Diane Foster’s directorial debut, Easter Bloody Easter, gives us that rarest of treats, the Easter horror movie. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a scrambled egg.
It’s not only set at Easter; it utilizes a bit of North American folklore in the form of the rabbit/antelope hybrid cryptid, the Jackalope. In small-town USA, there’s plenty of interpersonal drama going on within the small community. Everyone’s got their issues as the Easter-fuelled festival looms, but the emergence of the bloodthirsty Jackalope and its army of vicious little demon rabbits adds an extra layer of disaster to proceedings.
Easter Bloody Easter plays for satirical laughs most of the time, with a cast of stereotypical Southern characters and husband/wife dynamics (absent deadbeat alcoholics, cuckolded dunce, shrill busybody, etc). They are at least competent examples that work fairly well in isolation, thanks to performances that get the memo. Foster herself stars as the lead, and does a commendable job in the role of a troubled woman on a redemption arc.
When the Jackalope and its furry minions turn up, there’s a slightly odd balance of menace and cartoonish hijinks. The Jackalope itself gets some big, gory kills without much mirth attached, while the demon rabbits are basically an insert for any mischievous critter movie you care to think of.
That would be perfectly fine if either worked as intended in Easter Bloody Easter’s story. The Jackalope looking cheap isn’t all that much of an issue, but making most of his kills deathly dull is. And when a big, somewhat predictable, revelation comes about the Jackalope’s identity, the execution of it takes the monster in a poor direction that would have been less egregious had it been implemented better earlier.
That’s part of a larger problem for Easter Bloody Easter. It finds it difficult to pick a tonal lane as well as a structural one. There are absolutely ways to blend horror and comedy or personal drama and splatter, but this film can’t wrangle them. In each place it visits on a narrative level, there are glimmers and sparks of something working, but there’s no standout strong area. The closest is probably the comedy, which has some amusing highs, whereas the comedy’s presence largely demeans the drama.
There’s just enough to make Easter Bloody Easter watchable, and given the relative scarcity of Easter-based horror, it’s nice to have some, even if its seasonal omelet of terror isn’t made with the freshest of ingredients.
Score: 4/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to ”Poor”. The negatives outweigh the positive aspects making it a struggle to get through.
Easter Bloody Easter is out now on Digital.
Easter Bloody easter screener provided for review.
