Night of the Lepus

For all those film critics who claim that Hollywood is scared to try new ideas, here's proof that Hollywood will try anything. After making monster movies which feature every imaginable kind of vermon and pest, Hollywood got desperate and made one about monster rabbits.

(Monster RABBITS?)

That's right, the word "lepus" means rabbit. The story concerns a group of scientist who try to solve a rabbit over-population problem in the Midwest by injecting the bunnies with a hormone intended to decrease their breeding abilities. Instead, the hormone increases the rabbits' growth rate until they weight 150 pounds, stand four feet tall, and roar.

(ROARING rabbits?)

Right! That's part of what makes them MONSTER rabbits. The special effects involve a combination of real rabbits on miniature sets and actors in monster rabbit suits.

(Monster rabbit SUITS!?)

The National Guard is called in to battle this menace to mankind.

(The National Guard battles BIG BUNNIES!!?)

Yes, indeed. Producer A. C. Lyles and director William F. 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. What the film needed was Morris Ankrum as an army general who uttered lines such as,

"Good Lord, if we don't stop these monsters, there won't be a single carrot left on the planet!"

Now that I would love to see.

This is a true classic. It has such an absurd plot that you couldn't ever think of taking it remotely seriously.

Basically killer mutant rabbits go on the rampage. Or rather, harmless rabbits are photographed with miniatures or have their images enlarged and superimposed to look menacing.

And do they look menacing? Well.....no, not at all. They just look like a bunch of Watership Down wannabees out on a stroll.

What was DeForest Kelley thinking when he signed up to this. Or Janet Leigh for that matter. Just how did they get persuaded to star in this?

It's a classic. Watch it if you like really BAD films.

A mutant bunny is "saved" by a scientist's daughter and released into a hotbed of hare activity where it breeds and helps genetically alter the growth rate of rabbits in this western desert town. Soon, living in huge mining shafts are these monstrous rabbits with fangs out to rip, shred, cut, slice, maim, hew, and devour any living thing in their wake. This is the stark, gritty horror that is Night of the Lepus. Yeah right! Night of the Lepus has to be one of the most ridiculously inspired films I've seen in some time. Did a bunch of people actually sit down and think that bunnies would be frightening? To give credit where it is due, some of the rabbits(seen through some process that magnifies actual rabbits with blood-like red smeared on their noses and whiskers) actually look ... quite ridiculous. With those kind of special effects, you know what you are getting. Some scenes are just so humorous because of their poor production values. Seeing a handful of rabbits stuffed into a miniature hotel or watching the National Guard battle those rascally rabbits being just such two scenes. 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. Watchin Deforrest lay down TNT to blow up rabbit holes is a real hoot. 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. C'mmon! Rabbits! What's next? Revenge of the Hamsters. Gerbil Apocalypse. The Guniea Pig Massacre. Ludicrous stuff here but fun nonetheless.

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS is one of those movies that you simply have to see to believe. I am very glad that LEPUS has finally been officially released on DVD because for years, I have described it to fellow B-movie fans who have then accused me of making it up. Besides, I am now finally able to replace my bootleg DVD (recorded from foreign TV with Swedish or Norwegian subtitles, I'm not sure which, running across the bottom of the screen) and enjoy this masterpiece the way it was meant to be seen.

In brief: Somewhere in the American Southwest, ranchers are losing their crops to hungry herds of Jackrabbits. A scientist, attempting to figure out a way to slow the reproduction rate of the rabbits, injects an experimental hormone into some test animals. One of the test rabbits escapes and begins mating with the local bunnies, resulting in a horde of giant killer mutant rabbits with a taste for human flesh. You CAN'T make this stuff up, kids! 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. Anyone who makes it more than fifteen minutes into this movie without cracking up is a better person than I am. 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? I worked with Alfred Hitchcock for cryin' out loud! I am going to KILL my agent!" I had pet rabbits growing up and never found them scary in the slightest. Maybe that's why I love this movie so much. To this day, I wonder if the studio person who green-lighted this project and allowed it to be made still had a job when his superiors saw the final product. Do yourself a favor and check out NIGHT OF THE LEPUS, an unjustly forgotten slice of early 70s drive-in cheese. You may love it, you may hate it, but I promise you, you will NEVER forget it!

OK, I've read several of the reviews/comments for this film and I must stand and be counted as one of the fans of this low-budget film. Sure, the story may be ludicrous and the effects may be bad, but face it, this film doesn't deserve all the bad publicity it always receives. It's got a nice cast and they all seem to be genuine in their efforts to make this film a success, but it does fall short of it's target in several aspects. I'd say the one constant in this film that bothers me the most is the young girl, the daughter of Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh, I'd have gladly fed her to these rabbits in the first 20 minutes or so, but beyond that, I really don't see all the fuss about how horrible of a film this is. 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. For those of you with a curious nature, I'd recommend viewing this film at least once, just so you can be counted among film fans that have watched this killer bunny film...trust me, it won't hurt at all!