What about without Rabbit? In order to facilitate the transition of people from pagan motives to diligent Christianity, church dignitaries decided to use some of the ritual traditions of the old beliefs in the new religion. This decision turned out to be correct from an ideological point of view, since many pagans saw that Christians were partly based on old customs, which means that finding a common language with them was actually not so difficult. From paganism to Christianity migrated the customs of the celebration of the Summer solstice, as well as other moments that made it possible to unite people under one religious flag, which was later split into various denominations, and yet the whole pantheon of pagan deities was replaced by the One God, which eventually became the beginning of the construction of modern civilization as we know it. However, for quite a long time in certain circles of dignitaries and scientists there are discussions about whether it is advisable in the present enlightened time to continue to rely on ancient pagan customs in Christianity, which can now safely do without unnecessary borrowings. This applies primarily to rites associated with the most important holidays, including Easter. As you know, the story of the Resurrection of Christ closely intersects with the legends of the Easter Rabbit, chocolate eggs and other things that are not directly related to what was shown in the Bible. And now, through the efforts of not the most famous outside of his native Ohio, but quite an interesting writer, director and screenwriter Dustin Mills, we saw the film “Easter Coffin”, which ironically passes on pagan motives of the Easter holidays, hinting at the fact that long-standing beliefs are still extremely strong in our culture and so easy to get rid of them can not. Even if you really want to.
So, the plot of the film unfolds on the eve of the next Easter, which should become something extremely unusual. The fact is that the church leadership has made a very unusual decision that should finally cut the ties between paganism and Christianity. So now parishioners can't count on meeting the Easter Bunny and shouldn't be looking for chocolate eggs that are forbidden to hide. Such a reform has been brewing for a long time, and was supposed to focus all the attention of the flock exclusively on the divine principles, but this is not at all liked by the ancient deity Tammuz, who nourishes his strength precisely from pagan rituals, which are closely interwoven into Christianity. watching the arbitrariness of the church, Tammuz decided that it was time for him to personally come to Earth and show the arrogant dignitaries that they are doing wrong. And even more, the demon seriously planned to conquer the planet, flooding it with his nightmare minions. To realize his plans, Tammuz takes the form of a Rabbit and begins to perform his bloody deeds with explosive chocolate eggs, metal carrots and marmalade, after eating which people begin to lay eggs with terrible chickens, striking with their cruelty. And it would seem that such an opponent is simply impossible to stop, but the battle father Asher (Josh Il) bursts into the arena, who is ready to demolish the head of anyone to defend Christianity. Executing the will of Mega-Pope himself, Escher does not obey the traditional conclave of cardinals, and with such a cunning rival, Timmuz will not be easy to cope. So a great battle is coming, in which humanity can rely solely on the unique skills of an extraordinary priest with steel fists.
Of course, on the topic of eradicating pagan motifs in Christian customs, it was possible to shoot a rather serious and tense mystical horror, but Dustin Mills believed that such a story could well bear the imprint of a formidable absurdity. Seizing on such an idea, the director created a frankly inexpensive, but quite charming farce that can be and communicates with its viewer in the language of black comedy, but for all the irony that we see on the screen, it is not difficult to consider certain semantic studies that deserve the right to life. In pursuit of the Christmas tree or those chocolate eggs, people began to forget what exactly are the true Christian celebrations. Biblical motifs have stepped aside in front of the gift-giving Santa Claus and the Easter Rabbit, who throws sweet eggs into almost every dark corner or under bushes. At the same time, Mills hints that the interweaving of cultures, beliefs and customs is not as bad as it may seem to some religious radicals, since such a bundle allows you to combine the history, myths and legends of mankind, which go far beyond what was described in the New Testament. However, sitting down to watch the “Easter coffin” is still important to understand that this film does not pretend to be a great scientific work and just tries to entertain the viewer with unexpected holiday motifs that appear before us not in the format of a diligent family movie.
Of course, Dustin Mills still lacks enough funds to present the audience with the full madness of his idea. Some tricks here look openly amateur, and special effects certainly will not surprise even the most unpretentious viewer. So to expect from the "Easter coffin" something striking in technical terms is definitely not worth it. But if you take the film as a funny, ironic thrash adventure, where the horrors are comical, and Easter is presented in a not so unambiguous light, then this story may well be intriguing. In addition, we should not forget about the image of a brave fighter against evil, Escher’s father, who acts with radical methods and will definitely not retreat as long as he has at least a minimal chance of winning. And maybe this role did not become a breakthrough for Josh Eal in the big movie, but he fulfilled his task well, without falling out of the general concept of the plot and the madness that the director developed. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the rest of the cast, which is largely selected here almost by chance, but much to demand from this project is still not worth it, because it is for the most part made as some experimental antics Dustin Mills, and this does not oblige the authors to some great revelations that are aimed at the most mass audience.
In the end, I want to say that the Easter coffin in a rather unexpected version plays the motives of one of the main holidays of the Christian era. Of course, the film is far from exemplary, with a lot of controversial artistic decisions and other specifics of risky independent cinema, and yet its idea and crazy implementation already attract the attention of the audience. So here will be what to see and what to notice.
5 out of 10