Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Without question, the best giant killer rabbit movie DeForest Kelley ever made. "Look at them, standing on their hind legs, like a bunch of Rory Calhouns!" Very much in the "so bad, its good" category.

Figured I'd might as well put in my two cents on the terrifying Night of the Lepus. The "Nature Strikes Back" subgenre of the 70s is one of the most entertaining in all of horror. It's almost never scary(Jaws being the exception to this), but it's so much damn fun. Night of the Lepus is one of those that almost every horror fan is aware of and is usually the punchline of a lot of jokes. Though it's always joked about, I think for the most part the movie is well liked. As you already know, it concerns giant flesh eating rabbits(a hormone experiment gone awry) terrorizing the Arizona countryside. This is a movie that'll be right at home next to your copies of Food of the Gods and Empire of the Ants.
Yes, it's a good time. The silly concept alone will have you giddy from the getgo, but seeing all of this in action will definitely cause you to laugh out loud.
The visuals on the rabbits are both funny and impressive. Footage of live stampeding rabbits are used and mixed with minatures, blue screen and rear projection photography(the type Bert I. Gordon uses for his giant monster opuses). This approach, while funny, really doesn't look all that bad, not nearly as bad as you would expect. Some shots are rather impressive. Especially when you consider the budget and year in which this was made. And hey, I don't care what anyone says, using real live rabbits adds a realism that you'd never get with an army of CGI rabbits. As much realism as you can get with a concept like this, that is. To make these rabbits seem more ferocious, close up shots have some of the rabbit's faces smeared with blood and/or drool. They're also given a sinister growling type of sound. The idea may have been to make them seem threatening, but it works the totally opposite way and makes it rather hilarious. When you get down to it, I guess there really isn't a way to make rabbits scary or threatening.
My good friend Dave K. brought up a good point in his review. The point being, was this film made to scare audiences? That's a good question. Common sense would tell you that there's no way to make this scary. How did they pitch this idea to the producers? I realize that this type of film was hot at the time, but someone had to say something! How many takes did the actors have to do because they were bursting out laughing? Unless director Claxton has a bizarre sense of humor, the intent definitely seems to be that this film was supposed to be suspenseful and scary. The tone is straight faced from beginning to end. This makes the movie all the more fun. If it were made today, it'd be tongue in cheek like Black Sheep or something. And how did Janet Leigh get suckered into this??
All in all, Night of the Lepus is a fun example of a fun genre(The Sci-Fi channel's "Maneater" series, which tries to revitalize the genre just doesn't come anywhere close. This is a 70s genre, plain and simple.). It's the type of film we just do not see anymore, so enjoy it while we have it.
And thanks, Dave K. for reminding me of it.