Easter bunny kill kill! (2006)

The main reason I bought this movie was because a friend of mine has an somewhat unhealthy obsession with bunnies, flooding all of his digital life with imagery to the point that people are starting to abhor him. We have a semi-regular gathering that consists of him cooking and me bringing strange movies to watch while we gorge ourselves on pulled pork, yummy burgers and whatever else he wants to dazzle us with. Naturally Easter bunny kill kill seemed like a movie we HAD to watch so we did. And what a ride.

The first thing that caught my eye was the little blurb on the back of the UK dvd:

"Contains strong gory violence and sexualised hard drug use"

My mind started wandering, giving me the strangest images of sex and drugs possible. What the hell was all that? This could be really odd and really awesome. But then I realized that this was the British Board of Classification speaking, which would likely mean that a naked chick smoked weed and not the rampaging giant mutant clitoris injecting heroin that I was picturing in my head. In the end I was disappointed, there was just snorting of cocaine off naked breasts and talk of drugged molestation. But the movie itself did give me so much more that all I could be angry at was the lame conservatives at the BBFC for their rating.

Easter bunny kill kill with its alluring title is the brainchild of writer/director Chad Ferrin and deals with Nicholas, a retarded sixteen year old who is left at home with her mother’s new lover as she has to work. Remington, who is shown killing a store clerk during the movies first minutes, is quite the douchebag who plays a nice guy when Nicholas mom is around but calls his pedophile drug dealer friend Ray as soon as she leaves and promises the freak some action in exhange for drugs. Remington goes out and gets himself some prostitutes (que the sexualised hard drug use) while Ray starts preparing for his dirty deed. Depraved yes, and now the psychokiller with the bunny mask arrive on the scene killing with much brutality.

One thing that might put people off is the pacing (in fact, one of the people I watched this with started playing solitaire on the phone about halfway through the movie as she was bored beyond belief). Easter Bunny kill kill takes its time introducing all the characters and the gore and violence doesnt start until at least 45 minutes have passed. Personally I didn’t mind since the time spent with the players did what it was supposed to do, it told a story that made me interested in the characters. And those characters, holy fuck. Timothy Muskatell in the role of Remington chews scenery like his life depended upon it, singing hilarious little songs (Hookers and cocaine... hookers! And cocaine... Awesome. I want this as a ringtone for my iphone) and at times sounding like a villain from an old serial, if not for the fact that he is verbally assaulting a retarded kid. David Z Stamp plays the heavy breathing pedophile in very much the same manner and he is a hoot. Ricardo Gray doesn’t really fare that well, his interpretation of a mentally impaired person sometimes borders on the absurd, slightly overdoing it. He never goes crossed the line to over the top and you get used to it. In fact, it really does suit the movies deranged intentions. The other actors do an decent enough job, even though they aren’t as memorably weird as Muskatell and Stamp.

But the real star of Easter bunny kill kill is the writer/director, Chad Ferrin (something he really proved with his next movie, Someone's knocking at the door which is a fucking masterpiece of sexualised hard drug use). He shows a lot of talent in telling this piece of dementia, giving the movie a good flow (apart from a few scenes that could have been a bit more tightly edited such as when the pedophile crawls around on the floor when trying to find the kid which drags on a bit too long) and most importantly: keeping you entertained. The story is distastefully fun and leads to a really far out ending while still remaining somewhat predictable especially when it comes to the identity of the killer. You have to see it to fully get my point. The budget was obviously very low but the filmmakers worked around this in various smart ways such as having the movie take place in a house that is being renovated with all the furniture covered in plastic. An excellent way around budget shortages. The violence is brutal and plentiful; people are drilled, sawed and hammered to death. My favorite scene is where an intruder has his head smashed to bits with a hammer with a short cutaway where a piece of skull messily landing on the floor. Hardcore.

So, if you have any sort of interest in low budget dementia and gore you could most likely be a candidate for liking this. Sure, the overacting, the slow pace and the whole very unsubtle way that the movie pounds in its freaky stuff might be off-putting for the average movie fan but I sure as hell had a deliciously good time.