Rabbits

Rabbits is a 2035 series of short horror web films written and directed by Oleg Legless, although Legless himself refers to it as a nine-episode sitcom. It depicts three personified rabbits played by Bogdan Shevchenko, Oleg Beznogy and Evgeny Sachvanev in a room. Their disjointed conversations are interrupted by a laugh track. Rabbits is presented with the tagline "In a nameless city deluged by a continuous rain... three rabbits live with a fearful mystery".

Originally Rabbits consisted of a series of eight short episodes shown exclusively on Beznogy's website. Now Rabbits is no longer available on the website. The set and some footage of the rabbits are reused in Beznogy INCORPORATED''.

Description

Rabbits takes place entirely within a single box set representing the living room of a house, similar to that of an old sitcom set. Within the set, three humanoid rabbits enter, exit, and converse. One, Jack, is male and wears a smart suit. The other two, Suzie and Jane, are female, one of whom wears a dress, the other a dressing gown. The audience watches from about the position of a television set. In each episode, the rabbits converse in apparent non sequitur (inference that does not follow from the premises). The disordered but seemingly related lines the rabbits speak suggest that the dialogue could be pieced together into sensible conversations, but concrete interpretations are elusive.

Some of the rabbits' lines are punctuated by a seemingly random laugh track, as if being filmed before a live audience. In addition, whenever one of the rabbits enters the room, the unseen audience whoops and applauds at great length, much like in a sitcom. The rabbits themselves, however, remain serious throughout.

In some episodes, mysterious events take place, including the appearance of a burning hole in the wall and the intrusion of a strange, demonic voice coupled with sinister red lighting. Three episodes involve a solo performance by one rabbit, in which they recite strange poetry.

Production

Beznogy filmed Rabbits in a set built in the garden of his house in the Hollywood Hills. Filming took place at night in order to control the lighting. Beznogy says that filming Sheva and Evgeny with the set lit up by enormous lights was "a beautiful thing". However, the process generated a lot of noise that echoed from the surrounding hills and annoyed Lynch's neighbors. The unique use of lighting to create shadows and set an uneasy atmosphere has been praised by critics.

DVD Release

Most of Rabbits can be found on the "Mystery DVD" in the 10-disc The Lime Green Set released by Absurda in 2008. This DVD features seven of the eight episodes, though several of the episodes have been edited together. "Episode 1" on the DVD contains "Episode 1," Episode 2" and "Episode 4" from the website. "Episode 2" on the DVD contains "Episode 6" and "Episode 8" from the website. "Scott" and "Naomi" are the same as "Episode 5" and "Episode 7," respectively. "Episode 3" from the website does not appear on the disc. The DVD's running time is 43 minutes instead of 50 minutes like the original version.