Night of the Lepus

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens showing a news report about how overpopulation is not just a human problem, but exists in the animal kingdom as well, using the rabbit population explosion in Australia in the 1950s as an example. There was a similar plague of rabbits getting out of hand in the American Southwest, especially in Arizona, where the rabbits were devouring crops, destroying property, and out-competing livestock for a finite supply of food and water.Moving to the action in Arizona, our first view is of rancher Cole Hillman, riding his horse. The horse steps into a rabbit hole and injures itself, and Cole must shoot it and walk home. He instructs one of his ranch hands to take the truck to go get his saddle, then makes a phone call to the university in Ajo, hoping to find a cure for the rabbit infestation. He meets Dr. Elgin Clark, but his first suggestion is for the same person who killed all the coyotes that were keeping the rabbits in check. Cole is hesitant to make the same mistake twice, but agrees to visit the Bennett family, scientific researchers who are looking for more ecologically friendly ways of controlling wildlife.We meet the Bennetts, father Roy, mother Gerry, and daughter Amanda. Roy was capturing bats for an experiment. They want to control the bats' flight pattern, hoping to use them to kill mosquitoes, without the nasty side effects of DDT and other insecticides. Elgin Clark comes to see him and asks him to visit Cole, to see if he could come up with an ecologically friendly way to solve the rabbit problem. On the way there, they see ranchers desperately shooting at rabbits trying to preserve their livelihoods.At Cole's ranch, Cole explains his problem. Although hardly an environmentalist, Cole has reasons of his own for not wanting to use poison to kill the rabbits. The poison would harm his cattle, so he would have to sell them at distress prices, and eventually his land would become toxic and barren. He can hold out only a few more weeks before using the cyanide, and the other ranchers are anxious to use it sooner. Roy suggests interfering with the rabbits' hormones, or introducing a disease that affects only rabbits, and takes several rabbits with him to begin experiments. Meanwhile, their daughter Amanda becomes friends with Cole's son Jackie.Back at the university, the experiments are not producing any useful results. They will never have a solution in time to save Cole's ranch. He tries one last injection, in an untested rabbit, over the objections of Amanda, who has become attached to the rabbit in question. While her parents' backs are turned, the mischievous little girl switches the rabbit with another one from the control group, hoping to protect it from further harm. Then she pesters her parents into letting her adopt it as a pet. They think that the rabbit is from the control group and thus has had no injections.They return to Cole's ranch to pick up more rabbits for experimentation, but Jackie does not like Amanda's new pet, since the rabbits are a menace to his family and they killed his chickens at one point. He seizes the rabbit and releases it, and it runs away. Amanda forgives him and they go off together to talk.At the university, the experiments have failed. Some of the rabbits have grown enormously, but are otherwise unaffected. Roy, depsite his misgivings, calls Cole to tell him to do what he needs to do. Cole has one more try, though. He sets part of his range on fire, sacrificing some of his land in hopes of creating a strip of charred land that is completely devoid of food and water, that the rabbits will not be able to cross. Some of the other ranchers are skeptical, but they trust Cole's judgment enough to delay their own use of poisons a little longer. The fire drives away the rabbits, for awhile.While inspecting the land, the Bennetts and Cole find an unusual animal track. They don't know what the animal was, but they know that it was big. Meanwhile, Jackie takes Amanda to meet a friend of his, Captain Billy, who has a gold mine in the hills. Arriving at the mine, they find no one home. He sends Amanda into the mine to look while he looks outside. Jackie finds more animal tracks, while Amanda sees the shadows of enormous rabbits. Then she sees a dead body, presumably that of Billy. She screams and runs out of the mine. We next see her being examined by a doctor, who determines she only had a shock and will be fine. Jackie describes what he could remember, but everything happened very fast; he doesn't remember much.At night, a driver with a refrigerated truck stops to check his truck, and hears the thunder of paws and heavy breathing nearby, but it's too dark to see what's going on. He fails to get back in the truck while the getting is good, and is attacked by the rabbits. The next morning, a policeman finds the abandoned truck, its cargo of vegetables scattered over the ground, and then finds the driver's body. He calls for the sheriff to examine the body. While he is there, he gets a call. The body has been recovered from the mine, and it is Captain Billy, looking as badly mutilated as the truck driver.Back in town, the coroner determines that the bodies and boxes of vegetables were not chopped with an axe, but were chewed or gnawed. He can't think of what animal could cause so much destruction, except maybe a saber-toothed tiger. Meanwhile, another policeman finds more mutilated bodies nearby.At the university, Roy and Elgin realize that the huge rabbits that Amanda saw are likely the cause of the destruction, and are probably the result of their experiment. They debate calling the sheriff, but Elgin, fearing the bad publicity that it would draw to the university, talks them out of it until they can gather more evidence. Roy tells Gerry to go call Cole, intending to go see him the next day to look for the rabbits, and try to destroy them.The next day, Elgin, the Bennetts, Cole, and his ranch hands Frank and Jud, arrive at the mine with cyanide and dynamite. Elgin and Frank go up into the hills to look for more holes and plant dynamite, while Jud and Cole plant dynamite at the main entrance. Elgin drops a rock into one of the holes and listens to the noises the rabbits make in reaction, holding out his radio microphone so that Roy and Gerry can hear it too. Roy and Cole go into the mine, hoping to capture a rabbit, or if that isn't possible, take a picture. They go in, camera and shotgun in hand. The others are apprehensive as Roy and Cole remain inside the mine, out of reach. Finally, Roy and Cole reach the chamber where the rabbits are holed up, and realize that using the gun may cause a cave in. They see them clearly for the first time, describing them as big as wolves and just as vicious. Roy takes several pictures, but the rabbits start to chase them, and they must escape. They didn't mark their way, so they are in danger of making a wrong turn and becoming trapped. Meanwhile, another giant rabbit burrows out of the ground outside and attacks Jud, and Gerry must save him by shooting the rabbit, and treat his injuries. Time passes, and the groups outside become more worried for Roy and Cole's safety. Finally, they reach the entrance of the mine and run out, and Elgin sets off the dynamite, collapsing the mine and burying many rabbits.At the university, Elgin examines the photographs, and he realizes that it is time to inform the sheriff. They plan to go back to the mine the next day, to make sure all the rabbits are dead. Roy, realizing that the press will be all over the place soon, advises Gerry to take Amanda and go to another town, for their privacy, until the whole thing blows over. Next, we see rabbits leaving the mine; obviously the cave-in left a significant number of them to escape and raise more havoc. The thunder of paws panics Cole's horses, waking him up. The horses soon escape. Cole gets his family together in the storm shelter under his house, while the rabbits attack the horses. Jud, still panicked from his encounter with the rabbits earlier, runs to the truck and flees. He encounters the herd of rabbits and quickly turns around and drives back to the ranch. In his panic, he crashes the truck, knocking out the phone lines to Cole's house, just when Cole was trying to call for help. Jud runs from the truck, but the rabbits have arrived and they pounce on him. Cole shoots at them, but it's too late to save Jud. He joins his family in the shelter. There is a tense moment as the rabbits try to scratch through the door, but they are driven off. The rabbits get into the house's main floor and destroy everything inside. Cole and Frank keep them from scratching through the floor by shooting at them.At the store in the town of Galanos, the switchboard operator Mildred is unsure what to think of Cole's telephone line going out suddenly, while Cole sounded agitated. It's late, so her husband and a friend take off to go home. Soon, she can hear the thunder of paws, too, and she looks out the window to check. The rabbits have arrived and they jump through the window to pounce on her. The rabbits also reach her house, where they catch and kill her husband before he can get inside.In the morning, Cole and Frank go outside; the rabbits have holed up somewhere for the day. They mourn Jud, and Cole tells Frank to stay with Jackie while he goes to town. The horses are gone and his truck is wrecked, so his only option is to walk, shotgun in hand. Meanwhile, Roy sends Gerry and Amanda off in their RV to Wooddale. She promises him to call him when she gets there. Roy and Elgin contact the sheriff, who has already been informed of the rabbits. They get into a helicopter to check the area around the mine. Meanwhile, Cole has a long walk. He tries to flag down passing motorists, but traffic is light, and few people are going to pick up a man with a shotgun. Perhaps realizing this, Cole ditches the gun and continues. Gerry's RV becomes stuck in the sand on the way to Wooddale, leaving her and Amanda stranded.Hours later, Cole finally makes it to town, and finds the store that was attacked by the rabbits the previous night. The rabbits are still inside, feasting on the food as they wait for the sun to go down. Finding no help here, Cole takes off again on foot, needing to find help, or at least shelter, before dark. During the day, Roy, Elgin, and the sheriff arrive at the mine, and they find it empty. The sheriff calls the National Guard. In the afternoon, Cole finally is able to get a ride with a priest.The sheriff gets authorization to use the National Guard, but he is unable to contact Cole, since the switchboard at Galanos is out. Cole, riding with the priest, finally reaches a phone and calls in, and tells the sheriff where the rabbits are. The sheriff sends a deputy out to pick him up, but it will be dark soon, and the National Guard will not be able to arrive in time to catch the rabbits before they start moving again. They will likely move toward Ajo, so the sheriff decides to evacuate the town. Meanwhile, Roy is getting worried, since he has not yet heard from Gerry. It gets dark, and the rabbits start to move again, leaving the ruins of Galanos behind. The policemen get more reports of death and destruction from the areas in the rabbits' path and proceed with the evacuation as best as they can. His deputy, who has picked up Cole, reports that the rabbits are right behind them, moving fast and coming in a front about two miles wide, and they have but 50 minutes to prepare before the rabbits reach Ajo.The National Guard major realizes he doesn't have enough men to handle a front of rabbits that long. Roy has an idea involving using the railroad. He calls the railroad dispatcher, and asks him to isolate a siding near town. The deputies can then hook electrical power up to the isolated section of railroad, and the rabbits will be electrocuted as they cross it. The National Guard will use its men to funnel the rabbits onto this section of railroad. However, there is a freight train on the tracks, and they will have to wait for it to pass before implementing the plan.Needing more help, the sheriff goes to the local drive-in movie theater, and enlists the help of the patrons. He has them line up their cars with the lights on to help drive the rabbits in the desired direction. Roy still hasn't heard from Gerry, and he asks the sheriff to check. There have been no calls, and Elgin has called Wooddale and Gerry has not yet arrived. He asks the sheriff to being the helicopter back so that he can go look for her.Meanwhile, Gerry and Amanda are still trying to free their RV from the sand. It's dark now, and they have made no progress. Hearing the noises from the rabbits in the distance, Gerry sends Amanda into the RV while she gets the emergency flares from the glove compartment. From the air, Roy can see lots of rabbits on the road that Gerry was supposed to take. The rabbits arrive at the RV, and Gerry holds them at bay with the flares, but she has a finite supply of them. Finally, the helicopter arrives. The noise and lights drive off the rabbits, and the family is saved. The rabbits attack a herd of cattle instead, causing a stampede.The sheriff has the deputies ready to electrify the railroad, but the train still hasn't cleared the tracks, and the rabbits are getting closer to town. Roy and his family return in the helicopter and the deputy turns the power off just as the train starts passing, amid more reports of death and destruction from the area. When the train passes, the men set wooden stakes in the railroad to keep the section of track isolated, and then turn the power on. The trap is set. Soon, the rabbits come into sight, and the National Guardsmen start shooting at them. The lights from the cars repulse the rabbits just as hoped, and they run straight for the railroad. When they reach it, the electricity does it work, killing the rabbits that reach the tracks. Sparks fly from the overtaxed transformers overhead, but the power stays on. Few rabbits make it past, and the men have no trouble shooting them with their guns. Eventually, the ground is covered with thousands of dead rabbits.Some time later, Cole reports that life is getting back to normal and he has repaired his ranch. Better still, some coyotes have been heard nearby, keeping the normal rabbits in check naturally. He invites them to visit the ranch some time.

Tags: cult

Review:
From there it's long-eared, low budget mayhem of the highest order, with scenes of regular-sized bunnies rampaging through miniature Western towns (complete with dubbed-in squeals and roars on the soundtrack) and hungry bunnies (played by stuntmen in full body rabbit suits) attacking unlucky townspeople, until the military is called in to neutralize the threat.
You can almost imagine Janet Leigh during filming, smoking cigarettes in between takes and asking DeForest Kelley "What the hell are we doing in a movie about KILLER RABBITS?
Claxton knew full-well that a distinguished cast was needed to lend credibility to this bold and risky venture, so they hired Stuart Whitman ("City Beneath the Sea"), Janet Leigh ("Psycho"), Deforest Kelly ("Star Trek"), Rory Calhoun ("The Texan"), and Paul Fix (numerous westerns).These fine stars did their best, but alas it wasn't enough, and "Night of the Lepus" is considered a failed experiment.
It's definitely an original idea for a horror film and if you ever have the opportunity to view the unedited version, there is a scene or two that's nice and bloody, but it isn't a gore-hound's delight and it won't ever sit high among the classics of horror, but I miss the fact that this used to be a staple on late-night TV when I was a kid and you can't see it at all, these days.
Campy, hokey, and oh so hilarious B movie is an unforgettable tale of nature on the rampage.In rural New Mexico folks trying to eliminate the rabbit population create a race of huge, killer rabbits that terrorize mankind!Night of the Lepus is one of those golden B flicks that must be seen to be believe.
For a film of its budget, this movie manages to have some pretty decent special FX, it certainly beats the likes of Food of the Gods (1976) or Empire of the Ants (1977).The veteran cast is OK in their performances.
The cast has some big names with Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh playing the scientist couple and Rory Calhoun as the farmer in need of ridding his pastures from rabbits, and then there is Deforrest Kelly, looking quite out of place, as a friend to all.
The acting though can't save this film from anything more than what it is: a funny bad picture that is fun to watch because of its ridiculous premise, lamentable special effects, and some corny acting and dialog.
A jaw-droppingly stupid idea (giant carnivorous bunny rabbits on a rampage) makes for a surprisingly fun, entertaining movie.
If you are an easily frightened 7 year old kid,such as I was when I saw it,it will give you nightmares about rabbits.I am not sure what the intent was here,whether they felt they had a legitimate horror film,or that they went out of their way to be silly,but the film is exactly that;silly.If your kids are easily frightened,keep them away until they are adults who are able to see the humor.If you are one who likes to collect bad movies for fun,or if you are genuinely frightened by the idea of giant killer rabbits,this one is for you..
Soon the animal reproduces in an abandoned mine becoming a new breed of huge carnivorous rabbits."Night of the Lepus" is among the silliest and most ridiculous horror movies ever made.
The band Yes released its monumental album "Close to the Edge" which many rock fans say was the pinnacle of modern musicianship.And then we have "Night of the Lepus".I don't know what's more mind-boggling, the idea that a bunch of fuzzy bunnies (the cutest animal on the planet) could be even remotely frightening to anyone; or the idea that a film company decided to fund this venture and get Janet Leigh & Dr. McCoy to act in it.Still, like a horrible car wreck, or like the bearded lady at the circus, you can't resist gawking.
Wanna star?" The only reason I sat through it is because afterwards, the original "The Haunting" was coming on, which is arguably one of the best horror movies of all time, so I suffered through ketchup covered rabbits and stilted acting (they knew how bad it was, hence the strained performances).
Actually I m searching a horror film n I jus remember the end scene wher the car leaves n an old lady waves hand n there r rabbits all around.
This looked about as real as large rabbits can, I suppose.Maybe they should not have taken themselves so seriously and they would have done better -- clearly the writer wanted a serious film, as the overall tone is quite realistic all things considered.
These veteran actors all do a pretty good job, and the movie is just a lot of kitschy fun: Just a couple of the many unintentionally funny scenes: one guy hitch hikes while holding a rifle (yes, I think we'd all give that guy a ride).
I remember sitting in front of the T.V. as a kid watching movies like Night of the Lepus, Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Frogs, Them(not of the same era, but good all the same), Ben(gotta love angry rats), Willard(gotta love sequels about angry rats), Stuff(killer yogurt from space if I remember correctly) and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and loving every minute of what I was seeing on the screen.
Did you know Night of the Lepus was never released to video(so don't count on the DVD), and movies like Food of the Gods and Ben are out of print(good luck finding these).
Well, happy Easter horror lovers, and what could be a better holiday film for us to eat our chocolate bunnies with than "Night of the Lepus." I watched an obviously cut version of this on TV as a kid in the 70's, but get the DVD, and you can put little Suzie off cuddly rabbits forever!!Ah yes, another nature goes crazy film from the 70's.
Spend this afternoon gnawing on your chocolate Easter bunnies to find out!Now, the premise of this movie has always seemed a silly one, but this is a good little scare flick with a very strong cast.
It's another one of those horrible, cheesy 70's movies were the mutated bunnies are rabbits running on a miniature train model or superimposed in each scene.
I wont' go into great detail since most of what makes this movie fun is bad acting, a weak plot, horrible special effects and a poor attempt to scare people, but I don want to emphasize that if you have not seen this film, and you love horror, especially b-movies, than this movie is just for you.
The premise of this film, cougar-sized rabbits with a killer instinct on the loose in a rural farm area, just seems too laughable to be taken seriously, but it's handled so well here that the inherent silliness is kept to a minimum, and the film ends up being a pretty enjoyable B-movie.The leading characters are all well-performed by well known and very competent actors, and done with all seriousness, and incredibly they pull it off without hamming it up or being over-the-top.
That it has a few names that stick out for me as a movie buff- some more than others (Janet Leigh, quite a fall from the heights of movie stardom, DeForest Kelly, who is spiffy and awesome in a mustache even if he's given nothing to do aside from looking McCoy on us, and Rory Calhoun, who barely has a facial expression to change and has been in many B-horror movies)- is a little staggering.What's a little surprising too, hearing from the people I watched the movie with, was that this was an actual problem in places in Australia and the US, where rabbits really did act as an epidemic and destroy people's crops with over-population.
Well, frankly, I wanted to see how the filmmakers would approach something as silly as killer rabbits (which, no less than three years after this film came out, could be found in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, probably unintentionally too, who knows).They're filmed basically in telephoto, with their menacing mouths rabid and foaming or just with big little buck teeth, and in big groups going against models behind them ALWAYS in slow-motion.
The editor, John McSweeney, makes the material that is pretty funny in a goofy way into a sort of big jumbled mess of carnage (a good deal of it repeated shots, not just in the climax but elsewhere), and pretty incomprehensible when it should be a big gas of a scene.This all being said, in a very tongue-in-cheek way, I dug what the filmmakers were trying to do, which was a fun scary movie with known stars and sturdy character actors, and pit them in a movie with a terrifying, unstoppable menace (ironically, a menace that doesn't really EAT humans, just vegetables).
When Hollywood was churning out ecology gone mad movies like frogs, Godzilla vs the smog monster,etc;etc;they unleashed;night of the Lepus on us.featuring an all star cast.
heres the line-up;Janet Leigh,Rory Calhoun(motel hell)Stuart Whitman(ruby)deforest Kelley(star trek)Paul fix.scientists accidentally turn test rabbits into giant slobbering flesh eating bunnies.actually they try very hard to make these floppy eared rodents look menacing.for a pg movie there's much violence and some blood.its a lot like a Bert i Gordon movie from the 1950's.but made by MGM.go figure.its funny to see deforest Kelley play a part outside Dr McCoy from star trek(old school)Janet Leigh and Stuart Whitman play the scientists.there is one priceless scene when the sheriff announces on a pa system at the drive in movie theater,warning there's a pack of giant rabbits on their way please evacuate the area.this is a goofy fun movie thats so bad its good.ill say one thing,its the only giant rabbit movie ever made.5 out of 10.whats up doc???.
I was surprised that it is based on a book because it looks like the producer got a lot of bunnies cheap somewhere and said "Hey we can make a movie with these!" The most absurd lines are delivered in such an earnest serious deadpan that I'm not sure if they were meant to be ironic or funny, though that seems the only explanation for them.
So, any producer who takes a political satire, essentially a comedy, removes all the...well, comedy...and announces "I'm making a movie about giant man eating bunnies!" deserves an end product like "Night of the Lepus".
The model train sets, the acting ranges from Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh's "At least they're paying me" style thru Rory Calhoun's "At least I have a job" style up to DeForest Kelley's "If this is the best he can get me, I have to fire my agent--I was in Star Trek for god's sake!" Which, by the way, is why my mother (a Trekkie as a young woman)referred to this film by the more entertaining title "Dr. McCoy and the Giant Rabbits".
It's also a waste of a fine cast, although the only reason to watch it is to see Janet Leigh ("Psycho," "A Touch of Evil"), Stuart Whitman ("Darby's Rangers," "City Beneath the Sea"), Rory Calhoun ("How to Marry A Millionaire," "Pure Country"), Paul Fix (Marshal Micah on "The Rifleman"), Walter Kelly ("Come Back, Little Sheba"), Henry Wills ("The Cowboys," "In Like Flint") and, especially, DeForest Kelly of "Star Trek" fame.Hollywood tried this same gimmick with "The Giant Spider Invasion," one of the worst movies ever made, and "The Food of the Gods.'' Likewise, they failed miserably.The special effects reek.
In place of her rabbit, she puts in an experimental rabbit, that gets released into the wild and, ultimately, creates the monster bunnies.All in all, it's still campy fun, if only to watch veteran actors like Kelley and Leigh try to act their way through a silly movie..
I've seen this movie several times and it's just fun to watch.Forget the silly plot about "killer bunnies" and how stupid it sounds.
Among the particularly special elements are the high-budget special effects (SEE the little bunnies lollop down the model street, with underexposure to suggest it's night; SEE that exact same scene four separate times; SEE the copious amounts of over-thickened ketchup pile around the victims), the educational dialogue ("Lepus: that's, uh, Latin for rabbit"; "Well, they won't bother us now" (go on, *guess* if they do)), and the edge-of-your-seat twists and turns of the plot (like, guess if the little kids feel sorry for the bunnies injected with the growth compound and let them out; guess what takes to living in the old mineshafts...)Valuable fare for armchair film studies - a chance to see the same principles of plot structuring and camerawork which make *successful* creepy-mutant films misused, ot set you thinking about just why a good one works..
This is great fun for B-movie buffs: lots of unintended laughs, rabbit suits, and there were actually some pretty good models for the rabbit stampede scenes..
Anyways, director Bill Claxton deserves credit for actually going ahead and dramatizing the story for the big screen!Sure, "The Birds" is one scary movie, one of my personal favorites, and I've realized that a lot of people actually have phobia's for birds but what human-being could fear bunny rabbits?!?!?
"Night of the Lepus" is a movie about giant rabbits on a killing-spree!!!
The Night of the Lepus is a movie based upon the impossibly stupid idea of giant-sized rabbits running amuck out in the deserts of the western United States, hordes of them, in the form of midnight stampedes, causing vast swathes of death and destruction wherever they roam.The film starts off with an infestation of, shall we say normal rabbits, but due to some scientific misadventures (and then later through the use of lots of laughably bad special effects) the rabbits grow to giant-sized proportions and once that's happened, this awful movie rapidly blossoms into an incredibly ridiculous action/comedy of sorts.
But judging by the acting seen in this movie, it's my guess that it's creators weren't thinking of it as being such; but regardless of their true intent, this movie is fantastically stupid and ham-handed to an extreme and just wait till you see the movies TERRIBLE looking special effects.Let's dig a little deeper on the matter of Night of the Lepus's special effects, firstly it's numerous effect shots are the driving force behind, not just the giant rabbits, but the movie itself and they account for the vast majority of the films action.
The best/funniest mistake seen in this exceptionally poorly-made movie involves a shot of one of it's many miniature sets, where a guy (who was probably an animal handler) is plainly visible in the background (who not surprisingly looks like a giant himself among all the so-called giant rabbits), is seen running away trying to get out of frame - in a vain attempt to avoid being in this downright awful movie.And for those who like to experience nostalgia through movies you are definitely in for a treat with Night of the Lepus.
Oh well, I guess every actor has the right to make at least one or two bad films in their career.If you are really interested, try "Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977) which is about swarms of tarantulas attacking a southwestern town with William Shatner (who is always fun to watch) or "The Swarm" (1978) about killer bees which are far more interesting movies of that genre.
Twenty-nine years before "Donnie Darko" brought us a menacing-looking bunny, "Night of the Lepus" portrayed gigantic killer mutant rabbits overrunning Arizona.
The killer bunnies are obviously hired from the local pet shop - though to be fair they do give the best acting performance of the film , so much better than their human counterparts - and there's too much gore inflicted on both humans and rabbits for my liking.
The killer bunnies are obviously hired from the local pet shop - though to be fair they do give the best acting performance of the film , so much better than their human counterparts - and there's too much gore inflicted on both humans and rabbits for my liking.
Night of the Lepus (1972) * 1/2 (out of 4) This legendary horror film really needs no introduction as the thought of killer rabbits just doesn't sound very scary and they're not very effective in the film.
Claxton directed this legendarily awful film as a genetic experiment to control rabbit overpopulation in Arizona accidentally results in giant killer rabbits who overrun the state, resulting in the National Guard being called in to save the day(Elmer Fudd was busy elsewhere...) Shoddy film in every way possible, though you do feel sorry for the embarrassed looking cast(Stuart Whitman, Rory Calhoun, Janet Leigh, and Deforest Kelley).
When their annoying blond 6-year-old daughter then lets one injected bunny escape, the town becomes terrorized by enormous carnivore rabbits in no time."Night of the Lepus" is a hugely charming and vastly entertaining horror product of the glorious early 70's.
Leeches, shrews, sheep, worms, frogs: there have been some pretty dumb killer animal movies over the years, but they all pale into insignificance compared with Night of the Lepus, which features hordes of over-sized man-eating rabbits rampaging through Arizona, devouring anyone who crosses their path.
Such an idea might be excusable had tongue been firmly planted in cheek, but with all involved seemingly taking matters as seriously as possible, Lepus has deservedly gone down in the annals of cinema as one of the stupidest films ever made.The surprisingly decent cast includes Janet Leigh, Stuart Whitman, and DeForrest Kelly (taking whatever work comes his way after the cancellation of Star Trek), but despite their best efforts, they simply can't make big fluffy bunnies scary.
we have: Stuart Whitman & Janet Leigh, both of who were nominated for and won various awards; plus Deforest Kelly & Rory Calhoun neither of them slouches, in a movie about giant, man eating, stampeding rabbits.