Friday the 13th? The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? This movie, “The Bunnyman Massacre,” is neither, is downright awful for most of its run-time, yet wants desperately to be both films. What we have here is regretfully a copy cat film, which lacks any kind of plot, or any kind of sense or reason. The film really fails, jumping from one scene of carnage to another as the viewer is dragged along its chaotic path.
“The Bunnyman Massacre” is written and directed by Carl Lindberg. I had never heard of Lindberg before, but a quick search reveals that he is the director of another horror film, “Shadows of the Dead” and is slated yet another “Bunnyman” film and and announced film, “Blood Angel.”
“The Bunnyman Massacre” is of course indie, and as such has a cast that is mostly unheard of. The titular character is played by Joshua Lang, although he is mostly covered in a huge bunny suit for most of the movie so the actor who plays him is really immaterial. The Bunnyman is of course enshrouded in mystery, and the film really just jumps from one scene of him murdering a group of hapless teenagers to the next – though the film’s opening, which breaks the standard horror movie trope of leaving children out of harm’s way, may be too much for some viewers.
The film has only one other actor that gets much screen time, David Scott who plays Joe. Joe is a semi-complicated character, a serial killer in his own right who sort of controls the Bunnyman. We see him engaged in some sinister acts, such as torturing an luckless woman he captures, as well as selling beef jerky to customers with a gold star on it, which we learn means it was made from the flesh of a state trooper he killed. For much of the movie he barks orders at the Bunnyman, demeans him, etc., but nothing of consequence really transpires to give us insight into their relationship.
Plot-wise, the film simply has none. The film opens with the Bunnyman committing a heinous act on a group of school kids, then jumps from one scene to another of him committing carnage on teenagers in the forest as he wanders about. Oddly, he never gets blood over his bunny suit as he does so.
It is here that the film rips off one horror movie after another. The Bunnyman kills his victims with a chainsaw, smashes them against rocks while still in sleeping bags, and, oddly, shoots them with a huge combat rifle. Like most new horror movies, there is of course no build up or suspense before any attack, and an overly gory finish for each of them. In “Friday the 13th” Jason’s sleeping bag death was limited to one hit against a tree. There’s a reason for that; it’s overly gory and unnecessary to show more. But that’s what kind of movie “The Bunnyman Massacre” is: gore and lacking acting sandwiched between scenes that are supposed to pass for exposition, but which sadly add little to the film at all.
In fairness, while the film has nothing to offer in way of acting, score, suspense, or plot, some of the torture scenes are scary – insomuch as they are uncomfortable and border on gut wrenching as you wonder what could happen. Joe and the Bunnyman are sinister, but they are just too much a standard horror trope, too much a rip off of a composite of other horror movies to be truly scary. A large crux of the film centers on a group of teenagers that Joe stumbles upon – and just when you think the film might be going somewhere with this subplot, it goes absolutely nowhere and is just irritating. The girls don’t do a terrible job acting, but they are given absolutely nothing to work with.
– by Mark Ziobro
