REANIMAL SPOILERS ‼️
going to spew some random surface level thoughts here, there isn't really anything of substance yet just my first impressions so far. here's some major bullshit
i've only been able to go through the game once, so maybe im missing some details or still need to marinate in the themes to form more coherent thoughts. but right off the bat the metaphor for loss of innocence is really at its strongest and most blatant here. the girl standing out amongst the group in her white dress and mask, her association with prey and animals of innocence (lambs, rabbits, both white)... the fact that her weapon of choice is a dagger, which could bring to mind a ritual or sacrificial dagger...
[ TW for this next part ‼️ i know this topic is incredibly delicate. i'm just listing down the associations i made from the symbolism, and the immediate thoughts that were elicited from me by the imagery. this is NOT a theory, not my concrete conclusion nor am i implying that this is the correct and only way to interpret the story. ]
it is really poignant to me that the sister is the eldest among the two, that the director found it important to make that distinction based on how his own older sister was his caretaker in the past. this might be a shallow and disconnected association, but the sister being older and expelling the sheep from her body (the fact that throughout the game she can feel it inside her kicking and squirming, growing in size until it's ready to come out, the red lighting and tight space of the well almost reminiscent of a womb?) plus the subsequent blood that stains her afterwards coming from her stomach... it does bring to mind themes of childbirth.
if we're truly riding on the religious interpretation, it's reminiscent of the story of Mary, where Christ wasn't "conceived" in the normal sense but rather a miracle by the work of a higher power.
the blood of the traumatic experience originating from that point and eventually staining her entire white dress red is some very visceral imagery. loss of childlike innocence, loss of "purity", the concept of having to grow older and more mature to look after your younger kin, and them in turn having to look after you when the act of "birthing" leaves one weakened.
i guess a possible correlation between the themes is that the sheep may represent some sort of rage, corruption or despair. either a manifestation of the sister's personal pain or an overall anguish from the perils of war. the sheep, sacrificial lamb, perhaps representing the grief of children who themselves are lambs to the slaughter and essentially thrown to the wolves in the midst of war. they have lost their innocence and are instead treated by the world as cattle. literal animals in the sense that they are to be eaten, sacrificed, to run and hide in a dilapidated world that is no longer catered to them. i think a lot about the original title of the game simply being Animal, and how it was chosen because of the many connotations that come with the word. the one mentioned by the director was the idea of calling someone an animal, and how it would most likely be in a negative sense. in this world, whether it be in terms of appearance, behavior, or morality, it's no longer easy to discern who or what is truly "human" or "animal".
furthermore, i find it interesting how the animal bosses all exhibit some kind of human-like trait, the mother having human arms and producing human children, the underwater monster having human limbs, the bird being largely flesh... when the sheep is first "born", it is simple and most animal-like, resembling a normal sheep and clumsy on its feet like a newborn. yet it becomes increasingly more depraved and horrific as it consumes (and bears more resemblance to) humans. it becomes more dangerous and terrifying the more human-like it becomes. like a sacrificial lamb offered to purify the sins of humanity has instead been corrupted by them. i likened it to almost something of an antichrist, some supernatural entity that needed to escape from human flesh in order to take form in the world, to carry out destruction as some form of punishment.
