- Directed by Diane Foster
- Written by Allison Lobel
- Stars Diane Foster, Kelly Grant, Allison Lobel, Zuri Starks
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdjtVpPJpQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is mayhem for the holiday as townspeople battle the giant monstrous Easter jackalope and his swarm of killer bunnies. Yes, it’s as silly as it sounds. It seems low-budget but very well made. It’s fun and gory and we liked it quite a bit.
Spoilery Synopsis
Two trashy teens have some raunchy sex in the church storeroom. They hear something roar, but then they see a cute bunny– with red eyes and fangs. Credits roll over their mutilated bodies.
Jeanie, despondent about Lance’s disappearance, answers the door; it’s Carol. They don’t want to go to Janet’s funeral. There have been a lot of weird deaths recently. At the funeral, church-lady Mary Lou talks about it being Good Friday, the week of Easter Palooza.
At the Good Friday picnic, all the churchy people show up. They’re very Southern, low class, and more than a little trashy themselves– the writers clearly have been to the South and amplified all the stereotypes. We meet Eugene, and he’s just plain weird. Jeanie gets called away when the police find Lance’s truck– with blood on it. The sheriff doesn’t like Lance much, so he’s not much help. Was it a bear attack?
Sam tells Jeanie and Carol that Lance’s disappearance is supernatural, and he leads them to giant animal footprints. “The great horned rabbit– the jackalope.” It attacked the town 150 years ago, and now it’s back. He thinks the jackalope attacked Lance. Jackalopes are shapeshifters, like a werewolf. It’s backward though; if you bite the jackalope, you will become one. They hear it roar, and then they see a little rabbit with red eyes and fangs. Jeanie stabs it.
The only building in town from 150 years ago is the church, so they go check it out. They search the store room where the two teens were massacred. They read a story about a woman who sold her soul to Satan, then they find a dead rabbit.
They track down Sam at the bar. Mayor Lou is there as well, and Jeanie tells him about the problem. He won’t postpone the Easterpalooza this year. Eugene and Mary Lou talk about her getting her own way in town. Carol thinks Mary Lou is the jackalope.
We get a flashback to 150 years ago and the creation of the first jackalope. Outside, Annie Sue is attacked by a bunch of small rabbits in the cemetery. Meanwhile, Jeanie has a dream about following a trail of Easter eggs out into the woods toward a pile of body parts. She finds Lance there, his dead body in a giant Easter basket.
Jeanie accuses Mary Lou of being a monster, but Mary Lou denies it all. Afterward, they walk through the woods and grab Megan, who says she came back to town to kill the jackalope. She throws a knife and kills one of the killer rabbits, so they believe her.
But first, it’s time for the bunny hop, where everyone dances. The Carrot Cake Band plays for the crowd. The three jackalope-hunters show up, trying to measure everyone’s feet and offering carrots to identify the monster. The jackalope only has half a foot, so they think it’s Sally, but no, Sally fell into a hay-baler when she was little.
When they find a mutilated body, the preacher gives an angry sermon about how God isn’t happy with the way they’re celebrating Jesus’s birthday. The mayor promises an investigation and sends everyone home.
Jeanie goes home and hallucinates having bit antlers. Could she be the jackalope? Lance returns, and he’s not even sure he’s really alive. “You did this to me.” Outside, Megan runs into the big jackalope and it laughs as it kills her. Lance leaves again and then Jeanie finds Megan’s body.
It’s Sunday, the day of the Easter Palooza. There’s a song for that too. Jeanie tells Carol that the jackalope will be killing children next– and Carol has four of them. She also admits that Lance left her because she cheated on him.
The baby rabbits attack in force. Are all the Easter eggs just baby monsters waiting to hatch? The carnage is extreme. “Bunnies from Hell!” The jackalope shows up and kills the guy in the Easter Bunny suit– he totally had it coming. He takes Lance next.
Meanwhile, Sam is still out in the woods looking for the monster’s lair. He hears Lance screaming for help from the rabbit’s nest.
Jeanie and Carol meet up with Mary Lou when Sam comes yelling for help. They all go to help Lance. Mary Lou is very well armed. “Guns don’t kill people; I do.” In the meantime, Eugene shows up where Lance is trapped. Eugene puts on an Easter Bunny costume and turns into the jackalope. The well-armed girls show up, and they all know it’s Eugene.
Mary Lou, still angry about her dog getting eaten, pulls her gun on Eugene, but Eugene has his bunny army, which surrounds them all. It gets a little crazy for a bit. Sam is torn apart by bunnies, but he tells Jeanie that she needs to remove the jackalope’s head with a sword.
Mary Lou tracks down her big-eared husband and gets in his blind spot. Jeanie jumps in with Sam’s sword and slices his head off. He squirts blood all over her.
Later, back in church for Megan’s funeral, Mary Lou introduces Jeanie, who reads a eulogy. They all sing about the town. Meanwhile, we see one of Carol’s kids eating something gooey off the bottom of someone’s foot. Yes, there’s a new jackalope in town.
Commentary
There are some pretty good gore effects here. It looks really low-budget, but the acting, cinematography, sound, and everything else is really quite well done. The characters are stereotypes and southern caricatures, but they’re all good. The acting is– appropriate for the tone of the movie. The little rabbits are just silly enough to be fun, and the big one is just ridiculous.
It’s really something.