The last footage was shot in spring, following a visit from Parker Tyler and Charles Boultenhouse who had walked past the area without visibly noticing Sirius's corpse.
This prompted Stan to seek an editing style that would create "an enclosed form" for the images of decay such that they would not directly engage viewers.
[5] Ernest Callenbach responded negatively to the film, describing Brakhage's cinematography and editing as "jittery…like the effect of a 33rpm record of Webern being played at 78rpm.
"[6] David Remnick wrote favorably of it in a review for The Washington Post, calling it "so astonishing [in] its craftsmanship that the viewer…tends to forget the grisly object before him.
"[7] The Los Angeles Times writer Reed Johnson wrote that its fragmented, looping imagery "becomes a lovely, impressionistic memento mori.