Week 5 (July 19 – 25) – Sub Rosa Studio
Ron Bonk’s SRS Cinema has been providing the underground with TOP QUALITY GRIME since the 90s. Not only does he release a deluge of Sharksploitation, Amityville ripoffs, and Cocaine-addicted critter flicks, he also distributes auteurist masterpieces like Tim Ritter’s Truth or Dare? – A Critical Madness, Hugh Gallagher’s Gore Trilogy and the Polonia Brothers’ Hallucinations, plus he’s moved into the world of Japanese kaiju cinema with Howl From Beyond the Fog and The Whale God.
The story kicks off with a struggling magician desperately trying to pay the bills by performing at children’s birthday parties. In addition to the humiliation of having to do that, he’s relentlessly mocked and ridiculed by the kids. Distraught, he leaves the gig and encounters a long-haired stranger who hands him a vial containing a mysterious magic potion. He accepts the gift and tries to use it in his next act, but when it fails, he takes his own life.
We then jump forward in time, as the magician’s tragic end has evolved into local urban legend status. A group of teenagers gathers at his grave on the anniversary of his death to party, while two cousins reunite to clean out their deceased grandmother’s home so it can be put on the market. Soon, one of the cousins begins experiencing terrifying visions of the magician. Former friends start dying off one by one, all linked by a single common thread: they all attended that fateful birthday party. Realization sets in that the magician has returned, transformed into a vengeful half-man, half-bunny monster dressed to kill anyone who ever laughed at him.
Directed by the Polonia brothers, John and Mark, and written by John Oak Dalton (Noah’s Shark, Amityville Island), this is a rare Easter slasher, joining Angel of Death, Beaster Day: Here Comes Peter Cottonhell, Bunnyman, Easter Bunny Bloodbath, Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!, Easter Casket, Easter Sunday, Kottentail, Resurrection, The Night Before Easter, On the Third Day, Rottentail, Serial Rabbit, Serial Rabbit 3: Splitting Hares and The Being. OK, perhaps there are several Easter slashers.
This is the one good one, though.
You can watch this on Tubi.
Not a film I can recommend. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the kick I was looking for