Night of the Lepus

A jaw-droppingly stupid idea (giant carnivorous bunny rabbits on a rampage) makes for a surprisingly fun, entertaining movie. The effects are reasonably convincing, it's briskly paced, with a blast of an ending. It's all played perfectly straight, and good for many a giggle.

Dumb? You bet. Fun? Abso-wootwy (as Elmer Fudd would say). Plus it stars DeForest Kelly. Bad film buffs will adore it!

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.

Anyone who has ever worked with animals knows how difficult it can be "Rabbits" was a very difficult film to do> WE worked in tremendous heat conditions and had hundreds of rabbits to deal with It was a fun film for the trainers I think because no one has done a horror film before with rabbits> Take the silly stuff away and its a fun film.

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!