Night of the Lepus
Night of the Lepus
PG | 04 October 1972 (USA)
Night of the Lepus Trailers

Rancher Cole Hillman is fed up of rabbits plaguing his fields. Zoologist Roy Bennett conducts an experiment to curb their population, but it gives rise to giant rabbits that terrorise the town.

Reviews
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
birdrehabilitation Just given the title, I was never expecting this movie to be anything good, but godd*amn was it hard to sit through. Number one, and above all, the acting was horrendous. It tops Billy Owens in terms of badness. Just the fact that the only reaction to seeing a killer rabbit the size of a buffalo is mild shock. Not to mention that they thought they could bury RABBITS with dynamite, when in fact, the guy who went to the top of the mountain dropped a rock and it fell for six seconds -- meaning these things can dig a hole deeper than the height of the Sears Tower. So what in the hell would make them think that collapsing rabbit burrows would be effective in any way? I don't expect much of a horror movie, but I expect a bit of common sense exhibited by the bad, bad actors by which it was played. Oh, and the ending was beautiful. An electrified railroad. You know, because that would stop something that can easily clear it. Yet, somehow, it did, because even the creators of this film got sick of it at a point. There's not enough beer in the world.
Leofwine_draca Weirdly enough, this is one of the most famous B-movies of all time, one that's gone down in history as the one about the giant rabbits! It's an odd subject matter for a film, that's for sure, but in all other respects, NIGHT OF THE LEPUS is a traditional 1970s monster flick, little different from the likes of KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS or many others churned out during this decade. Filmed out in Arizona, it boasts some nice, deserted locales, full of farmhouses and shacks that are about to get menaced by a rampaging horde of killer...bunnies! This is one of those films where a great cast has been assembled to get viewers watching. Stuart Whitman is the straight hero, early on in his exploitation career, but he's a little dull here. Not like he'd be later on when the '80s arrived and he found himself in the likes of THE MONSTER CLUB! Janet Leigh, famous from PSYCHO, seems to have aged a great deal in the ten years before this film was made, even though she was only in her mid 30s here. She doesn't have much to work with, other than getting menaced in a camper van for an interminable time. Rory Calhoun, a big western star in his time, is typecast as a rancher, while the sci-fi geeks are catered for with the appearance of DeForest Kelley as some kind of authority figure.My biggest disappointment was that none of these big names bites the dust, or even interacts much with the killer menace – surely it's tradition to have an A-lister die at the hands (or paws) of the monster? I wouldn't have mind seeing Kelley getting his neck chewed, but they all live. The same doesn't go for some supporting cast members, who are ripped to shreds in some surprisingly bloody moments when the rabbits attack. The special effects are pretty dodgy, but I found the rabbits to be surprisingly good foes (and my wife, who saw this as a kid, confirmed that it IS a scary movie when you see it young). The director has a way of filming them in slow motion, complete with weird computer-style sound effects, that makes the scenes quite eerie. The miniature backdrops are also well-handled and the giant killer rabbits are wisely kept in the murk. It's a pretty grisly film in places, with a neat climax that ties everything up. Maybe not a classic of the genre, but it IS a fun film.
moonspinner55 This could well be the worst movie ever associated with MGM. Zoologists are enlisted to help an Arizona rancher curtail the rabbit population explosion on his land, but a serum injected into one nasty bunny creates a race of leaping monsters. Not only are these giant jackrabbits angry and on the attack, they're seemingly out for human blood. As a low-budget entry in the mutant animal genre, one can expect the obvious--but nothing in the script, adapted from Russell Braddon's novel "The Year of the Angry Rabbit", prepares us for homicidal cottontails. The sound effects of the marauding enemy underground are well-accomplished, but the visual effects are laughable, the color processing atrocious, and the cast (good actors including Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh and Rory Calhoun) looks fatigued. NO STARS from ****
LeonLouisRicci Infamous "Bad Movie" that Attracts Folks Because of its Premise. Giant, Mutated, Killer Rabbits. So They Go Into This Thing with a High Giggle Factor and it Does Prompt Laughter, At Least At First. But Honestly, After the Movie Starts Unreeling it's Not a Laughing Matter. So the Snickering Just Might be That of the Nervous Type.The Opening Scenes, a Docu-Style Real Life Plague in Australia Where Hundreds and Thousands of Rabbits are Shown (this is real footage) being Stomped, Shot, Clubbed, and Trooped to Their Death with Living Creatures Being Netted, Slaughtered and Brutally Killed. That's Just the Beginning. In Short Order there is the Shooting of a Horse, Closeups of Bunnies with Bloody Faces, Flashing Their Teeth and Growling. Then there are Numerous Scenes of the Rabbits Feasting on Bodies and More Close Ups, This Time of Mutilated Humans with Dismembered Limbs and Buckets of Blood Flowing All Over the Place. There's More to Come, Like Electrocutions, and Gunplay with Squibs Splattering and Other Very Gory and Violent Scenes. If You Think this is All Campy Fun, Think Again. This is Horrifying a Lot of the Time. Sure, the Slow Motion Gets Old and Less Effective Every Time it's Used and it's Used Quite Often.The Rabbits Waver from Very Scary (the close ups) to Not So Scary (those migration slow motion scenes). The Drive In Scene is Probably the Silliest in the Movie and Dosen't Contain Any Rabbits. There is Some Dialog that is Unintentionally Funny. But, If this Movie is Such a Hoot, Show it to a Group of Tween Girls (it is Rated PG) and Witness the Reaction. Guaranteed, Few of Them will be Laughing and They Might Attack You. Just Not in Slow Motion.Note…Just kidding, Sam Peckinpah did not Direct this Movie.
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