Night of the Lepus

Arizona rancher Cole Hillman, dealing with massive rabbit overpopulation on his land, calls on a local college president, Elgin Clark, to help him. In order to humanely resolve the matter, Elgin brings in researchers Roy and Gerry Bennett, who inject the rabbits with chemicals. However, they fail to anticipate the consequences of their actions. A breed of giant mutant rabbits emerges and starts killing every human in sight.

Review from Classic Movie Reviews

Well, it’s springtime down south so I thought a little bunny fun might be appropriate. I am going to start a new line from Paul Fix in The Undefeated (1969). Today’s film is the wonderfully bad Night of the Lepus 1972. Lepus is the genus for hares and jackrabbits and includes rabbits. In this cautionary ecological tale, human actions lead to the growth of king-sized mutant rabbits.

The original movie poster had giant glowing eyes rather than pictures of rabbits as the producers did not think people would take the movie seriously as a science-fiction movie if they saw bunnies too early. However, the studio still considered calling the movie Rabbits. That really invokes fear.

What is more amazing about this movie than the subject matter is the number of big stars that were cast.

In a cinematic tour de force, the giant rabbits running through the cave in slow motion is amazing. While Cole and Roy are in the cave taking pictures of the rabbits and trying to find their way out, a rabbit slowly digs its’ way out behind the shack. The nose coming slowly through the dirt is reminiscent of the shark surfacing in Jaws (1975).

Read the rest of the review from JEC here...