7 Easter Horror Movies That Will Make Your Blood Pressure Rise Again
Unlike fellow holidays, Halloween and Christmas, Easter has very few horror movies dedicated to its festivities. Considering the religious holiday is ultimately all about death, sacrifice, and resurrection, it seems odd that the genre pool isn’t swimming in Easter-set films.
There are Easter horror movies to be found, but you have to know where to look, as they have a far lower profile than other holiday movies. In lieu of knowledge of what Easter offerings there are, most turn to something like Watership Down to fill the void. A children’s film, it might technically be, but there is no denying that it is one of the most traumatising, horrific, and bleak films in history. Its connection to Easter is tenuous, beginning and ending with the fact that rabbits – key Easter iconography – are the protagonists.
One up-and-coming Easter horror movie to keep an eye out for is Krazy House. The film premiered at SXSW 2024 but has yet to find a release either in cinemas or on streaming. Krazy House stars Nick Frost and Alicia Silverstone as parents in a stylised ‘90s sitcom who come unstuck over the Easter period. A super wacky horror comedy, Krazy House has the potential to become a go-to Easter horror; it just needs a release. Until Krazy House arrives, and with Easter on the horizon, we’ve done an exhaustive search of Easter horror and found a selection of films that have the potential to keep you up at night.
The first selection is a movie that is known by at least two names. Although it was released on DVD as The Beaster Bunny, it is currently available under the name Beaster Day: Here Comes Peter Cottonhell. A low-budget parody of ‘70s children's film Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Beaster Day sees a town attacked by a giant, bloodthirsty Easter bunny, with the fate of the townsfolk resting in the hands of an aspiring actress and a dog-catcher.
I cannot in good conscience say that Beaster Day is even remotely a film of quality; it was clearly made for a budget of pennies. The plot is silly, and the acting dire. However, Beaster Day is one of those classic ‘so bad it's good’ films. Its low budget, wobbly sets and effects, somehow win the viewer over. Its flimsy plot makes it an ideal post-Easter lunch food coma movie, but be warned, nothing can prepare you for the horror of Peter Cottonhell’s appearance. No spoilers here, but suffice to say, he looks nothing like the movie artwork.
Family Dinner is a far more refined selection than Beaster Day, and a genre film for those who like to watch a movie on the precipice of having a panic attack. Director Peter Hengl borrows from the Safdie playbook and creates a film with mounting stress factors that almost overwhelm the viewer. Set over Easter, but forgoing the monstrous Easter bunny trope, Family Dinner instead joins an overweight teenager as she goes to stay with her aunt for the Easter break. As the weeklong visit unfolds, gaslighting, manipulation, and coercion become tools used to control the teen, who quickly learns that something is not right with her aunt.
Featuring an abundance of atmosphere, tension and some questionable food produce, Family Dinner will have you rethinking that visit to the relatives for Easter lunch.
Alongside Gremlins, Critters was one of the most fun creature-based horror comedies of the ‘80s. For the second film, Critters 2: The Main Course, director and co-writer Mick Garris followed the Gremlins formula by having the franchise hungry space furballs cause havoc during a religious holiday. Rather than Christmas, Garris opted for Easter, with the story seeing the Crites’ eggs get mixed up with those hidden for the town’s annual Easter egg hunt.
Cue absolute carnage when they hatch. Critters 2 is best known for the introduction of the Criteball, an enormous rolling ball of the intergalactic creatures. It also presents the perfect excuse to unleash your inner critic and scoff through your bounty of Easter eggs.
Released in 2016, Holidays is a horror anthology that will take you through all of the big calendar holidays of the year. Beginning with Valentine’s Day, and ending on New Year’s Eve, in addition to Easter, Holidays also include nightmarish tales tied to St. Patrick's Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. Whether you watch the anthology in one go or break up the shorts for viewing on their specific holiday, there are some inventive explorations of each festivity.
In the case of the Easter segment, there is a rather macabre explanation of the origins of the Easter Bunny. Complete with a rather ghastly interpretation of the look of the egg-giving bunny, this Holidays segment is crying out for a feature adaptation.
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey might not be set at Easter, but it certainly features one of the most hideous interpretations of the Easter Bunny. The comedy sequel sees time-travelling aspiring rock gods come face to face with robot clones of themselves. After being killed by their doppelgangers, the titular duo must fight their way back through the afterlife to save the world. During their jaunt through the underworld, the pair end up in their own personal versions of Hell. For Ted, this involves a demonic-looking Easter Bunny that taunts him about a past misdeed.
Although only present for a few moments, his visage has scared many a young viewer, and even for grown-ups, his appearance is an awful sight to behold.
A common theme with Easter-set horror movies is that there seems to be an unwritten rule that they have to be wacky and weird. Easter Bloody Easter fits into both categories and works as the missing link between Critters 2 and Beaster Day. The plot finds a woman tasked with saving her small town when a giant jackalope and his army of deadly bunnies embark on an Easter weekend murder spree.
Featuring furry, red-eyed puppets for the demonic bunnies, and a questionable man in a suit approach to the larger threat, Easter Bloody Easter is another low-budget film that, after starting painfully, goes on to become yet another example of so bad it's entertaining. Get Easter Bloody Easter cued up, remove your brains, and embrace the madness that it has to offer.
As with all of the big religious holidays, Easter is a time for family. If all that sentimentality gets too much, then the grimness of Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! Is the perfect antidote. Featuring some truly horrible subject matter, this is a movie for those who enjoy feeling somewhat unclean when watching a horror movie.
A slasher by design, Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! finds some truly deplorable characters getting their comeuppance in very gruesome ways at the hands of a killer clad in an Easter Bunny mask.
