Easter Bloody Easter: A campy holiday romp

As the cold starts to dissipate across the country and the frost melts to reveal brightly colored little eggs speckled across yards, we know that spring is upon us. Easter is early this year and coming with it was this fun little romp from WallyBird Productions. Diane Foster hopped up into the director's chair for the first time, starring in and directing Easter Bloody Easter, a brand-new horror comedy for the holiday season that seems like it's one of the least represented by film.

This film focuses on Warburg, TX, a town truly crazy about Easter. A massive Easter celebration takes place in the twon every year featuring their Bunny Hop Dance and the main event of the annual Egg Hunt. This year, however, a dark cloud is pervading over the typically jolly holiday as bodies are piling up. Our main character, Jeanie, is missing her husband and when others are found dead, town conspiracy expert Sam (Zach Kanner) theorizes it could by. Much like a werewolf, someone in the town is turning into the dreaded Jackalope and the film descends into a true whodunnit caper as Jeanie, Sam, and her friend Carol (Kelly Grant) go investigating into who could be behind it.

This film is absolutely full of camp. It hits beats of making fun of that small town churchy culture while still weaving a really goofy and fun narrative drive throughout. I love a good blend of horror and comedy and when the chord is struck right, it can rally sing. Easter Bloody Easter had great acting, anchored with an excellent and nuanced performance by Diane Foster and a wildcard performance by Miles Cooper as Eugene who had me cackling every time he was on screen. The effects, the creatures, and the sound design all built up well to the ending reveal and the whodunnit angle really helped the film lock in interest from early on, giving the audience plenty of room to speculate and accuse.

I do feel like Easter Bloody Easter was a bit overstuffed. The blend of horror and comedy could have really buoyed this film but the addition of a romantic subplot, musical numbers, and a few too many cutaway characters left parts feeling unfocused and splayed all over the place. This bloats out the run time to overstay its welcome and cools off some of the momentum going into the third act of the film. Focusing on the mystery and the main three characters, especially more Sam, instead of getting sidetracked on some unnecessary plotlines could have really elevated this campy romp into something closer to cult creature feature status.

All in all, Easter Bloody Easter fills a void in our holiday lexicon of horror and it adds an imperfect, yet goofy and campy film with a lot of heart into our holiday horror lexicon. I will be watching to see what Diane Foster does next and I'll certainly have my ears perked during my egg hunt this year, listening for that horrible guttural call of the dreaded Jackalope. You can catch Easter Bloody Easter on VOD at home today.