The Bunny Game, directed by Adam Rehmeier and written by Rehmeier and actress Rodleen Getsic, is a dark unpleasant film about the horrible life of a prostitute and the really awful places that can lead. And according to the back cover, it’s partially inspired by the real life experiences of Getsic.
Getsic stars as a prostitute named Bunny. The first forth of the film cuts between scenes of her sleeping with abusive men and getting money and coke in exchange and scenes of her walking around a city to generic heavy metal music. If these opening scenes are meant to show how horrible Bunny’s life is then they exceed admirably. She cries a lot in many of these scenes. However, they are extremely unpleasant to watch.
Things change up slightly (and by change I mean get worse) when she jumps into a trucker’s rig and he knocks her out and kidnaps her. The truck driver (Jeff F. Renro) chains her up in his trailer where he proceeds to play with her unconscious body for about ten minutes. He cuts her clothes off with a knife, he fondles her, slaps, shakes her body around and eventually starts filming as he does these things.
A quick brutal montage shows us that he’s done this many times before. He then begins to physically and psychologically torture her. Sometimes hitting her, sometimes sticking a gun into her mouth or putting a blow torch really close to her face. He opens the door to the back of the trailer giving her a cruel glimps of freedom. Then it just gets more horrific and depraved from there. This film is the ultimate in torture porn.
I understand film as art and I understand showing the unpleasant side of life. But I don’t understand, nor do I want to understand, the desire to make a dark twisted film like this. If anything like what really happened in this film really did happen to Getsic then I’m really sorry for her, but I don’t see why she had to reenact it on film. Some may call The Bunny Game an art film, others will want to call it a snuff film.
This film has no plot. All you get is a prostitute and her torturing capture. This film is an endurance trial of your patience as you’re a subjected to horrible moment after horrible moment. This film is a sea of torture and it never lets come up for a breath of air.
The nicest thing I can say about this film is that it’s less than an hour and a half, so at least it ended rather quickly (though it feels like it drags on forever).
Last week someone asked me what the worst film I’d ever had to review was and I told them Otto, Or Up With Dead People. I think now my answer might be The Bunny Game.
This film is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and 2.0 Stereo. I guess the film is shot pretty well. I guess I can say that about it. The look and sound is fine, but there was nothing in this film that I enjoyed watching or listening to.
Commentary: Rehmeier is in the studio and Getsic joins in via Skype. Listening to this commentary gave me no insight as to why I should watch or attempt to enjoy this film. Caretaking the Monster Making of Featurette: (16 min.) A pretty typical making of for a very non typical film. Trailer. DVD copy of the film.
I feel like if ’70s David Lynch were to have directed a porno then it might have been something like this film. Take that for what you will. It might make you curious to watch it, it might not. But I could never in good conscious recommend this film to anyone. And I kind of hate my editor right now for sending it to me.
Autonomy Pictures presents The Bunny Game. Written by: Adam Rehmeier and Rodleen Getsic. Directed by: Adam Rehmeier. Starring: Rodleen Getsic and Jeff F. Renfro. Running time: 76 min. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: July 31, 2012. Available at Amazon.com.
