Two teenage girls who once bonded over their love of horses flirt with murder in the new thriller “Thoroughbreds,” which has been widely compared to ’80s cult classic “Heathers.”

While we don’t see any animals harmed in the film, the (offscreen) mutilation death of a horse is central to the plot.

Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Witch,” “Morgan”) stars as Lily, a rich girl who hates her stepfather. When she reconnects with troubled childhood friend Amanda (Olivia Cooke of “Bates Motel”), she’s emboldened to act on her fantasy of killing him.

The film begins with Amanda carrying a knife out to her horse’s stable. Although we don’t see her harm the horse, we later learn that, in trying to humanely euthanize the fatally injured horse, she ended up mutilating it horribly.

In a later scene, Amanda, who admits she’s lacking in normal human emotions, calmly describes her horrific actions in detail. Lily (and the audience) is horrified, but since Lily has her own homicidal instincts, she realizes that Amanda is the perfect person to help her carry out her own bloody plan.

Here‘s my capsule review of the film from AFI Fest.