HORROR FILM REVIEW: CUTE LITTLE BUGGERS

By Joe X Young

Definitely NOT a ‘fluffy bunny’ movie

The distributor blurb is as follows:

“Gremlins meets Hot Fuzz in Cute Little Buggers, premiering on VOD Nov 7.

Tony Jopia’s highly anticipated comedy-horror hybrid sees locals of a peaceful English village, enjoying their annual summer festival, when they are suddenly attacked by mutated killer rabbits!

Somewhere in the depths of space, aliens are watching the earth and planning their attack. Unaware of the impending danger, the locals of a sleepy English village are preparing for their summer festival. The aliens launch their offensive by mutating the local rabbit population, and when the furry demons are released, the body count starts to pile up as blood, guts, and fur flies in all directions as the humans fight off the alien threat.

Featuring genre icon Caroline Munro (Maniac, The Spy Who Loved Me) and from Tony Jopia, director of Crying Wolf , comes the wildest film of the fall, Cute Little Buggers – crashlanding Nov 7 from Uncork’d Entertainment.”
 
It’s a mood thing, and if you’re in the mood for a silly sci-fi horror sex comedy in a 1980s style then cute little buggers might be just what you’re looking for.

When I was in my late teens/20s I had already lived through the far from PC era of the ‘Carry-On’ movies and Benny Hill and was experiencing the likes of Critters, Gremlins, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and many others of varying quality. The 80s and early 90s in particular appeared to spawn a great many ‘straight to VHS’ copycats, the emphasis placed more on copious quantities of blood and guts/tits and arse and of course humour. Recently films and TV are harking back to the good-old-bad-old-days with productions such as Stranger Things, the remake of Stephen King’s IT, and one of my personal favourites of recent years Turbo Kid, the latter of which captures a similar vibe to Cute Little Buggers in that the 80s influence is clear, and all of which are the higher quality end of the spectrum. Cute Little Buggers is one of those films which is more difficult to accurately define, as much of what I would normally consider to be piss-poor is seemingly quite deliberate. The special effects are a good example of this as although better than average for low-budget offerings they still have that bargain basement quality with the mutants looking like they would be more at home in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is somewhat appropriate.

The basics: aliens seek to impregnate Earth women. Those given the task attempt to select the species most likely to be successful at procreation and mutate them to do their bidding, so choosing rabbits seemed like the best bet. Cue a lot of lame jokes, topless babes (Not Caroline Munro as she has a tiny cameo role) and an absolute mass of gore as the local villagers take on the alien hybrid bunnies.

Is it actually any good though? Well, as I said at the beginning, it’s a mood thing. When I first started watching it I thought “what is this shit”, turned it off soon after and left it a few days. Today I had a bit of time to kill and felt guilty for not giving it a fair crack of the whip, so watched the whole thing and have to admit that I found it fun in places. I couldn’t help but think that if this film had been released in 1985 the 20-year-old me would have enjoyed it more and perhaps it would have become a cult classic, but nowadays it’s more destined to be a somewhat cheesy nostalgic throwback. If you’re the kind of person who likes no-brainer entertainment then this is for you.

Watch the trailer and decide for yourself.