NIGHT OF THE LEPUS
The greatest giant-killer-rabbit movie EVER
Save the last bullet for yourselves! Giant bunnies the size of kodiak bears are on the rampage, with the same breeding habits you'd expect from rabbits of any size, and a newly-acquired taste for human flesh!
It took me about a dozen years since I first heard of this movie, but I finally got to see it tonight. Was it everything I'd hoped and dreamed it would be? Yeah, you might say that. Dr. McCoy, Janet Leigh, and giant killer bunnies. What the hell were YOU expecting?
A farmer calls upon the professionals - specialists in bio-warfare, really, although it's never quite put that way - when rabbits eat him out of house and home (and horse!). When a dozen rabbits are taken into custody for experimentation to determine a way to curb their incredible reproduction rate, the researcher couple's little girl switches her favorite (recently injected with an experimental serum) with one from the control group. (she does this right in front of her parents, who are simply too deep in conversation to notice) Soon her favorite hops off into the desert, and overnight, BAM! There's like a zillion of them, they're big, and they're mauling people. Think she'll have a tearful scene where she admits her wrongdoing and sobs that it's all her fault? Surprisingly, no.
Now, a movie about giant killer bunny rabbits is pretty much beyond criticism in my book - the only way it could be bad is with a lack of, well, giant killer bunny rabbits. But this has got 'em, baby! YEAH!!! KILL THOSE FUCKING HUMANS, MY BUNNIES!!!
The rabbits, visually speaking, aren't entirely all that up to snuff. Sure, it's cool to see 'em hopping in slo-mo through scale-models of the town, although some of the effects are so bad, you can actually see the rabbits pass through solid objects. Things aren't entirely helped by that guy in the rabbit suit, either - for some closeups (especially of rabbits mauling humans), this guy comes into play, and he's obviously got human legs and is usually seen walking upright. (this guy's costume also appears to be made out of carpet) I've heard of shots where German Shepherds with giant ears attached were used - if there were any, I didn't see 'em.
All hokiness aside, it's nice to see my precious warrior rabbits in their natural state - licking blood from their own muzzles! (remember Vincent Price's speech about black widows in the intro to the Alice Cooper song "Black Widow"? Every time he says "black widow", just replace it with "bunny rabbit". That's what they're all about!)
In terms of sound effects, however, I'm pretty impressed. Bun (my own rabbit) (hey, no jokes about the unoriginal name. We called him Phoebe until we noticed the testicles.) makes a few noises under the right circumstances - now what if he was Toyota-sized? They grunt, they wheeze, they bark - about four octaves lower than Bun does. But I didn't hear any of these guys sneeze.
Sure, the plot's fairly dumb. What's with the guy who pulls over his refrigeration truck for no reason (other than to be killed by the giant rabbits?). And c'mon, MY rabbit could jump over railroad tracks if he were motivated - we're to believe that the entire super-bunny population can't? But I ain't looking for plot. Gimme giant killer rabbits! GIANT KILLER RABBITS!!!!!
Yeah, this is most definitely the greatest giant-killer-rabbit movie ever made. Extra points for the shot of rabbit-mangled children. Watch for the cattle-stampede scene, which is composed of daytime stock footage, even though the scene is set at night.
Based on the novel The Year Of The Angry Rabbit (sweartogod, I'm not making this up) by Russell Braddon. The movie plays this all completely straight. I have to wonder if the book did.
Trivia: this movie features the same anti-rabbit propaganda flick that was in Celia. And check out that poster for it at the IMDb - you've gotta love those giant cartoon-rabbit eyes staring in from the dark!