Spring is in swing and Easter is just around the corner. What better time than now for Gravitas Ventures to release their Easter-themed flick from WallyBird Productions? First-time director Diane Foster (Iowa, The Orphan Killer) pulls double duty as lead actress in the horror-comedy Easter Bloody Easter, arriving just in time for Easter.
The peeps in Warburg, TX love them some Easter. And even though they seem to be devout Christian folk, their celebration around the holiday is more focused on the mythical bunny stuff versus the religious Jesus Resurrection theology. Easter to Warburg is kind of like Valentine’s Day for Valentine Bluffs in My Bloody Valentine, Fourth of July weekend for Amity Island in Jaws, Christmas in every town in a Hallmark Christmas movie. It’s their jam.
The Warburgonians’ (yes, that’s what they call themselves) passion for Easter knows no limit, as evidenced by their annual Easterpalooza weekend event with a wild agenda for all to partake in. Friday is the pescatarian-friendly Fish Fry, Saturday is the Bunny Hop Dance and then Sunday is the coup de grace—the big Easter Egg Hunt.
Now what could possibly stop the great folks of Warburg from getting down with their bad selves during a weekend lineup like that? A large evil rabbit creature called the Jackalope and its army of evil bunnies. Yes, really. After Jeanie’s (Foster) husband Lance (D’Andre Noire, Jesus Revolution) goes missing, she and her bestie Carol (Kelly Grant, SARS-29) go on a quest to find him. Thanks to literal tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist Sam (Zach Kanner, Stay), they fear he might have been jacked by the Jackalope.
Their fears only intensify when they run into former beauty queen tuned Jackalope terminator, Megan (Zuri Starks, Chicago Fire), who provides some exposition as to what or who the creature is. The big egg she drops is that the creature is really a human in disguise. A person who transforms into the Jackalope like one would to become a werewolf. Lycanthrope…Jackalope…do you get it now? And it is seemingly indestructible with regenerating limbs!
The second act shifts gears into total whodunit mode. Could the Jackalope be the missing Lance? Could it be the despised “holier than thou” Easterpalooza organizer Mary Lou (Allison Lobel, Paralysis)? What about her goofy, yet lovable, country-bumpkin hubby Eugene (Miles Cooper, My Home Unknown)? Maybe it’s the town’s main authority figure Mayor Lou (Adam Slemon, The Dungeon Run)? Heck it could even be Jeanie! In the midst of all this, we are treated to a decent amount of low budget gore. It is mainly CGI gore, but gore nonetheless.
Horror comedies are a special breed that are either on point or miss the mark. Unfortunately, Easter Bloody Easter falls into the latter category. And that is mainly due to its padded running time with some unnecessary extended scenes and sequences. Those issues could be due to having a first-time director at the helm or the script, written by Lobell doing double-duty here as well, or both. Even when the film gets some juice with performances from the in-movie band Karrot Kake, a long melodramatic sequence totally derails the momentum to begin the film’s third act. The filmmakers just keep beating the viewer over the head with the Jeanie-Lance substory. They don’t know when to quit either. Without spoiling things, the last 6 or so minutes would have been better served in the form of a quick wrap-up versus what they produced. The running time is too long and the sappy drama aspect too repetitious and heavy for this type of film.
One positive is the inclusion of the whodunit aspect, with the mystery keeping the film from being a one-trick pony. For a low budget feature, most of the acting is not bad either. Foster, Lobell and Grant are all excellent leads and very believable. Meanwhile, Noire is terrific in his limited screen time, but the film definitely needs more of him.
The concept around the Jackalope is purposely ridiculous, where the idea of a shape-shifting killer Easter bunny aligning with werewolf lore is quite creative. The creature design is equally as outrageous as the concept, due to it looking like a Five Nights at Freddy’s reject. But the 6’2” Jamie B. Cline (Bethrothed) earns a shoutout for being an unsung hero as the man who donned the Jackalope suit during its many scenes.
You can tell the film is a passion project with a limited budget, and everyone is having a blast making it. While that is always commendable, it shouldn’t be used to excuse its inflated running time, pacing issues and abrupt tone-shifting. These flaws ultimately drag the film down from achieving cult classic status, which absolutely seemed to be the goal.
Easter Bloody Easter is available on VOD beginning March 26.
