Easter Bunny Bloodbath Review
Official Trailer
Plot(From imdb)
Twenty years ago, young Peter McKay watched his father decapitate his sister on Easter morning. Peter never celebrated the Easter holiday again... until now.
These days, we seemingly have a horror film of franchise for every holiday. Wether its Trick r Treat for Halloween on Krampus, or the Silent Night, Deadly Night for Christmas, were not short of choices for our horror fix on our favourite days. But for some reason, Easter has been largely ignored. Until now!
Easter Bunny Blood Bath opens with a black and white show of a 5 year old Peter Mckay, giddily trading his easter chocolate with his older sister. When he stands up and spots someone in full easter bunny get up walking down the street, he excitedly gets his attention, and we see the bunny cheerfully skipping to the kids front door. As the kids hurriedly run to greet hi with their easter baskets, the bunny reveals a huge axe which he uses to decapitate Peter’s older sister!
Fast forward 20 years, and Peter takes his friends to fathers old house(which he has now inherited) to celebrate Easter for the first time since his childhood tragedy. After showing his friends around the house, and partaking in the usual fun things a group of young fit college kids would do(basically using a slip and slide type water slide and having lesbian sex), Peter starts seeing someone in the same easter bunny costume that his father wore to murder his sister. From here, as I'm sure you can guess, things start to take a bloody turn for the worse!
Easter Bunny Blood Bath, is written, directed and edited by Richard Mogg(his first feature) on a less than shoestring budget, with a cast of just 10 people. He filmed his 80’s throwback using actual VHS tape to give it that 80’s slasher look, unfortunately i watched it on digital download, so i don't think i get the full effect. Hogg did a good job for a first time director, and while not technically perfect, it was solid enough wet my appetite to see what he could do with a bigger budget. One thing i did find disappointing, given the fact this was being sold as a 80’s inspired slasher was the lack of gratuitous sex and nudity. Even the lesbian shower scene was tame.
The acting in the film was, in the whole, acceptable for the type of him being made. Shayan Bayat, who played Peter(aged 26), played his part well(if not a little wooded), but needed to show more personality as the leading male part. Meghan Kinsley(Peters girlfriend, Lisa) however was really the stand out performer in the film, and showed a good range of acting skills. There was a few odd choices in regards to the casting though. One, Travis Turner, who played Peters friend Steve was a very strange choice.
Although he has gone on to do the most acting of the entire wast after Blood Bath, at the time has voice sounded like a 12 year old boys, which considering he was playing a College student, didn't fit. Also, Chris J. Clements portray of “Ranger Mike”, was unintentionally hilarious, and just didn't feel like it was needed.
What I did like was that the settings and props were not consistent.. For example, the opening scene is set in 1967, but you can clearly see a TV that was clearly from the late 90’s and cars from the 2000’s. This really added to the “So bad, its good” aspects of the film, just like the fact that older Peter is a different race to young Peter(this is even acknowledged with an on screen graphic, and when they enter the house(that hasn't been used for 20 years) saying that some of the things in the house look new and that the lights are already turned on. Add this to the worst imitation 80’s clothes ever seen and really crappy looking bunny costume and you have a movie that just urges you to keep watching to see what else you might spot!
Now, as I've already mentioned, this is a slasher film, and given the lack of budget, it does hold up on this aspect. The kills appear totally random, and keep you guessing who will go next and how. Don't get me wrong, the kills and effects are no where near Tom Savini levels of perfection, but for the fact this cost almost no money to make, the majority of effects do their job. One that is so bad, its funny though is the castration scene.
If your a fan of wither low budget, straight to video cinema, and don't expect beautifully cinematography or oscar level acting, the please, give this film a go and judge it on what it is, a fun labour of love that want you to both laugh at it, and with it.
3/10