The Bunny Game

Good movie!

Good movie!

Good movie!

source: The Bunny Game

It's a good film, well acted, well directed and very well edited with great sound and b/w visuals, now who might really enjoy it? Can there be anyone? Not the point of course, what we have hear is a fascinating depiction of first the dehumanisation of a young women fallen into the drugs/prostitution cycle, ending up in some nutter's truck who proceeds to then, also remove her sexuality and leave her as crazy as himself. Rodleen Getsic who plays the leading lady incredibly well, clearly has some vested interest in exploring the uncomfortable truth that she would not be the first such women to go down at least the first path. The second is more extreme, but we are not talking about torture really here but more a shaping process. Her hair is removed, she is branded, her breasts almost perversely ignored and sex never takes place, although some seem to have imagined it! This is more like a bad marriage telescoped into mere days. He does not delight in 'taming' her, nor enjoy dragging her around like a dog, just something a man has to do. Disturbing, illuminating and involving almost to the point of driving the viewer crazy. In the end I hardly dared press the 'extras' button, I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment, but it is a director/actress commentary, so another day, I just might brave it all again.

I never been so bored in my life until I saw this movie. Falling asleep on movies is a rare thing for me because I always find something that holds my attention, even in the most awful movies. But this film has nothing entertaining about it. There's no story at all or characters to like or even hate because they aren't developed and for those looking for a really disturbing movie you seriously need to look elsewhere. Because the only disturbing thing is a girl screaming for hours with no real reason, a weird dude making random facial expressions and having creepy childhood flashbacks that don't seem to have really, any purpose at all and an a really annoying soundtrack that will make your ears bleed. The only positive thing I can really say is the black n white shooting of the movie because it almost gives an art feel in the beginning. So overall this movie is really boring and not even disturbing as I've heard it's just a movie that serves no real purpose other than making you want fall asleep or that's if the annoying screaming or soundtrack doesn't make you turn it off in the last minute or so.

The Bunny game is a black and white film focused around the life of a cocaine addicted prostitute who is abducted by a truck driver and degraded and tortured for a period of time in the desert. One review caught my attention- There is an issue that the lengths of certain shots are "boring" and/or "pointless" and i have to say that i disagree. Nor do i think the lengths of shots are there to merely build up tension. I think the way this film is shot makes it so that the viewer does not passively engage in viewing the film as a mere sadistic turn on or curiosity. I'm sure some just seek out this genre in order to tick a box... I think this is a film that successfully uses a certain level of art house, somewhat experimental style to allow the viewer some distance from its content. On the one hand it ventures to be as realistic as possible , yet on the other uses techniques that are distancing, highlighting the creative process of making the film. Personally, i didn't feel a great deal of sympathy for the central character. Next to no dialogue and a rebellious looking cocaine addicted female prostitute coupled with intermittent strong, hard, fast music... I guess you assume she can handle herself and this is her choice. I enjoyed the concept of time in the film too. She has no idea how long she has been there and i found that i lost a sense of time while watching the film as it becomes dizzying and almost seemed circular at times. On another note, does the truck driver actually rape her? I can't remember that he does... I particularly loved the film for its ending. I don't think it could have ended any other way! She was a nobody at the start of the film , you didn't get to know her through out the film and in the end she just disappears from the screen to an unknown future, an unknown person. I'm sure this is the most realistic aspect of using the role of a prostitute. They move around a lot and no one raises much concern if they just vanish. They are an easy target. I found the conclusion of the film rather poignant considering the rest of it. I look forward to a second viewing to analyse it further. I haven't read anything of the film, its making or the director so shall maybe research it a bit.

I watched this film last night after reading the press coverage of the film being banned in the UK. Rodleen Gestic's performance was amazing. She was physically branded, and abused for real in front of the camera, so it is impossible to fault her commitment. Similarly at times Renfro was genuinely convincing as a lunatic. However, the film has many flaws. The editing is so quick that for whole sections of the film, individual scenes last 3-5 seconds. I have read reviews on here that praise this as creating an atmosphere where the viewer shares a sense of disorientation. I just found it distracting from an already weak story. The film is made on a low budget, and the added features on the DVD say there was not even a film crew present - just a handful of actors and the director / filmmaker. This lack of budget feeds through into limited sets, and few (none?)special effects. There's a lot of torture, but no blood (fake or real). The actresses are really branded, but this added nothing to the film compared to the use of prosthetics - it doesn't add to the story so why do it. In interviews Rehmeier states that they improvised large parts of the film. The reality seems to be that they didn't have money for a decent script so fall back on filling the film with bunny being abused over and over again for little real purpose in terms of plot development. Rapid cutting between the 2 main characters screaming at each other over and over again for 5 minutes is not an alternative to a script, and doesn't even build tension. The bunny game itself involves Renfor dragging Bunny around the desert in a straight jacket and a rabbit hat. This was more like a * film than a serious horror film. This is supposedly the highlight of the abuse, but compared to what came before it would have been a relief. The film ends with an anticlimax. Bunny has been abducted and tortured by what appears to be a psychopath, but he doesn't kill her, rape her, or free her. After a few days he transfers her to a friend, who takes her away. There is no explanation of why. I have read reviews here which state that this leaves it open for the viewer to interpret it in their own way (For example has he been breaking her as a human being in order to make it easier to sell her into white slavery, has he tired of her and passed her onto his friend to play with). Whatever. Its hard to praise the skill of the storyteller if he expects you to decide what his story actually is. I didn't find this film frightening / scary, and the plot was so weak that there really isn't much of a story. If you like seeing a young girl get hurt, in the knowledge that a lot of it is real, then this film is probably for you. If you want to watch a film that scares you and makes you think then you would be better off watching "irreversible" or "Oldboy" Gestics skill and commitment deserved a better vehicle than this.

Whew! Cross the Torture Porn genre with the Guinea Pig freak show series from Japan and you have The Bunny Game. The last word on this tired genre. It brings it to it's inevitable end. Well acted and beautifully shot. This is it. No reason to make anymore. It's good. It has all the shocks. No need to top it. This should be the last word. Hopefully I'll get a good nights sleep after watching this just on the comfort that we are finished with the sub genre. Let's cleanse ourselves. Oh crap, there is still that Nix guy making Human Centipede movies. Well, the ball is in his court now. The Bunny Game has set the bar about as far as it can go without being a snuff film viewed in a court room.

Pure exercise of sadism! I guess it resumes this film very well, because it's all about it: gratuitous torture! We cannot say it doesn't have a plot, because in fact it has, very short and almost pointless, but it all starts when a prostitute who has a miserable life of drugs, rude sex and solitude, meets a trucker and thinks he will be just another customer… Well, she's wrong! In fact she's very wrong, as her life will become a living hell of torture for endless days The plot can be just resumed to that because all the rest is just pure sadism mixed with a hallucinating cinematography and creepy soundtrack! In fact, the black and white and artsy cinematography, the flashing scenes, some camera shots and the incredible performance from both main actors, together with the disturbing music and sounds, was what I really appreciated in this film! I mean, I did enjoy the aesthetics and the artistic concept of this movie, but I couldn't appreciate the festival of torture and sadism it also is. Mostly because we can't find any reason or explanation to it. There's no evident motive, so it turns into an irrational game of torture for too much long… to the girl…and to the viewer! I score it 6/10 for the artistic concept but I can't score it higher because of the exaggerated and gratuitous sadism, which in the end becomes just pointless!