Story in short. Celia Carmichael lives with her parents in a small village in Australia during the fifties. It starts sad as her grandmother dies with who she had a close bond (shown in a few flashbacks). She finds comfort with their new neighbours: a family with 3 kids and in a cute rabbit which she gets as birthday present. However several conflicts arise as her father doesn't want her to play with the neighbour's kids any more as their parents are communists. Because of a rabbit plague the police is also trying to confiscate the rabbits of all rabbit owners. Last but not least Celia and her friends are in a feud with some classmates lead by Stephanie Burke daughter of the local police officer.
Why is Celia such an interesting character? Well the director(and actress) does a hell of a job showing how versatile Celia as lead actually is. She can be a pretty bad girl when things don't go her way even though she is not the girl to pull pranks on others. She only acts with a certain revenge when she feels they did her or her friends injustice. On the other hand she also shows a very caring side in her scenes with her pet rabbit, how she stands up for her neighbours. And not to forget like every child she has fears which are cleverly shaped by some creepy muddy monsters, gotten from a story the school teacher read to the kids before the holidays started. No those monsters are not the real horror elements they exist only in her dreams and imagination. But the more disappointments she endures the more real they seem to become for her.
The real horror elements are shown in a few strong scenes which left quite some impression on me. I'm not going to give them away, without any gore or violence involved they struck me quite hard. It eventually leads to Celia doing a terrible thing and despite it was wrong I just couldn't condemn her. In the end only her best friend Heather was witness of Celia's crime even though I had the feeling her mother also found out.
Why is Celia such an interesting character? Well the director(and actress) does a hell of a job showing how versatile Celia as lead actually is. She can be a pretty bad girl when things don't go her way even though she is not the girl to pull pranks on others. She only acts with a certain revenge when she feels they did her or her friends injustice. On the other hand she also shows a very caring side in her scenes with her pet rabbit, how she stands up for her neighbours. And not to forget like every child she has fears which are cleverly shaped by some creepy muddy monsters, gotten from a story the school teacher read to the kids before the holidays started. No those monsters are not the real horror elements they exist only in her dreams and imagination. But the more disappointments she endures the more real they seem to become for her.
The real horror elements are shown in a few strong scenes which left quite some impression on me. I'm not going to give them away, without any gore or violence involved they struck me quite hard. It eventually leads to Celia doing a terrible thing and despite it was wrong I just couldn't condemn her. In the end only her best friend Heather was witness of Celia's crime even though I had the feeling her mother also found out.