In the late 1970s, there was a resurgence of the “killer animal” breed of films last popular in the “Atomic Age” of the ‘50s when hits like THEM! and Earth Vs. The Spider took up massive amounts of drive-in space. Now, a good chunk of those ‘70s films were good, even surprisingly so. Thanks to Jaws, we got flicks like Orca and sometimes a rare cinematic gem like The Big Alligator River. But the film we discuss today doesn’t fall into either category. Released to near obscurity in 1972, long after the ‘50s’ scare films and long before the Jaws boom, it is a surprise that Night Of The Lepus ever found an audience, let alone retains a cult following over 30 years later.

When fellow writer Palmerlime mentioned Lepus in his review of The Long Weekend, he referred to it as “a giant bunny movie with Dr. McCoy.” I’m not sure if he realized that he was making the most accurate statement of his life; the generalization that this statement sounds like is actually more profound than this film deserves.

You see, Arizona is about 25 years behind the times. This comes as a direct result of all the smart people heading west either continuing on to California, or staying in New York in the first place during the good old Gold Rush/Oregon Trail. If you ever played that old Oregon Trail video game for the Apple IIe you know that if you didn’t purchase a couple of extra wheels and axles you got proper fucked. This, my friends, is the origin of the state – roughly 50,000 people who should have bought an extra wheel.

But I digress.

Coyotes have always given farmers a hard time, and in this desert state, it wasn’t at all unlikely for them to run through farmers’ gardens and tear up plants. But they provided an important service to the ecosystem. They ate the rabbits that would in turn eat the farmer’s crops. Yet Arizona is a state built on genius, so never ones to think problems through, the state decided to go on open hunting season on the coyotes. The beasts nearly became extinct in many areas, and there was much rejoicing by the farmers … until they were almost out of crops due to the uncontrolled rabbit population that followed. [Note: This is not fiction, this is true. There are still thousands of rabbits that run around the outskirts of the metro-Phoenix area.]

So in Lepus we get a desperate rancher, Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun), who is sick as shit of all these rabbits. He hires Roy (Stuart Whitman) and Gerry Bennett (Janet Leigh) to figure out a way to control the population. Roy comes up with two bright ideas. The first is to inject an experimental serum into the rabbits intended to end their insatiable desire to procreate. Instead, it just makes them bigger. The second and even more ridiculously stupid move is to let their daughter, Amanda, play with the infected animals, grow attached to them, and set one free. This move is what causes the titular Night Of The Lepus to occur.

She should be killed for her actions.

So once a few horribly mutilated yet never eaten bodies of travelers are found, it is decided that they need to go after the enlarged hares. They enlist the help of DeForest Kelley to help with the hunt and blow up all the rabbit holes. But this doesn’t prevent the rabbits' rise to power. Not even Janet Leigh’s impressive “I won’t be a victim” display of shotgun prowess can deter the beasts. It is only after the sheriff calls on the help of drive-in theatre goers to distract the beasts that they might stand a chance.

While the plot is absurdly thin, Night Of The Lepus just might be the best film to ever come out of Arizona. And yes, that includes Return Of The Jedi. What is beyond awesome is not only the piss-poor acting of three leads and the silliness of the plot, but the execution of the film itself. There are plenty of the always reliable “build really small sets” special effects techniques so the filmmakers could use readily available rabbits and make them look really huge. This is an obvious ode to those previously mentioned 1950's films and it works. Lepus is the epitome of a “Beer Film.” One of those fantastic, not widely known bad movies that could have easily been MST3K fodder, but great to show off to buddies that are looking for some bad movie fun.

Another great thing about the movie is it moves at a quick pace. The introduction is fairly slow, but once the infected rabbit runs down the mine shaft everything pushed forward quickly. You won’t have to wait too long for the hares to do their thing.

I don’t know what the filmmakers were going for, but you are guaranteed to laugh out loud through most of the movie. Night Of The Lepus gets the official Noto Seal of Approval.

“Ladies and gentlemen, attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way…”

…Awesome!

Presentation 
Warner Bros. does this film a service. It isn’t particularly a good service, but it is most likely much better than the film deserves. For the first time since its theatrical distribution people have the chance to watch Of The Lepus in full-on 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen glory. The video is decent enough. It certainly hasn’t been remastered much, but it probably looks better than it ever has. The quality dips and sways. Sometimes the blacks look solid, other times grainy. The whole image is soft, but hell – who cares? It is a z-grade genre picture; I’m amazed it is even on DVD, let alone in OAR. I’m pretty satisfied with the Mono soundtrack that is included as well. Everything is easily understandable. A French dub is also included, as are English, French and Spanish subtitles.

And The Extras Are?
Theatrical Trailer (1:42) - It’s actually a really good trailer. I mean really good in that way animal attack film trailers were in the 60's and 70's. This is to say, pretty fucking horrible – but still fun.

That’s all you get, Jack. What, no three-hour documentary regarding how Of The Lepus changed the face of cinema as we know it? For shame.

And Now Some Parting Words…
You know, there really isn’t much to say about a film like Of The Lepus. Once you know the plot and the players, you pretty much already know if you are going to see this type of film. But I can assure you of one thing: If the idea of killer rabbits makes you smirk even just a little, you will definitely enjoy the embarrassing entertainment that is Night Of The Lepus.