“Animale” is an intriguing French body horror thriller set in Camargue, the bull fighting capital of France.

The first local woman to enter the ring with the young men who tempt, chase and are chased by local bulls starts to see things from the bulls’ perspective as bulls go “rogue” and started goring and stamping the locals in the dark of night, long after the audience — mostly tourists — for some events has left.

Writer-director Emma Benestan (“Fragile”) uses this setting and set-up for an allegory about women in a man’s world, animal cruelty and the guilt our heroine feels about the “sport” she’s determined to get into.

The Camargue style of bullfighting is non-fatal, a lot less bloody and far and away a more humane and “even” contest and is thus referred to as “bull racing” by the locals, who enter the ring — basically unarmed and on foot — and try to snatch cash-prize tokens attached to the bull’s scalp.

Nejma (Oulaya Amamra) is the daughter of a cattle man, now breaking the gender barrier working for the otherwise-traditional bull-breeder Leonard (Claude Chaballier). She’d like to use her understanding of bulls, picked up during roundups, branding and the like, to get in the ring with the other local cowpokes — razateurs — who dress in white, chase and are chased by a bull in their efforts to win prizes.

Her fellow ranch hands seem more tolerant of this invasion of their “traditional” space than we might expect. The boss’s gay son (Damien Rebattel) encourages her, and other cowhands help train her.

Razateurs need to be fit, nimble and gutsy. Nejma may not be the fastest or most muscular. But lean and able to scramble up the sides of the ring matter more here. She doesn’t make an utter fool of herself her first time out, which she reluctantly takes as a “win.”

“You did great for a girl!” (in French with English subtitles) wasn’t what she was looking for.

But something happens the night the ranch hands spend celebrating their feats of bravery. Out harassing the bulls in the swampy pastures, Nejma is “attacked.” She’s bloodied and injured, and she doesn’t remember what happened.

As she struggles to recover and figure out what’s going on in her head, she starts to see things from the bulls’ point of view. This isn’t Spain, with its more brutal and far less “sportsmanlike” ritualized bullfighting. But maybe it’s bad enough, if you’re looking at branding, beating and taunting through the animal’s eyes.

Benestan uses effects that turn Amamra’s eyes wide and black when she’s staring down/connecting with a bull, and has her see her toes transforming into hooves.

Our writer-director draws a parallel between how men treat livestock and how they treat women, but she soft-sells that analogy. One can only imagine how much more piggish the male cowhands might come off in other hands.

“She’s the first girl,” the lads chortle in their shared dressing room before a bullfight. “Can’t we hit on her?”

As Nejma spirals into madness, we realize before she does what’s really going on — with or without supernatural repercussions.

Amamra is more physically convincing in the part than emotionally. And she and Benestan do a better job of announcing Nejma’s inner turmoil than actually portraying it.

But with a striking setting, menacing music scoring gloomy shots of bulls running through swampland in the fog and an up-close look at this unusual variation of bullfighting (it’s barely explained), “Animale” puts us in the mood for a fright even if it’s slow to deliver one.

Rating: unrated, graphic violence, animal cruelty

Cast: Oulaya Amamra, Damien Rebattel,
Claude Chaballier, Vivien Rodriguez and Marinette Rafai

Credits: Directed by Emma Benestan, scripted by Emma Benestan and Julie Debiton. A Film Movement+ release.

Running time: 1:38