Easter Killing

Heading out into the woods, a group of friends are reunited years after an accident with a friend at a remote house for Easter weekend to relive the incident and find closure but when they start disappearing realize one of them might be the same one who murdered their friend and stop them.

This was a decent enough slasher with more to like than expected. Among the better ideas here is a surprisingly strong and engaging setup that comes about due to the involved storyline at play. Setting this one up immediately with the idea of the group being at the center of the central mystery that befell them years ago when their friend was mysteriously murdered while they were out partying and were never able to uncover who did it only to then be brought back together years later to a house in the countryside that sets about trying to both uncover the real culprit and stop the killer returning to finish them off works incredibly well. It's a nice way of getting the group of friends established rather quickly, determining the nature of their relationships with each other, and getting everything started for the killer's identity to be worked out in a fun investigation, providing a fun way of getting this set up. With that established, this one gives off some rather strong and decidedly enjoyable stalking and slashing when that comes about. The main house, where everything comes together, is an elaborate Easter style setup with the main layout decked out in festive rabbit pieces, straw baskets, and miniature eggs of various sizes and colors, so it feels appropriate to the holiday. As well, when the whole thing shows the streamers or wall placards that are placed there in nearly every shot of the group in the house or outside, it has a festive look that matches the brutality and ingenuity of the killer to strike using a majority of the symbols within the killing method. Dumping victims in boiling hot chocolate, stabbing with decorative knives, or using the different objects around them to kill them becomes enough to provide some positive points to this one. There are some big problems within here that do come about. The main issue here is a leaden pace that makes for a highly ineffective tempo that will likely render a lot of the goodwill with this one pretty moot. It takes forever to get past the group reuniting and catching up once they arrive at the house, which flies in quick counter to how it managed to work out the pace before involving the accident and what happened to them in quick succession. With that in place, everything about the mystery is somewhat underwhelming, with the whole thing making no sense, how they could recall events they had completely blacked out on, while failing to let the police handle everything. As this is somewhat matched by the lack of spectacular effects, a cheap-looking mask for the killer, or generally flimsy production values, it all manages to bring this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, and mild drug use.

This is so bad. Might as well call it "I Know What You Did Last Easter". Plus the way they kept cutting back to the party feels like a bad "Murder, She Wrote" mystery. Plus if they were blacked out stoned, how can they keep remembering things that happened? The blood was obvious cherry syrup. Lastly, the bunny suit was pre-blood covered at the first movie. I guess dry cleaning between takes wasn't in the budget. In fact I think it had a budget so low that even the Asylum would be ashamed of it. It's cheap, it's dumb and it's boring.

A year after graduating high school, several youths in England are invited to a vacation home by a mutual friend thought to be dead. They all show up due to guilt, along with a couple guests, but a mysterious person in a huge bunny mask starts picking 'em off one-by-one. Will anyone survive?

"Easter Bunny Massacre" (2021) is a low-budget Brit slasher with no-name actors influenced by "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer" just with a cabin-in-the-woods setting.

I saw the director's previous film and was impressed by the relative proficient filmmaking so decided to give this a shot. The technical quality is actually a slight step down, probably due to much of the flick being shot indoors (as opposed to his other one). But the cast and writing are good for the most part, except for a couple of eye-rolling cliches. The moody score creates a reverent tone, reminiscent of the song "A Deeper Kind of Slumber" from 1997.

Speaking of the tone, I appreciate how the proceedings are kept serious despite the amusing nature of the killer wearing a blood-soaked bunny mask. Yet I couldn't help wondering how the slayer was able to move around so stealthily wearing such an awkward piece. Wouldn't you have to see and hear properly to do what he does?

The female cast is quite good, highlighted by brunette Sarah T. Cohen (Janey), redhead May Kelly (Amy) and blonde Antonia Whillans (Heather).

The movie runs 1 hour, 25 minutes, and was shot in Somerset, England, which is a 3-hour drive west of London.

GRADE: C-/C.

A fun film with a good story and fun suspense. I liked the music too. The final scenes were great and I liked the characters. Nice concept, I liked the twist at the end.

.. but the very next, you gave your memory away ... or something along those lines. It doens't always have to fit the song or pun - so no pun intended. Just go with the flow. It is a massacre anyway ... well according to one of the titles of the movie. Of course as others also have noted: you could also go with "I know what you did last summer" ... just replacing summer with Easter.

The blueprint is there - but it makes you feel that the other movie is a citizen kane - compared to this. Try not to - this movie has no chance to withstand that comparison. You could also say that there are some notions of Scream in here ... again a comparison this movie would not survive - it would be a massacre to quote the movie again.

The costume is nice, I reckon the actors look good ... and the cinematography is really not that bad ...