Night Of the Lepus
Okay, movie fans. To all of you who like nothing better than to nuke some corn, dim the lights and settle in with cinematic mutations like gargantuan 'gators, fearsome frogs, awesome ants and monstrous moths, we quote this film: "Ladies and gentlemen, attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way?." A hormone intended to alter the breeding cycle of rabbits overrunning ranchlands instead turns them into flesh-eating, 150-pound monsters in Night of the Lepus. Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun and DeForest Kelley are among the intrepid humans facing the behemoth bunnies. They use guns, flames and dynamite to subtract them. But the rampaging rabbits know how to multiply. Can anything stop these hare-y scary monsters?
Member Reviews
premise dooms the movie to failure - clauditorium
Man intervenes in the natural order of things, and as usual, pays for it, this time via a horde of killer… rabbits.
Obviously I watched this hoping it would be hilariously bad. I ended up being surprised at how competent this movie was in most ways. The acting is fine, the dialogue isn’t terrible, and even the low-tech special effects are effective half the time. The trouble is, no one wants a movie about killer bunnies to be competent. The story is told in a weirdly efficient, matter-of-fact way, but the premise dooms the movie to failure. The natural reaction when hearing the phrase “giant killer rabbits” is to smile, not tremble with fear. Therein lies this film’s fatal flaw.Definitely one of the worst movies ever made - rnhaas
I should have definitely watched this with other people, so we could have ripped on it and had a grand old time. It seems like it would have been perfect for Mystery Science Theater 3000. There are so many horrible moments. For some reason I wasn't in the best mood to laugh, so most of them just made me incredulous. The worst is possibly when we hear a conversation between two people over the phone and in the recap to the other actors, the Sheriff describes a different conversation. Eek.Rabbits Are Not Scary - Jirataur
There is no way to make a rabbit scary. Normal-sized rabbits running around in slow motion on shadowy miniature sets? It's a surreal, amusing sight, but it isn't the least bit scary. People being bear-hugged by what looks like an overly-friendly Nesquick Bunny, resulting in them being drenched in red food coloring moments later? Its hilarious, but it isn't scary. People talking about giant carnivorous rabbits on the rampage for ten minutes at a time before another amusingly strange attack scene consisting of normal-sized rabbits running around on shadowy miniature sets, ending in someone being bear-hugged by the Nesquick Bunny and thus being drenched in red food coloring? Downright boring.
That about sums up NIGHT OF THE LEPUS as best I can. It's a strange little movie that's sometimes oddly amusing or flat-out hilarious in it's unintentional goofiness (did I mention that the movie is meant to be dead serious?), but for the most part it's just boring. The novelty of giant killer rabbits on the rampage runs out fast, so even though it isn't the worst cheap monster movie from the 70s, you don't have to look far to find better than this.
Member Reviews
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premise dooms the movie to failure - clauditorium
Man intervenes in the natural order of things, and as usual, pays for it, this time via a horde of killer… rabbits.
Obviously I watched this hoping it would be hilariously bad. I ended up being surprised at how competent this movie was in most ways. ...Definitely one of the worst movies ever made - rnhaas
I should have definitely watched this with other people, so we could have ripped on it and had a grand old time. It seems like it would have been perfect for Mystery Science Theater 3000. There are so many horrible moments. For some reason I wasn't in the ...Rabbits Are Not Scary - Jirataur
There is no way to make a rabbit scary. Normal-sized rabbits running around in slow motion on shadowy miniature sets? It's a surreal, amusing sight, but it isn't the least bit scary. People being bear-hugged by what looks like an overly-friendly Nesquick Bunny, ...