Bunnyman

I really thought this movie would be OK, at least by slasher, horror standards. I couldn't have been more wrong. This movie has no plot and makes no sense. It's starts off with old 8mm footage of a girl waking up in a bath tub and running for her life. They imply it's a camera laying on the ground even though it's moving and switching to other cameras. This scene has nothing to do with the movie you are about to waste your time with. Then it cuts to a girl climbing out of a refrigerator and running from the Bunnyman. She climbs into the back of an old truck and somehow Bunnyman is in it and he drives away. I don't even know if that made sense. I think we never see what happens to the girl but I can't be sure. Then it cuts to a group of people who are now the focus of the Bunnyman. Two different times they say that their car can't out run Bunnyman's large truck that is at a stand still. They clearly aren't very bright. There's no gore, they just splash lots of blood. There's also no nudity, just a fully clothed raped scene. I thought this was a major motion picture but it's clearly a low budget turd.

As a connoisseur of bad movies, I've seen more than my share in the last 30 years of seeking them out. Movies with low production values but high on heart and creativity. Movies made on a shoestring budget that have often transcended their limitations, achieved much more than what was intended, and inspired others to do the same. The Evil Dead would be a shining example of this success. Some fall short, but many others have succeeded on some level. Just about all have at least some subtle value, or even a small cult following. This is not one of them. I'm not sure if I can even articulate how bad this movie is. Bunnyman is basically a sad commentary on where movie making is lately. It is not even close to being in the "So bad it's good" category, being watchable just for the laughs alone. This one is "So bad it's just stupid". You can't even make fun of it because it's physically painful to watch. It's as if a group of 12 year olds made a movie, never having seen a movie before; this would be the result. The situations, and the actors' reactions to them, are, well... just plain stupid. The whole thing is just an insult to your intelligence. For instance, a psycho in a huge truck is bashing into a car in a road-rage type assault, and the 6 passengers in the car don't yell, scream, or say anything for the longest time. One even sleeps through it (maybe he wasn't acting?). Is there really a 4-door sedan made that can't outrun a 24' long, 3-ton flatbed truck? After he runs them off the road and disables their car in the process, their first reaction: let's take a nap! The whole thing is just nonsensical crap. Very few movies manage to actually assault the viewer's intelligence and incense them to the point of rage for having wasted their time, but Bunnyman delivers on that one. This one makes "Alien 3000" look like Oscar material. You could literally strap a video reorder to a park bench in a large city, point it to the nearest intersection, hit record, walk away, and have a more interesting 90 min product to watch. If this counts as a movie, absolutely anyone on the planet can make movies. Hands down the worst dreck ever put to video. I'd rather be strapped to a chair and forced to watch an endless loop of Progressive insurance commercials. You have been warned.

After reading a blurb about this movie declaring it "the most hardcore horror film of the year", I set out to watch it for two reasons: I either had to know how awesome it would be or how wrong that blurb was. It was wrong. Dead wrong. In so, so many ways. Allow me to explain.

I can excuse a lot of things in low-ish budget horror movies. I understand you do what you can with what you have. I had to stop making excuses for this movie after about 20 minutes. The acting is among some of the worst I've seen in quite some time. It actually made me cheer on the ridiculous antagonist solely because I wanted all of these kids dead so I wouldn't have to put up with their unique brand of suck anymore. Then there's multiple levels of laziness. Putting the bad guy in a bunny costume? Are you kidding me? The only reason you do that is because you're too damn lazy to do the makeup. Same goes for all of the kill scenes. They're all implied, never shown aside from some blood spray. Yes, it saves money but it also makes you look lazy and incompetent if you use that style every single time.

I'm trying to think of something redeemable in this movie and I just can't. I was almost mad at myself for sitting through the entire 90 minutes without throwing something at my TV. Low budget horror movies are supposed to be fun...or at least an attempt to get away with something that wouldn't really go over well in a theater. But this...this is just a failure on so many levels that it's embarrassing.

The plot for this movie is simple a group of young morons are tormented by a maniac dressed in a bunny costume. The execution however is terrible.

If your one of those people who shout at the screen every time a character in a horror movie makes a bad decision prepare to scream yourself hoarse. This movie has possibly one of the most moronic group of characters I've ever witnessed. Every decision they make is either the wrong one or just plain stupid. Some choice examples. Never once taking the opportunity to overwhelm a single bad guy when they greatly out number them. Always running off and leaving their friends to die. But my favourite is when the Bunnyman has been chasing them in a truck and is trying to run them off the road they pull over and the Bunnyman pulls up behind them. What do they decide to do? Wait him out, both the truck and the car just sit there for what is portrayed as several hours. DUMB.

The Bunnyman is not alone though he has a pet hunchback chained up in his house. There is also a normal looking woman who has a rather mean streak connected to him. In what way we never find out is she the sister, the mother, who cares, I certainly didn't by this point. If your wondering what the Bunnyman looks like under that bunny head I'll tell you, disappointing.

The gore effects are few and far between pretty much everyone has a chainsaw (the Bunnymans' weapon of choice) shoved into their stomach. But you don't see it, you just see some blood spray up their face. All the kills are off screen so it doesn't even have that in it's favour.

The acting is pretty terrible but then so is the dialogue so you can't win. The sound is also annoying I found myself turning up the volume to hear the talking and then the chainsaw would start going or a car horn or some other irritating sound and it would be deafening.

The movie was a massive disappointment for me. I was expecting something like motel hell, but it was nothing like it. I wasted my money on this movie and the only comfort I can take is that the makers of the film probably didn't get their deposit back from the fancy dress shop they got the Bunnyman costume from.

Have an appreciation for horror with shades of thriller, slasher can be done well as well. So despite hearing a lot of negativity, 'Bunnyman's' premise did really intrigue. Plus the cover was an attention-grabbing one. Really wanted to like it and for it to not be another waste of decent potential.

Watching it, unfortunately 'Bunnyman' turned out to be exactly that...a waste of decent potential. Not how to execute an intriguing idea. It's not irredeemably awful by any stretch, there is one good thing. Sadly eclipsed by the numerous things 'Bunnyman' gets catastrophically wrong. Some unintentional humour that was just cheesy and irritating, the attempts at seriousness felt misplaced and the incoherence of the editing and the dialogue make it very difficult to take it seriously and the horror elements were predictable, not scary and too tame, no matter how much gratuitous blood effects it threw in.

Lets get the good things out of the way first. The best thing about 'Bunnyman' is the villain's look, it is great. So cool and menacing, not goofy at all.

Uniformly the acting ranges from very bad to truly terrible, lots of histrionics and an equal amount of phoning in. Their cringe-worthy, unintentionally silly dialogue (one deserves a prize if they succeed in not bursting out laughing when they're not meant to, that is a challenge), annoying characters with stupid and illogical decision-making and behaviours and indifferent direction gave them no favours.

Neither did the story, which is paper thin and much of it doesn't make any sense, with scenes that bear no relevance. There is no tension or suspense here, no surprises, no creativity, no wit and the only thing that is scary is the look of the villain and the scare factor ends there. The kills are un-creative, instead of biting the nails one is shrugging their shoulders, and the whole horror atmosphere feels tame and leans towards being dumb.

'Bunnyman' is an eyesore visually. With the lighting and camera work, it seemed to striving for the showing off or experimenting with supposedly arty to them feel but instead it comes off amateurish and nauseating. The editing is incoherent. Cannot remember the music, other than its over-bearing intrusiveness.

Overall, not irredeemable but very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox