BUNNYMAN VENGEANCE ** U.S.A. 2017 Dir: Carl Lindbergh 91 mins
The third and final installment of Lindbergh’s low budget slasher franchise starts off going back to Bunnymans childhood, where we discover what happened to the protagonist. Tortured and set alight by a couple of sickos that continue to taunt and exploit him in the present. Bunnymans anger issues reach fever pitch as he is kept by his tormentors in a disused cemetery and used by them as a murderous tool when they decide to torture and murder random victims. Much blood is spilled as they terrorise school kids, a group of women on a camping trip, paying customers to their haunted house attraction and finally turn on each other. Anything goes in this really rather odd, random and trippy offering.
I’m going to be totally honest and say I have not actually seen either of the previous two Bunnyman movies but going by some of the online reviews Bunnyman Vengeance seems to get the most positive feedback. I’m kind of glad I have not seen the others going by these views. This starts off really quite badly, the acting is wooden, the storyline is confusing and the continuity is way off to the point of extreme frustration but it does improve marginally towards the middle. Aside from all these bad points the gore effects and kills are a lot of fun. A lot more thought went into the effects than the rest of the movie, there is great attention to detail and they are largely practical with minimal CGI but aside from them and a really rather awesome trippy sequence featuring “The Machinists Of Joy” by Industrial/ EBM legends Die Krupp’s as its soundtrack, there really isn’t a whole lot of good stuff to say about this. I have no clue why or where the idea of the haunted house came from or what they were trying to achieve by doing it other then it was just an opportunity to watch Bunnyman wave a chainsaw around a bit. It did seem to be a massive waste of time. The Bunnyman character himself is not really very imposing or threatening he is just a fairly tall guy that doesn’t speak wearing a rather worn out, grubby, but kind of cute white bunny costume. Apart from the little treat of the Die Krupp’s track the rest of the soundtrack is brash in random places and non existant in others which I found quite irritating. The whole thing is very hit and miss but if you have seen the other movies in this franchise then I guess you’d want to see this one as well? If, like me you haven’t then I would advise you give it a wide berth but if the prospect of great kills and a random musical delight intrigues you then give it a go.
Review by Sarah Budd