MGM, 1972

starring: Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley, Janet Leigh and Stuart Whitman
directed by: William F. Claxton
the plot: Little furry rabbits are invading Cole Hillman’s (Calhoun) ranch, and he’s not happy about it. The critters are eating all his crops and wrecking the pristine Arizona landscape with massive rabbit dens. Hillman calls on Elgin Clark (Kelley), president of the local college, for help, and Clark brings in zoologists Roy and Gerry Bennett (Whitman and Leigh). Hillman wants the rabbits off his land, but doesn’t want to use poison, and so the Bennetts develop a weird cocktail of hormones and mutated blood to dispatch the hares. But the treatment has an unintended side effect: the rabbits grow to an enormous size and are ferociously carnivorous! Soon, hordes of bloodthirsty bunnies are stampeding across the plains. After a few unsuccessful attempts battling the giant rabbits, Hillman and the Bennetts are without a solution. The National Guard is also called in, but can military might, and a plan involving electrified train tracks, stop the rabbit rampage?

why it’s good: Rabbits are perhaps the most unlikely addition ever to the giant monster genre. No matter how much fake blood you smear on their cute little rabbit noses, no matter how many doofy sounding rabbit “roars” you try to record, it’s a mighty task indeed to make rabbits terrifying. But “Night of the Lepus” sure tries hard, and it deserves some credit for that. An abysmally bad movie made slightly tolerable only by its ridiculous premise and an awesome cast of B-list actors, “Lepus” is one of those ecologically-minded horror flicks that could only have come out of the ’70s. But what, exactly, is the message here? Instead of using poison, scientists try to get rid of the rabbits as humanely as possible, only to have them mutate into massive, flesh craving monsters? Shouldn’t the scientists be rewarded for their animal-rights sympathies?

Whatever. Instead, we’re treated to plenty of scenes of rabbits happily hopping through miniature sets, along with scenes of actors in giant rabbit suits attacking terrified and confused humans. It all ends with the a two-minute long orgy of furry death via bullets, flamethrowers and electrocution that will make PETA members apoplectic. 

why you should own it: Long a staple of TNT’s “Monster Vision” series hosted by Joe Bob Briggs, “Lepus” is now available on glorious DVD. But unless you either really love Rory Calhoun or violently hate rabbits, “Lepus” is a rental.