed. It gets a little confusing keeping up with who's who in the zoophile group -- after a while they all tended to kind of blend together into one amorphous "why?" -- but even so some of the things said in the interviews are at least interesting, if not entirely illuminating.
At times, though, the interviews border on the downright bizarre -- one man asserts that his love for his horse is no different than a man's love for his wife or a parent's love for a child. In another bit, a man (perhaps the same man?) waxes eloquently on how he doesn't find it easy to communicate with people and how his encounters with the horses work for him because they don't require interaction with another person. Ironically, at the time of the case, this man could have been arrested for paying for consensual sex with another adult man or woman, but having sex with a horse, who couldn't consent even if he wanted to, was perfectly legal. Alas, no more.
Zoo, much like Police Beat (a narrative film pieced together from some of the more bizarre Seattle true-crime stories from The Stranger) is more a visual poem and homage to the physical beauty of Washington than a strictly structured revisiting of the events in question. Devor's' style as a filmmaker is visual and almost impressionistic, and he seems as enamored of the beauty of the landscape and the snow-capped volcano hovering protectively over Enumclaw as he does by his subject matter. He tends in his filmmaking to blur the line between documentary and drama, and that's certainly the case with this film.
The pace of the film is languid, and there are some bits that just don't work, like a lengthy bit about midway through with some guy sitting on a stool in front of a perfectly white background, who talks for an interminably long time about ... something to do with a drowned boy and death in general, or something. Other bits are (I think) unintentionally funny, like the re-enactment of the guy running out the door with his ... large bucket of animal sex porn. Because if you have a stash of animal porn around the house, where else but a bucket would you store it, right?
There's some speculation over how exactly Mr. Hands could have died as a result of what had always before just been an evening of good, clean wholesome fun. It was a new stallion that he didn't know that well, one of the men speculates, or perhaps his "handler" was inexperienced at, er, facilitating the act. Perhaps the saddest part of the story, excepting, of course, the death of Mr. Hands, is the fate of the stallion who committed the fatal perforation. He was gelded in order to prevent him from being adopted by another member of the "zoo" community. Seems a little harsh to emasculate the poor horse over the whole affair. After all, he's a victim, too.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-05-2007 @ 4:21PM
Red Dog said...
Well I would say in order for these folks to make a documentary looking into the lives of the zoophile comunity they should get their facts streight. First off the bat is this lie reported here.
"Seeking to understand the mindset of the zoophile community, Devor takes us into their world, through re-enactments and interviews with the two men who dropped Mr. Hands off at the hospital that night. Although they left quickly, they were caught on a security camera and tracked down; once their association with the Enumclaw horse sex case came to light, their lives were forever changed. "
First off only one person had taken him to the hospital to drop him off, if indead he would have interviewed this person he might have got the true story. The true cause of the death of "Mr. Hands" was that he was drunk at the time and did not reallize the extent of his injury and refused to be taken to the hospital for two hours after it happened, causing his arrival at the hospital to be too late to save his life. This show is nothing more than a joke looking at the story from the media point of views, not from a zoophhile's perspective.
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2-12-2007 @ 4:45PM
Esther Coop said...
This sick and perverse behavior where humans abuse animals should not be reinacted nor glorified at the Sundance Festival. I have given to PBS for years, but no more. Since they helped fund the Sundance Festival (which I still don't get...why can't all those rich actors underwrite it without tax payer money)I will no longer give to PBS. And, I am writing my congressmen to insist that no more of my taxes go to fund PBS when PBS isn't using it for Nova or Sesame Street, but to fund a festival glorifying beastality with MY MONEY!
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2-14-2007 @ 12:24PM
Cody said...
all right, as a zoosexual, i didn't really appreciate what you said. first off, the horse was not a victim and was not "raped". seriously, they out weigh us by a ton and if you knew anything about horses, could easily kill you if they wanted too. animals will usually have sex with anything, they don't have any "taboos" like we do. it's the same as if you were breeding a horse with an artificial vagina, or "phantom". they'll hump that no problem, same as they would a human, although, because thier sex drive is naturally powered by smell, they usually won't get an erection just from looking at you. but it doesn't take them long to figure out what your'e up to, and usually the next time you see them they'll get all excited and start to erect cause they know what's coming, they aren't all like "oh my gosh i've been violated somebody help!". bestiality isn't cruel, and i hope this info has enlightened you. We only want the same treatment that homosexuals have, and to be accepted in today's culture, is that too much to ask? legalize bestiality NATIONWIDE, not just in some states. peace out
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2-25-2007 @ 5:39AM
Katie said...
YOUR WRONG AND SICK! Being an African American you reference to the majority sets the norm is true in a since but by no way justifies the act, majority thought that slavery was ok and African American’s were less than human but as you see (hopefully) it's WRONG, but just to prove my point. “People” and I use that word loosely have used a beautiful act between man and women and made it so perverted. To have sex with a creature that we hold dominion over is wrong, an animals natural instinct is to mate for survival; for reproduction of offspring, (there’s no humping just for fun), so sorry I haven’t seen a national geographic showing animals doing it for kicks. But your intention is to f&@% for sick pleasure. So your signal got crossed , and the light my not be on upstairs, You know!? Kind of funny how you have to use hormones and other such things to get a rise out of them. So there is nothing to educate anyone on. The movie just shows another sick pursuit of human kind to manipulate someone or something for self gratification. But on this brief leaving note you Zoo “people” and again I use the word loosely, just get all of your animal friends together and dress up like animals and do each other until every one has a proliferated colon :)
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2-25-2007 @ 5:45AM
Katie said...
Sorry word error I used the wrong word "perforated" colon....so Do each other until you know something get's perforated!!!
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4-01-2007 @ 7:22PM
Scotty Simpson said...
The making of the film "ZOO" is fine but I/We zoophiles hope that the facts will be correct. It is very rare that anyone gets hurt or actually dies from having sex with an animal. The animal didn't kill the man in Enumclaw. He had refused to go to the hospital, as his friend wanted him to. The guy was drunk and wasn't aware of what had happened. He was the one that caused his own death by not being careful. There will always be sex with animals. It is a practice as old as life. Some say it's wrong because it's not normal. If you have a large group of zoophiles and a couple people amongst that group that are "straight", that the norm would be the zoophiles. I/we, are happy with ourselves and don’t bother others or force our beliefs on others. By making bestiality illegal, doesn't matter to us. It is only a minor inconvenience. Love is in the eye of the beholder. The extent and the depth of love with animals are strictly up to the individual. The only reason bestiality is becoming a more occurring thing is because of media and communication today. The actual number of occurrences probably is less today than it was say 20 years ago. Love is love no matter who or what it is between. Love and passion is the most powerful force of the mind. Personally I would not get it on with a large stallion, but like I said. Different people have different preferences. The Movie "ZOO" will help to educate the general public that we are amongst you just like the gays, the Blacks, the Christians and Muslims and all other different types of the world. One group will always try to control others and try to force others to feel the way they do. It's all about power of one over the other. It's not about who is wrong, but who is stronger over the other. Everyone wants conformity and when someone like one zoophile dies as a result of peritonitis following sex with a stallion, that person wasn't conforming to the masses of society so he is labeled sick or just wrong. Makes you think about it doesn't it. Let individuals be themselves as long as it isn't hurting anyone other than themselves. I am against cruelty to animals in any way. In this case there wasn't any cruelty to any animal.
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