If you love Easter and are looking forward to a nice, long weekend to celebrate the holiday, these films are a great way to close out the evening. There are plenty of movies directly tied to Easter like Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Prince of Egypt (1998), or Risen (2016). While some movies like The Santa Clause 2 (2002) feature the Easter Bunny, some directly adapt the story, as seen in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
However, there are plenty of Easter movies that don’t reflect the holiday beat for beat, but use it as a backdrop for romantic tales, goofball comedies, and tense thrillers. All of these movies tonally feel connected to the holiday, for good and ill, and fit the Spring season as a movie pick. Whatever kind of genres you love best, here are the films you forgot were actually Easter movies that you can watch on Prime Video, fuboTV, and more!
Mallrats (1995)
One of the most unlikely Easter movies ever, Mallrats is a surprisingly good pick for the season if you love a good dumb comedy from the ‘90s. The far broader sequel to Kevin Smith’s breakout film Clerks (1994), Mallrats uses the Easter backdrop for some big comedy beats, like when Jay and Silent Bob beat up the guy in the Easter Bunny costume.
On top of that, the movie’s lighter and carefree tone gives it a peppy Spring Break vibe that fits the general season. While elements of the comedy have aged much in the same way they have for peers to this movie, like American Pie (1999), Mallrats has a certain colorful and sophomoric charm that Smith would continue to play with in his later films.
Critters 2: The Main Course (1988)
A bizarrely cheesy sci-fi sequel that may test the limits of your acceptance of weird monster movies, Critters 2: The Main Course actually has a lot of fun with the Easter season. The sequel to Critters (1986) sees the alien race try to return to Earth, this time by hiding their own eggs among a small town Easter egg hunt. There's even a murdered Easter Bunny for the sake of the strange sight.
While it might not be as fun as the previous movie or similar projects like Gremlins (1984), Critters 2: The Main Course is ridiculous enough to at least be strangely fun—and offers a comically gruesome take on the Easter movie if you're looking for a break from the family film fare or religious-themed stories that usually appear this time of year.
Chocolat (2000)
A romance that relies on charm more than anything else, Chocolat is a good pick for any audience looking to spend the Easter weekend with a bit of love. The film focuses on Vianne Rocher, a chocolatier who finds herself in a whirlwind romance when she and her daughter move to a small French village in the ‘50s. The Easter elements here play into the themes of rebirth into a new life in clever ways.
Sweet and surprisingly sexual, there's an enticing aura of desire and romance in the Juliette Binoche-led film that pairs her with Johnny Depp—which may impact your thoughts on the film. If you don't care for the saccharine romances of movies like Titanic (1997) or The Notebook (2004), then this central relationship will likely frustrate you. However, any audience looking for a taste of sweetness in their cinematic love stories should partake in his romance.
Steel Magnolias (1989)
A well-constructed weepie, the Spring season surrounding Steel Magnolias only plays further into the season by quietly setting a lot of the plot against an Easter backdrop. Starring a murderer's row of stars like Sally Field, Dolly Parton, and Julia Roberts, Steel Magnolias is a reflection on grief and life amid the death of a woman and the birth of a child.
To make those themes even more resonant, the movie is set in the soft Spring season of Louisiana, with an ending that uses some classic Easter egg hunts as the imagery for a sweet moment of joy. If you’re not looking for a painfully bittersweet melodrama, then you might want to avoid this infamously sad movie. However, if you appreciate a good sad story and have already cried enough over Hamnet (2025), maybe give this one a try during the season.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
The feature-length debut of Wallace and Gromit retained all the charm of the original shorts when Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit hit the big screen, all while feeling like a perfectly attuned spring adventure. The Aardman stop-motion is as delightful as ever, but amplified with a sense of motion and action that elevates the well-attuned and constantly silly motion.
The film’s focus on the spread of bunnies across the quiet English town and the accidental creation of a were-rabbit make it a fun subversion of the typical Easter Bunny portrayal in animation, all while delivering a surprisingly effective story about principles, connection, and self-sacrifice. Just as good as their other classics like Chicken Run (2000), The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the perfect Easter movie for kids that technically isn’t really about Easter.
Life of Brian (1979)
The comedians behind Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969) went on to create some pretty terrifically wacky and brilliantly absurd feature-length films, but Life of Brian (1979) might be their most ambitious. The comedy of a normal man in extraordinary times sees the hapless Brian run afoul of the occupying Romans, fall in with local rebels, and ultimately get mistaken for a messiah.
The sly skewering of religious themes is secondary to the film’s commitment to the destruction of societal justice with pure silliness, but there’s a darker undercurrent to the satire at times that gives it a bit more bite than most Easter movies. The ending is such a strangely uplifting bit of bleak comedy that it somehow fits the season perfectly with the cycle of life and death that’s inherent to the season. Perfect for people who liked movies like Dogma (1999) and The Book of Clarence (2024), the film is a great spring comedy that just so happens to have fun with the timing of the Easter story.
Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Rise of the Guardians is a surprisingly adaptable holiday movie for younger audiences, thanks to its admittedly odd premise. The film, based on the Guardians of Childhood books, is a fantasy adventure that takes similar narrative cues to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) even while playing it broad enough to appeal to younger audiences.
The film sees a number of mythological characters tied to major holidays working together as a superhero team, including Hugh Jackman as E. Aster Bunnymund, the inspiration for the Easter Bunny. The film’s bright tone and battle of the mystical and natural elements give it a fitting connection to the Spring season, making it an ideal Easter movie even beyond the inclusion of perhaps cinema’s most capable take on the character.
The Long Good Friday (1980)
If you're looking for a taut thriller that has a connection to the season, then The Long Good Friday shouldn't pass you by. The Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren film, set against the backdrop of the Troubles in Ireland, is a dark story that feels like a British precursor to what Martin Scorsese would go on to do with Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995).
Not for the younger audiences and with a darker tone than what you might be expecting from the more charming crime movies of Guy Ritchie, like The Gentleman (2020), this movie doesn’t hold back on the bleak feelings of hopelessness that were an underlying aspect of life in this era. The Long Good Friday is a quietly tense and deeply engrossing slice of history and culture filtered through a terrific slow-burning crime story.
