In the '70's, the theme was "nature gone wild." To that end, we had such films as "Kingdom of the Spiders," "Piranha," "It Happened at Lakewood Manor," "Alligator" and "Day of the Animals." On the flip side, we also got "Piranha II: The Spawning," "Alligator 2" and "Empire of the Ants." "Night of the Lepus" belongs somewhere in the middle. An excellent cast tries gamely in what should have been played tongue-in-cheek, but they were undone by a silly premise. You hug bunny rabbits, you don't shoot them, burn them and electrocute them.
The plot is cliché: Man faces problem from pest, asks scientists to help, scientists screw up unintentionally and huge ravenous beasts are spawned to ravage small town America (by the way, why is Arizona always the target -- "Tarantula," "Kingdom of the Spiders," "Eight-Legged Freaks").
The special effects were okay for what they had to work with. Low camera angles to make the bunnies look big, expertly-crafted miniatures and even fake blood smeared on rabbits and lifelike human dummies. Unfortunately, the killings had to be done by stunt men in rabbit suits (and you thought men in Hefty garbage bags in "Giant Leeches" was a low point).
A game cast and a willing director almost pull it off (almost). William Claxton was mostly a TV director when he got this assignment. The actors were still in their prime, so I don't know why they took this commission, but they gave their all. For the main cast, we get Stuart Whitman (City Beneath the Sea, Darby's Rangers), reclusive Janet Leigh (Psycho, Manchurian Candidate, A Touch of Evil), Rory Calhoun (TV's "The Texan"), DeForest Kelley ("Star Trek") and Paul Fix (Sheriff Micah on "The Rifleman"). The director added some nice touches with a supporting cast of vets, including Henry Wills, Chuck Hayward, Francesca Jarvis, William Elliott, Don Starr and I. Stanford Jolley. Also, look for legendary radio & TV broadcasters "Uncle" Bob Hardy and Jerry Dunphy.
Spoilers A word of warning: if you adore rabbits, have kids that like rabbits, work for the ASPCA or are associated with PETA, DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM.
You will see regular-sized rabbits herded into fences and dumped into sacks and trash barrels. You will see monster-sized rabbits blasted by rifles and shotguns, burned by flares and flamethrowers and electrocuted on railroad tracks. You will see rabbits smeared with blood as they eat people, horses and cattle.
If you are not fazed by this, then you will be laughing your arse off. B movies are always the funniest when they're not meant to be and how this cast thought they could pull off the film without unintentional laughs is beyond me.
It's on DVD now on Amazon.com, so buy it for some late-night laughs and a chance to see DeForest Kelley after "Star Trek" and Janet Leigh, who'd gone into seclusion after the mid-60's.
The plot is cliché: Man faces problem from pest, asks scientists to help, scientists screw up unintentionally and huge ravenous beasts are spawned to ravage small town America (by the way, why is Arizona always the target -- "Tarantula," "Kingdom of the Spiders," "Eight-Legged Freaks").
The special effects were okay for what they had to work with. Low camera angles to make the bunnies look big, expertly-crafted miniatures and even fake blood smeared on rabbits and lifelike human dummies. Unfortunately, the killings had to be done by stunt men in rabbit suits (and you thought men in Hefty garbage bags in "Giant Leeches" was a low point).
A game cast and a willing director almost pull it off (almost). William Claxton was mostly a TV director when he got this assignment. The actors were still in their prime, so I don't know why they took this commission, but they gave their all. For the main cast, we get Stuart Whitman (City Beneath the Sea, Darby's Rangers), reclusive Janet Leigh (Psycho, Manchurian Candidate, A Touch of Evil), Rory Calhoun (TV's "The Texan"), DeForest Kelley ("Star Trek") and Paul Fix (Sheriff Micah on "The Rifleman"). The director added some nice touches with a supporting cast of vets, including Henry Wills, Chuck Hayward, Francesca Jarvis, William Elliott, Don Starr and I. Stanford Jolley. Also, look for legendary radio & TV broadcasters "Uncle" Bob Hardy and Jerry Dunphy.
Spoilers A word of warning: if you adore rabbits, have kids that like rabbits, work for the ASPCA or are associated with PETA, DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM.
You will see regular-sized rabbits herded into fences and dumped into sacks and trash barrels. You will see monster-sized rabbits blasted by rifles and shotguns, burned by flares and flamethrowers and electrocuted on railroad tracks. You will see rabbits smeared with blood as they eat people, horses and cattle.
If you are not fazed by this, then you will be laughing your arse off. B movies are always the funniest when they're not meant to be and how this cast thought they could pull off the film without unintentional laughs is beyond me.
It's on DVD now on Amazon.com, so buy it for some late-night laughs and a chance to see DeForest Kelley after "Star Trek" and Janet Leigh, who'd gone into seclusion after the mid-60's.