Cute Little Buggers (2017) by Stu Jopia


Director: Stu Jopia
Year: 2017
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature; Horror/Comedy

Plot:
Arriving on Planet Earth, a race of aliens looking for Earth women to repopulate their species initiate a plan to corrupt the bunny population of a small British village into deformed mutations to kidnap the women and turn them over for the invaders forcing the men to fight back and stop their plan.

Review:

This was quite the fun if somewhat flawed creature feature. Among its better aspects is the hilariously cheesy and goofy atmosphere that carries on throughout here. The opening shots of the aliens in their ship discussing their plans start this off rather quickly to fuel that idea, showing the aliens speaking in English about what to expect here which is then expanded upon in the rest of the film. From their plot to infiltrate humanity using bunnies, the constant discussions about how it’s going, and the town’s police force reacting to everything around them, this one is quite goofy and silly which is for the best here.

That gives the film’s attack scenes quite a lot to like as it mixes this cheesy aesthetic with more serious attacks. Playing up the running gag with the cute rabbit being the cause, that they can sneak up on everyone and unsuspectingly prepare for either a cheesy capture to be transported back or the ship or a more vicious attack is quite fun. The early wood attacks that gather the girls up are fun while the big action scenes involving the escape from the rabbit-filled woods, the wild attack on the town party, or the multi-stage raid on their hideout to rescue everyone offers more of a serious take on everything, holding this one up overall.


There are a few minor problems to be had with this one. One of the biggest issues is the overlong running time brought about by the use of several useless subplots to lengthen the running time. The majority of the first half goes overboard making us aware of the various interpersonal relationships, from the town outcast returning home to his estranged father and his former girlfriend who’s dating the jerk, their friends who are stuck in their own small-town squabbles, or the lazy police force. These elements are fun enough but played out for far too long, making this seem too long for its own good.

The other problem here is the utterly laughable special effects which might be the point based on how cheesy it is but still has some incredibly silly effects work. The rabbits themselves are poorly rendered CGI which makes them look like genuine rabbits but the fur is wrong and their dimensions are off, resulting in too large beasts walking through the scenes in obvious fashion and making you wonder why they never used the real thing. The blood and gore as well as the wounds look even worse, while the aliens didn’t need the forked tongues. These are what hold this one down.


Overview: ***.5/5
A wholly enjoyable and cheesy genre effort that works once you realize what’s going on, those who don’t will generally find this to be quite laughable otherwise. It’s really best to go into this one knowing that from the start, making for an easy pick for cheesy creature feature fans while all others should heed caution with this one.

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