(A.k.a. BEASTER DAY: HERE COMES PETER COTTONHELL)
A middle-aged businessman (David K Ross) enjoys his wedding day with his new, younger bride (Alison Bodell) - that is, until his adult son from his previous marriage takes to the microphone and slags the pair of them off. He then leaves the ceremony in a huff and wanders outside, trying to flag down a cab. Something is lurking in the darkness ... and it pounces upon the unsuspecting son just as his father is cutting the wedding cake indoors.
The Beaster Bunny's reign of terror has begun!
The story starts proper in a sleepy American town where a group of dog catchers - their firm is called "Dog Catchers in the Rye" - are tasked with the job of tracking down and exterminating a "rabid dog" which has been mauling local animals and people. Slacker-cum-dog catcher Doug (Peter Sullivan) sees this as a chance for him to finally shine and possibly win next year's coveted "Dog Catcher of the Year" award.
Elsewhere, on the other side of town, aspiring actress Brenda (Marisol Custodio) has returned to her parents' home in search of somewhere to stay in-between gigs. She's skint and needs a roof over her head, but her high cholesterol-suffering father insists she finds gainful employment within one week - or moves out. Reluctantly, she agrees to seek work. Which leads her to the dog-catching institute...
As the monstrous bunny creature continues to savage locals, it becomes increasingly inevitable that Doug and Brenda will (a) gravitate towards one another, and (b) rise to the challenge of saving their community when the local Mayor (John Paul Fedele) shows no interest in doing so.
Of course, we're entitled to witness a few CGI-assisted gore scenes and gratuitous moments of big boob spillage in the meantime.
THE BEASTER BUNNY is credited as being written, produced and directed by the Snygg Brothers. Who? Exactly. Upon closer inspection, the truth is this is merely a pseudonym for John Bacchus ... who long-term SGM readers will no doubt recall as one of Seduction Cinema's most prolific filmmakers. Directorial efforts to his name in the past include PLAYMATE OF THE APES, THE EROTIC WITCH PROJECT and KINKY KONG. A purveyor of high art, then...
True to form, this is cheap, tawdry, silly, trashy, puerile, crude, rude, dumb ... and quite a lot of fun. Bacchus has no allusions of grandeur; he just wants to titillate his audience using the lowest exploitation denominators to hand and have a bit of a lark while doing so. His directorial style is unfussy, unpretentious and brisk. And it's hard not to warm to.
Sure, it's all rather superficial and not always anywhere near as funny as its energetic cast appear to think it is, and the stop-motion monster loses its giggle factor due to over-exposure from an early juncture. The joke wears thin overall, admittedly. But it's all so amiable - even when it's trying its best to be smutty - that it feels plain wrong to dissuade anyone with a heart from seeing this daft, fast-moving and sporadically gory (albeit of the digital variety) escapade.
Fedele, a veteran of the Seduction/Alternative Cinema stable, takes top honours in the acting stakes as the hippyish, couldn't-give-a-flying-fuck mayor. Elsewhere, most of the cast are most notable for the size of their thrusting mammaries...
Second Sight Films bring THE BEASTER BUNNY, via our friends at Uncork'd Entertainment, to UK DVD on a region 2 encoded disc. The film is presented in full, with an uncut running time of 79 minutes and 57 seconds.
The anamorphic presentation respects the movie's original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, though this is hardly the type of fare which is overly reliant upon accurate framing and such; occasional moments of style notwithstanding, BUNNY will never be remembered for its cinematic beauty. Having said that, colours are nice and strong, detail is satisfying and blacks remain stable throughout.
English 2.0 audio is clean and consistently clear. Some dialogue comes across as unfeasibly loud and judging by the lack of peripheral sound in some scenes, I'd wager that the audio was re-recorded in post-production. It certainly sounds that way.
The disc opens to a lively animated main menu page which makes no effort at hiding the titular beast from prospective viewers (in fairness, the film only waits 9 minutes before providing its big reveal). From there, a static scene selection menu allows access to the film via 16 chapters.
Alas, there are no bonus features.
THE BEASTER BUNNY isn't going to win any Oscars. A few Raspberries, perhaps. But then, that would be unjust. Because it's as entertaining as it is (knowingly) crap and I enjoyed it a great deal. Yes, the joke wears thin but there's always enough going on to hold the attention.
Review by Stuart Willis
| Released by Second Sight Films |