Review: EASTER HOLOCAUST (2020)
Do you like Troma films? Not the ones they make like The Toxic Avenger, but the ones they distribute like Meat For Satan’s Icebox and Meat Weed Madness. If you do, you may want to check out Easter Holocaust, the latest film from writer/director Michael Leo Centi (My Deadly Playmate, The Murderous Rampage of Malachi Stitch). If not, you probably want to stay far away from it. Lord knows, I wish I had.
Natalia (Katie Hellman, All Hallows’ Eve Horror) is sitting at a table in the RH Institute with a brainwave monitor on her head. Agent Duffer (Don Hill) slaps a newspaper down and asks her about “The Creature”. She gets agitated and crumples a soda can with her psychic powers. The Creature is presumably the killer Easter Bunny we saw in the prologue.
Duffer and Dr. Clarke (Elisa Fuentes) get into an argument. The doctor takes Natalia into town, hoping to help her recover her memory. That goes very badly, a funeral gets disturbed, a cop gets punched, and a woman pukes into her handbag. Oh yeah, and Natalia takes off with the doctor’s gun.
It seems that this creature goes on a rampage every year. Tearing out hearts and putting them in a basket. And if it isn’t stopped this year, it’ll open up the gates to hell. Along the way there are evil scientists, cannibalistic devil worshipers, a young girl named Amy (Rya Guiffre) who also has psychic powers and lots of Halloween decorations used as special effects.
To be fair, Easter Holocaust lets us know just what kind of film it is early on. Agent Duffer’s newspaper is actually a copy of WNY Jobs, a Buffalo-area help wanted publication. We can see there’s no story, just two pages of job ads. And since it was filmed in Western New York, that explains why the few cast members who have other credits were in Len Kabasinski’s (Pact of Vengeance, Fist Of The Vampire) films. Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th, The Lurker) turns up briefly as Jason Manfredini to give the film a name to hype.
As I said at the start if you like this kind of film you will probably love Easter Holocaust. There’s an audience for them, but I’m not it. And at over 2 hours long, it was a major effort to get through it. The intentionally horrible effects and the humour that runs to people being impaled by dildos and very obvious cross-dressing characters just don’t do it for me.
Those of you that do find it funny enjoy it. I’m going to have some Cadbury Egg flavoured vodka and try to forget this exists. And if you want to see a good no-budget film from Buffalo, try Holland Road Massacre: The Legend Of Pigman.
Easter Holocaust is available to stream via Glamboy Productions. You can check their Facebook page for details.