Euthanizer, written and directed by Teemu Nikki

Euthanizer, written and directed by Teemu Nikki

There are more and more significant, worthwhile works of art that deal with the suffering, ordeal of animals.

Okja has superpigs genetically modified and abused, On Body and Soul shows what happens in slaughterhouses in excruciating detail, The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan mentions the killing of horses, hundreds of thousands in America are used for meat and finally, the superb We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves delves into the details of monkey, chicken, lab animals pain and hardship at the hands of the food, cosmetics and other industries.

Veijo Haukka is the hero of this drama and he euthanizes animals, for a better price than the local veterinarian, who is scandalized by what she sees as an intrusion in her market from an amateur that she confronts.

The Euthanizer is mostly doing a service, a humanitarian work, on the side of his other occupation as a mechanic, which actually helps him since the mercy killing he does often involves one of the cars fitted with some reversed exhaust that puts to sleep the pets with the toxic fumes, all the while playing a suitable track on a speaker.

Veijo is intent on teaching lessons to the various animal owners who, if they do not outright mistreat their pets intentionally, they make them suffer nevertheless.

One man comes with the dog to him and the Euthanizer offers a deal in which he will do his job free of charge, if the man agrees to step into the cage used for the dog, or charge the cost of one hundred, sometimes it is one hundred and fifty euros for the mercy act.

When the individual accepts, Veijo keeps him locked inside foe a good while, to make the human feel some of the suffering he imposed on his friend.

A woman comes to him with a guinea pig and the hero is upset to see that he never had a mate and that means the small pig had a miserable life.

The Euthanizer goes through the steps of his ritual, starting the music, which makes the woman wonder about the track, kills the poor small thing and goes to bury him in the woods, when the client is visibly fascinated by this morbid atmosphere, enters the car and one is actually expecting her to try to commit suicide..

She is present when Veijo kills a dog and she is obviously aroused by this and other creepy gestures, for she asks the protagonist if he would go out…he asks- you mean, as man and woman?...and she says yes.

However, the hero states clearly that he does not want children, which makes the woman who is maybe thirty years his junior laugh.

When they take the pickup truck out, they find a dead rabbit on the road and the kind man takes it to the field nearby to bury it, when the outré partner gets horny and they run to the forest and have wild sex.

Lotta has unusual tastes and as a masochist, she wants her lover to place his hands on her neck and strangle her, which he does beyond the point of no return it seems to the audience, which waits breathlessly to see what happens.

The dead woman returns to life, for it was very near the afterlife but not quite on the other side and she explains that they will need a cue and when she slaps his shoulder, he will need to stop suffocating her at the next intercourse.

A nadir is reached when a loathsome man arrives at the amateur vet’s office, after being asked for too much at the authorized veterinarian for a neutering operation and he asks for his bitch to be killed, because he claims she had attacked children and needs to be put to sleep for her aggressive manner.

Veijo is suspicious but it again looks like a lovely creature is near death and maybe soon to be killed, when he realizes that the man was a liar and this female dog has not hurt anyone and there is nothing wrong with her.

The hero keeps the dog Riki, but they would later meet the former monster who used to be the owner and Things Fall Apart.

The Euthanizer has some brushes with the woman who has a license to treat animals, but according to her competitor, all she cares for is to change her car every six months.

When she comes to threaten him in a parking lot, he observes that she had hit something on the road, for there is blood on the front of her new car and therefore the hero uses force to take her back, walk on four legs to find the badger that she has made to suffer, which crawled from the road to die in pain.

It is extreme and it gets horrifying, as the man who gave Veijo his dog to be killed is angry, seeks revenge and the way he feels this must be done is by setting fire to the poor animal, tortured and burned to death.

The Euthanizer becomes Terminator and he is seeking justice in the name of his former, late, beloved pet.

He has some details, stories from his past to tell and his preference for animals for animals over people is evident.

The future might celebrate such characters for their foresight and vision, as pioneers in the emancipation and liberation of animals from their fate as creatures to be abused for human pleasure.