The Bunny Game

The Bunny Game – [Revisitied]

Directed by: Adam Rehmeier

USA, 2010

Horror/Thriller, 76min

Distributed by:  Autonomy Pictures

Horror is all about provocation, emotional turmoil and being offensive. Add a goofy character or some sick jokes and you have tension relievers that allow the audience to take a breather before the next shock and awe assault. Add some exaggerated sexual content, and you have a different kind of relief where hormones rush to your brain getting you all excited, before the next shock and awe assault hits making the synapses collide and create an unsettling confusion in your mind. It’s still relief from the tension of the drama on screen… but remove the relief, and slowly add damage to injury, add torture to pain, add pain to suffering and you end up with a dark, nihilistic film that sticks in your mind and strangles you slowly like invisible hands choking you in the dark. You will end up with a movie like The Bunny Game.

I really like movies that go past the norm, movies that push the bar. Frequent readers know that I like dark movies that push beyond generic horror traits. The Bunny Game is such a movie. It is unique, it is dark, it is nihilistic and it’s one of a kind.

This is a movie that has lived it’s own life, defining a UK ban, living though festivals, screeners and rare European DVD’s. Finally it receives the release it deserved almost two years ago when it first hit the scene. It’s a movie that deserves this BluRay release, because this is a stunning movie.

Despite watching it earlier this year on a screener, before the Swedish DVD release, which lead to me writing a piece on the film here, this BluRay/DVD combo was a movie that I really wanted to revisit as soon as I had the package in my hand. The Bunny Game on BluRay is a whole new experience, it’s like removing a filter between audiovisual media and reality. The image is painfully crisp, the audio is perfection, and watching the movie in the total darkness it’s as if I’m in the truck with Rehmeier, Rodleen Getsic and Jeff F. Renfro The intensity of the movie is even more harrowing, he agony, the frustration, the horror is if possible even more intense.

I’ve read several interviews with Adam Rehmeier before and after my initial viewing of the film, I’ve even conducted my own interview with Adam for a forthcoming book, but I never tire of hearing him talk about his experience making The Bunny Game, and that’s one reason to pick up this release, as the disc comes with a interesting audio commentary track featuring Rehmeier and leading actress Getsic. A commentary which plays out like a true confession of a trip into hell and back via the small details that we still have to uncover and examine.

Out on BluRay and DVD now from Autonomy Pictures, The Bunny Game is required viewing and an important part of modern horror. This is a movie too intense to be missed, and despite being my third viewing, still knowing most of the beats, the experience is still a rough one. It’s like a roller coaster that never slows down and is ALL bump, grind and shake. The Bunny Game is a provocative, offensive, emotional movie that will leave you in turmoil.