the world around her. She wants to fill the void in her life by bring back gran and also 
getting a pet rabbit, the latter of which her parents manage to appease. Celia starts having disturbing dreams involving her dead grandmother at the window (shades of Salem's Lot) and slimy monsters, but real life proves to be even more disturbing when her family bans her from hanging out with the new neighbors, who apparently have communist sympathies. On top of that, the government is trying to prevent a major rabbit population issue and confiscating all pet rabbits for the local zoo, setting off a tragic series of events that might send Celia down a very dark rabbit hole of her own.
d title of Celia, Child of T
error seemed like an attempt to cash in on something like Children of the Corn, which is rather missing the point. This fits in far more snugly with the fascinating strain of child psychology thrillers running through international cinema from classics like Curse of the Cat People to more modern, subversive fare like Heavenly Creatures, Paperhouse, and the closest point of reference here, The Reflecting Skin. 
and the Scorpion disc also marks the 
first time the film has been available in its original film speed running 103 minutes instead of the sped-up 97 minutes of the previous PAL versions. Image quality is fine if limited by the drab and sometimes dark nature of the film; don't expect pristine HD quality here, but it's the equal of the international releases and much, much better than the American VHS version. Not surprisingly, this presented as part of Scorpion's Katarina's Nightmare Theater line, with hostess Katarina Leigh Waters kicking things off by chasing and attacking a stuffed bunny rabbit (cue the Night of the Lepus jokes here) and offering loads of trivia about the participants in the film. The extras from the Aussie release include a 1989 Sunday Show review of the film (7m5s) by Paul Thompson including a chat with the director, plus a 10m58s audio interview between Turner and critic David Stratton covering some of the cultural, political, and psychological undercurrents of the film. The short German-language trailer (probably prepared for the video release) is also included along with bonus trailers for The Monster Club, Grizzly, Day of the Animals, Death Ship, The Unseen, and The Survivor.
earlier UK DVD interview with Turner is ported over here, without PAL speedup and 
now running 14m16s. However, you also get two substantial new video bonuses starting with "Celia's World" (61m23s), a very interesting documentary by Turner including interviews she conducted with children of 1950s Australian communist sympathizers. She also goes into memories of the real rabbit muster that inspired the story, as well as its reception and various attempts to read it as a feminist or child psychology tract. "There's Something About Celia" (17m39s) is a post-screening Q&A with author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Maria Lewis at the Australian Centre for Moving Image in Melbourne, discussing how they first encountered the film and how it stands apart from traditional genre readings while offering insight into a young female psyche. The disc closes out with a very hefty photo gallery including some great candid shots of the monsters in and out of costume, while the insert booklet comes with insightful essays by Michael Brooke and Joy Damousi (including additional bits on the arduous process of bringing the production to fruition) and the eerie folktale incorporated into the script, "The Hobyahs." This film (presumably from the same restoration) will also appear in the United States from Severin as part of its All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium Of Folk Horror set, paired up on a Blu-ray disc with Alison's Birthday along with a completely different slate of extras including a 40-minute Turner interview, a featurette with editor Ken Sallows, and a 1979 documentary about Australia's rabbit cull.Second Run (Blu-ray)
Scorpion Releasing (DVD)
