HAPPY LITTLE BUNNIES (2021)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed/Written by Patrick McConnell.
Starring Jon-Scott Clark, Simon Manley, Sophie Toland, Adrian Palmer, Lynne Payne, Dean Leon Finlan, Llewy Hammersley, Tom Vickerstaff, Tilly Henson-Beaty, Stuart Horobin, Nathan Morris, James Nicholas, Jacqueline Redgewell, Justine Marriott, Mathilda Gottschald, Haley Yates, Hannah Livingstone, Teague Davis, Daniel Harland, Tess Griffin, Emma Spratley, Emma Garde.
Check out the trailer here!!

A desperate man named John (Jon-Scott Clark) visits a therapist named Carl (Simon Manley) who has an unconventional method of therapy, encouraging John to give in to his violent and dark thoughts. Interspersed between the pauses in this therapy session are seemingly random vignettes depicting a bunny-masked killer murdering random people and what seems to be some kind of twisted origin story. Is the killer Jon? The therapist Carl? Academy Award winner Casey Affleck? Max the Dog? Or something much darker?

HAPPY LITTLE BUNNIES is an offbeat and demented little number from the UK that delves into the dark corners of the mind most are afraid to think of. It talks about the real meaning of porn and why we watch it, the origins of evil deeds, the Casey Affleck movie A GHOST STORY, murder, rape, incest, glory holes, and more dank material that most films wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. But it addresses these topics with the type of dry, irreverent humor only the British can produce. Everything is presented with a straight face, no matter how insane or inappropriate it is, and I found the bulk of the movie downright hilarious.

While this isn’t necessarily an Easter horror film, it does feature a bunny masked killer—probably the scariest bunny-masked killer I’ve ever seen on film as the mask is made of a sheet cobbled together with string and sporting droopy, swaying ears. It’s downright terrifying seeing this sack-masked monster slicing its way through its victims. And there are quite a few scenes of straight up carnage to enjoy with this one as the killer seems to have very little rhyme or reason to the rampage. Each rampage, nevertheless, is unique and set up as small vignettes that feel as if it is building towards some kind of big reveal.

And a reveal does occur at the end of HAPPY LITTLE BUNNIES. It does pull mostly everything together, maybe not the Casey Affleck stuff, but everything else together quite nicely. And while the ending does seem to address the one pervasive theme running through the entirety of the movie, it almost feels too trite and common for it to be treated as such a big answer to the questions most people will have as this one plays out. There’s even a bit where director/writer Patrick McConnell pops in and admits that most of the people who get this far into the film are exasperatedly asking “what the hell is going on?” I won’t reveal who the killer is, but I will promise that this film eventually gets to it point.

On the way there, you get some top tier performances by leads Jon-Scott Clark and Simon Manley. Clark is great as the exasperated client desperately looking for answers. Like us as the viewer, Clark is wondering why Carl the therapist is guiding through such an unconventional route of therapy. Simon Manley as Clark is equally great as the clinical and robot like therapist who unemotionally manipulates Clark’s John through all kinds of manic hoops in his session, never letting his mask of professionalism slip.

But the real delight in HAPPY LITTLE BUNNIES is the unpredictable nature of it all. It feels like a random series of events, so much that I was just enjoying the clatter of the different twisted stories clanging together. If anything, the need to tie things up pretty like soured the experience for me and I just wanted it to be this random, unexplainable mess of despicable and bizarre sequences. HAPPY LITTLE BUNNIES is unlike most of the films you’ve ever seen. It’s gory, sick, twisted, uncomfortable, and simply deplorable at times wrapped up in a shoddily made bunny mask and brandishing a knife threatening your darkest dreams. I fully recommend this offbeat monster of a movie.