Today, in honor of this Leap Year, I thought I'd offer up my review of possibly one of the most so-bad-its-actually-kinda-good movies I've ever seen; the 1972 cult classic Night of the Lepus written by screenwriters Don Holliday and Gene R. Kearney, produced by A.C. Lyles, and directed by William F. Claxton.
The film is largely based upon the science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit (1964) by Russell Braddon about an infestation of giant killer mutated rabbits. Yep folks, you read that right: giant killer mutant rabbits. Just y'all try to imagine being the person who went to the corporate heads of MGM Studios to pitch this story idea?!
Well, to be perfectly fair, the premise of the movie isn't completely bad. No, I'm actually being quite serious....okay okay, just hear me out folks!
The 1964 Australian science fiction novel that Night of the Lepus is loosely based on with its comic-horror tone was very well received at the time -- the novel was also notable as being part of a small revival of 1960s Australian science fiction genre. The novel plays up the Australian rabbit infestation adding a fictitious, power-hungry Prime Minister using a super-weapon to try and dominate the world.
Night of the Lepus -- which tries hard to be
a straight-faced monster movie -- is about a similar rabbit infestation in a small Arizona farming community that threatens the local farmers. This premise largely dropped the humor of the book and tried to make people afraid of rabbits.
Interesting fact: the promotional posters for the film and the movie trailer released by MGM didn't even attempt to let the audience know that the monsters in the film were rabbits at all. It was almost as if the people making this film knew that giving away that particular plot point would almost certainly kill the ticket sales. Apparently, they also assumed that nobody in their potential audience knew Latin.
Ironically, the studio itself broke the secret by issuing rabbit's foot-themed promotional materials prior to the film's release.
Well, to be perfectly fair, the premise of the movie isn't completely bad. No, I'm actually being quite serious....okay okay, just hear me out folks!
The 1964 Australian science fiction novel that Night of the Lepus is loosely based on with its comic-horror tone was very well received at the time -- the novel was also notable as being part of a small revival of 1960s Australian science fiction genre. The novel plays up the Australian rabbit infestation adding a fictitious, power-hungry Prime Minister using a super-weapon to try and dominate the world.
Night of the Lepus -- which tries hard to be
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| Poster for Night of the Lepus (1972). |
Interesting fact: the promotional posters for the film and the movie trailer released by MGM didn't even attempt to let the audience know that the monsters in the film were rabbits at all. It was almost as if the people making this film knew that giving away that particular plot point would almost certainly kill the ticket sales. Apparently, they also assumed that nobody in their potential audience knew Latin.
Ironically, the studio itself broke the secret by issuing rabbit's foot-themed promotional materials prior to the film's release.
When the movie was released in theaters on Wednesday, July 26, 1972 it was universally panned by film critics, mainly over the absurd plot, and the campy acting. Above all else it was the fact that, despite all attempts to make the rabbits look menacing (putting fake blood on their faces, ect.), the giant killer mutant rabbits were still just, well....rabbits. Fluffy bunny rabbits.
Remember folks, the 1970s was a very weird and somewhat bleak time for Hollywood films. At the time they reflected an American culture that was recovering from the turmoil of the 1960s with a decade where America was struggling with its national identity.
It was during this decade that Hollywood films replaced traditional heroes with hard-nosed anti-heroes who often bent the law to met out justice, and added more than a little adult content, graphic violence, strong vulgar language, and nudity than was previously allowed. Not to mention all the major disaster films, early slasher films, demonic supernatural horror films, and, or course, animal attack films.
This was the same decade that gave us such deadly animal-based cult classic horror thriller films like: Frogs (1972), Sssssss (1973), Grizzly (1976), Squirm (1976), Rattlers (1976), Tentacles (1977), The Pack (1977), The Swarm (1978), and Piranha (1978) -- just to name a few.
Oh and there was also this one movie about a killer shark that came out in 1975 that turned into one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters....well, lighting had to strike at least one of these vicious animal flicks.
Okay now, before I go on with this review, I will attempt (however futile it may be) to defend the premise of Night of the Lepus with two key points.
Remember folks, the 1970s was a very weird and somewhat bleak time for Hollywood films. At the time they reflected an American culture that was recovering from the turmoil of the 1960s with a decade where America was struggling with its national identity.
It was during this decade that Hollywood films replaced traditional heroes with hard-nosed anti-heroes who often bent the law to met out justice, and added more than a little adult content, graphic violence, strong vulgar language, and nudity than was previously allowed. Not to mention all the major disaster films, early slasher films, demonic supernatural horror films, and, or course, animal attack films.
This was the same decade that gave us such deadly animal-based cult classic horror thriller films like: Frogs (1972), Sssssss (1973), Grizzly (1976), Squirm (1976), Rattlers (1976), Tentacles (1977), The Pack (1977), The Swarm (1978), and Piranha (1978) -- just to name a few.
Oh and there was also this one movie about a killer shark that came out in 1975 that turned into one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters....well, lighting had to strike at least one of these vicious animal flicks.
Okay now, before I go on with this review, I will attempt (however futile it may be) to defend the premise of Night of the Lepus with two key points.
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| Whoever said rabbits can't be scary clearly never saw Watership Down (1978). To be fair the animated film wouldn't come out for another six years after Night of the Lepus premiered in theaters. |
Despite appearing as timid creatures, wild rabbits will actually kill each other, especially other male rabbits that invade their territory. Despite being largely herbivores, they will kill and eat their own young sometimes because they don't recognize their own kits.
Now knowing this detail about rabbits in general, the second point is the fact that the rabbits depicted in the movie are portrayed to be about the size of wolves, or large bears, in relation to human beings. Add in the fact that there are literally hundreds of them running in a large pack and you could probably see the potential for danger.
Imagine for instance if your average house cat -- you know the one that curls up in your lap, meows to you for food, or sleeps on your bed at night -- was suddenly the size of a tiger. All of a sudden that cute little bundle of fur and retractable claws might not be very safe for you to be around; especially if you've ever witnessed what your average domestic house cat does to small mammals, reptiles, and birds they manage to catch.
Imagine for instance if your average house cat -- you know the one that curls up in your lap, meows to you for food, or sleeps on your bed at night -- was suddenly the size of a tiger. All of a sudden that cute little bundle of fur and retractable claws might not be very safe for you to be around; especially if you've ever witnessed what your average domestic house cat does to small mammals, reptiles, and birds they manage to catch.
Now putting those factors into account it might be easy to see how someone knowing these facts about rabbits might conclude this would be a good idea; or at least be able to suspend their disbelief of the absurd plot long enough to accept that hundreds of cute little bunnies the size of wolves could be dangerous enough to kill people.
The main trouble with adapting this for the big screen is executing the idea of making rabbits appear to be menacing in a serious horror film to the general public. That feat proved to be absolutely next to impossible.
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| Oooh scary!!! |
If Night of the Lepus were remade today (as unlikely as that is, but one never knows) there are ways to certainly make rabbits look more deadly using advanced modern-day CGI special effects, but back in 1972 they had to rely on bright red fake movie blood, bizarre close-up shots, growling sounds, and movie stuntmen wearing fursuits for the attack scenes....and no, I'm honestly not making that up!
Despite being universally panned by just about every film critic at the time, as well as its hare-brained premise (pun intended) the film has since managed to garner cult classic status for its overall campiness, as well as its surprisingly outstanding cast of actors.
Among these are late actress and Golden Globe winner Janet Leigh (1927-2004) -- probably best known to many horror fans as the unfortunate Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchock's Psycho (1960) and late actor Stuart Whitman (1928-2020) who played in a number of outstanding roles in film and television in the 1960s up to the 1990s, both playing the lead roles.
In supporting roles are equally well-know actors. Late actor Rory Calhoun (1922-1999) best known as a prolific Western actor in the 1950s and 1960s -- a good choice given the setting of Night of the Lepus. Late actors DeForest Kelley (1920-1999) best known as Doctor Leonard McCoy in the classic Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1968) and Paul Fix (1901-1983) best known for his role as Marshall Micah Torrance in The Rifleman television series (1958-1963) help to round up this brilliant cast of actors.
Fun fact: Both DeForest Kelly and Paul Fix played doctors aboard the original USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in Star Trek. Fix played the original ship's doctor, Mark Piper, in the second pilot episode of the original series Where No Man Has Gone Before (Season 1, Episode 3) before being replaced in the role by Kelley.
Night of the Lepus director William F. Claxton was a television veteran known for popular Western series like The Rifleman and Bonanza. Producer A.C. Lyles was also an old hand at Westerns, as well as the man who gave DeForest Kelly his first acting break. This combination of talent gave Night of the Lepus -- which is set in Arizona's cowboy country -- as much a modern-day Western feel as it does a horror movie. The filming took place between January to March of 1972 at the Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, a site well known for its use in American Westerns.
The musical score for Night of the Lepus was conducted by late composer Jimmie Haskell (1926-2016) who is also known for conducting western-themed films throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and is best known for composing music for the television series Land of the Lost (1974-1976).
Night of the Lepus was released in theaters in summer on Wednesday, July 26, 1972 and has a run time of 88 minutes. The movie is rated PG (remember this was back when Parental Guidance actually meant it). Despite being panned badly by critics, the movie made close to $4 million U.S. dollars off of a budge of just under $900,000 dollars.
Despite being universally panned by just about every film critic at the time, as well as its hare-brained premise (pun intended) the film has since managed to garner cult classic status for its overall campiness, as well as its surprisingly outstanding cast of actors.
Among these are late actress and Golden Globe winner Janet Leigh (1927-2004) -- probably best known to many horror fans as the unfortunate Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchock's Psycho (1960) and late actor Stuart Whitman (1928-2020) who played in a number of outstanding roles in film and television in the 1960s up to the 1990s, both playing the lead roles.
In supporting roles are equally well-know actors. Late actor Rory Calhoun (1922-1999) best known as a prolific Western actor in the 1950s and 1960s -- a good choice given the setting of Night of the Lepus. Late actors DeForest Kelley (1920-1999) best known as Doctor Leonard McCoy in the classic Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1968) and Paul Fix (1901-1983) best known for his role as Marshall Micah Torrance in The Rifleman television series (1958-1963) help to round up this brilliant cast of actors.
Fun fact: Both DeForest Kelly and Paul Fix played doctors aboard the original USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in Star Trek. Fix played the original ship's doctor, Mark Piper, in the second pilot episode of the original series Where No Man Has Gone Before (Season 1, Episode 3) before being replaced in the role by Kelley.
Night of the Lepus director William F. Claxton was a television veteran known for popular Western series like The Rifleman and Bonanza. Producer A.C. Lyles was also an old hand at Westerns, as well as the man who gave DeForest Kelly his first acting break. This combination of talent gave Night of the Lepus -- which is set in Arizona's cowboy country -- as much a modern-day Western feel as it does a horror movie. The filming took place between January to March of 1972 at the Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, a site well known for its use in American Westerns.
The musical score for Night of the Lepus was conducted by late composer Jimmie Haskell (1926-2016) who is also known for conducting western-themed films throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and is best known for composing music for the television series Land of the Lost (1974-1976).
Night of the Lepus was released in theaters in summer on Wednesday, July 26, 1972 and has a run time of 88 minutes. The movie is rated PG (remember this was back when Parental Guidance actually meant it). Despite being panned badly by critics, the movie made close to $4 million U.S. dollars off of a budge of just under $900,000 dollars.
The Plot
The story begin with a television newscast (done rather well by veteran newsman Jerry Dunphy doing a cameo appearance) recounting the story of the rabbit outbreak in Australia, then telling of similar outbreaks in the American west after their natural predators, coyotes, were largely killed off. This includes actual stock footage of hordes of rabbits in Australia and the American southwest.
The newscast then cuts to farmland outside the fictional small farming town of Galanos, Arizona where rancher Cole Hillman (actor Rory Calhoun) having to shoot one of his horses after the unfortunate animal broke its leg stepping into one of the numerous rabbit holes.
Hillman then goes to the nearby college in Ajo and seeks out the help of the college president Elgin Clark (actor DeForest Kelley in his last non-Star Trek role in a feature film) to combat the thousands of rabbits that have invaded the area. Cole explains how the efforts used to get rid of the coyotes is what caused the rabbit population to explode and he's looking for an ecologically sound method to control the population.
Elgin asks for the assistance of lab researchers Roy Bennett (actor Stuart Whitman) and his wife Gerry Bennett (actress Janet Leigh) who agree to help because they respect Cole's wish to avoid using cyanide to poison the rabbits. This is largely because Hillman would have to pull his cattle off the ranch and sell them on the market at the worst buying season if they had to resort to poisoning.
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| Researchers Roy Bennett (Stuart Whitman) and Gerry Bennett (Janet Leigh) and their young daughter, Amanda (played by child actress Melanie Fullerton in her only big screen role). |
Roy proposes using hormones to disrupt the rabbits' breeding cycle and captures some rabbits for experimentation. One is injected with a new serum believed to cause birth defects. However, their young daughter, Amanda, loves the injected rabbit, and so she switches it with one from the control group. Amanda is then given the injected rabbit as a pet, but it soon accidentally escapes back into the population.
Originally MGM wanted Janet Leigh's real life daughter, then 13-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis, to play the role of Amanda Bennett. Jamie Lee was also suggested for the part of the possessed, split-pea soup vomiting Reagan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973) a year later; both of which were shot down hard by Janet Leigh for the same reason: she didn't want her daughter involved in horror films.
Oh, the irony....
Instead they opted for younger American child actress, then 9-year-old Melanie Fullerton, then best known for the CBS TV sitcom series To Rome With Love (1969-1971). Night of the Lepus was Fullerton's only big screen film role.
With their tests proving to be failures, Hillman chooses to sacrifice a mile of his farmland by burning a mile-wide scorched-earth path between his and neighboring farmlands and accepting a loss. This drives the rabbits away underground now that their scant food sources have been scorched.
Some unspecified amount of time later, while inspecting the rabbits' old burrowing areas, Hillman and the Bennetts discover an unusually large animal track near a waterhole.
Meanwhile, Hillman's son Jackie (actor Chris Morrell) and Amanda go to an old gold mine to visit Jackie's friend, Uncle Billy, only to find him missing. Jackie finds more of the strange animal tracks in the old miner's shed, while Amanda goes into the mine and runs into an enormous rabbit with blood on its face and the body of Uncle Billy. Screaming in terror, she wakes up in a fevered hysteria at the local hospital in a really weird jump cut.
Soon horribly mutilated bodies begin to crop up around the town, including a truck driver killed overnight and a traveling family of four. Sheriff Cody (played by Paul Fix) has the medical examiner, Doctor Leopold (late actor William Elliott) look over the bodies and its discovered they were gnawed to death.
This prompts the Bennetts, Elgin Clark, Hillman and two of his ranch hands, Frank and Jud (actors Henry Willis and Chuck Hayward respectively), to go to the gold mine and try to kill the mutated rabbits with explosives.
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| I'm ready for my close-up now. |
As Elgin and Cole set charges on top of the mine, Roy and Frank enter the shaft to get photographic evidence. Outside, a rabbit surfaces and a stuntman wearing a rabbit suit attacks Jud violently before Gerry can shoot it, driving it off. Roy and Frank escape the rabbits in the mine and run outside as the explosives are detonated.
The explosives fail to kill all the rabbits (apparently someone forgot to remind everyone that rabbits can burrow through soil), and that night they attack the Hillman ranch, killing Jud -- who tried to take off in a truck and accidentally hit the phone lines when he crashed -- while Cole, Frank, Jackie, and Cole's housekeeper Dorothy (Inez Perez) escape into the storm shelter and fire at the rabbits through the floor of the house and eventually driving them off.
The same night, the mutated rabbits make their way to the general store/telephone company, killing shopkeeper and telephone operator Mildred (Francesca Jarvis) and mauling everyone else in the small town of Galanos they find before taking refuge in the buildings for the day.
During the attack scenes, the special effects people for the film did their best -- well, given the limitation of the film's budget and what they had to work with in terms of terror -- to make the animals appear giant and menacing. These effects include close-ups of the rabbits rearing up on their hind legs, fake blood and ketchup (yes, they did use actual ketchup for blood) dripping from their two front teeth, roaring lion-like sounds and heavy breathing, and so on.
The make the rabbits appear to be larger, the film also relies almost entirely on slow-motion shots of ordinary rabbits running through background miniatures (like the ones used in Japanese Kaiju films), or in front of scaled-down back projections -- the use of the latter was quite common in films of this sort at the time -- using bongo drums in these rabbit rampaging scenes.
In the morning, Gerry and Amanda leave to avoid the coming press sensation the story would bring, but get stuck along a sandy stretch of road in the family's camper. Hillman is forced to hitchhike in order to find a phone and alert the Sheriff, leading him to discovering the bodies at the General Store and the giant rabbits hiding in the buildings. He is picked up by a priest (Russell Morrell) who drives him to a nearby pay phone.
Roy and Elgin update Sheriff Cody on the situation and the group fly by helicopter to the destroyed mine to discover the rabbits have escaped the mine. Sheriff Cody then calls in the National Guard -- and yeah, I bet that was an interesting conversation.
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| "Well don't look at me, I'm a doctor, not Elmer Fudd!" |
As night falls, the rabbits leave Galanos to continue their rampage, making their way towards the main town of Ajo, eating and killing everything and everyone in their path -- including a herd of cows. Cole proposes using a half-mile wide stretch of electrified railroad track as a fence to contain and kill the mutated rabbits.
The police and National Guard recruit a large number of people at a drive-in theater (which happened to be showing two MGM films according to the billboard -- I see what y'all did there!) to help herd the rabbits with their car lights. And strangely, people take the news of giant killer rabbits rather well.
With assistance from the machine gun fire and flame throwers by the National Guard, the mutant rabbits are herded towards the trap.
While this is going on, Roy Bennett sets off in the helicopter to locate his missing wife and daughter. He finds Gerry using road flares to fend off some of the giant mutant rabbits from the stranded camper and rescues them.
Hundreds of the rabbits make their way into the trap, where they are met with small-arms fire, flamethrowers, heavy machine gun fire, and ultimately electrocuted on the tracks.
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| Raiden wins! Flawless Victory! |
Some time after the incident -- and probably after an entire town got their fill of hasenpfeffer for a month -- Hillman tells Roy that normal rabbits, as well as coyotes, have returned to the ranch with the balance of nature restored....at least for now.
The ending shows the Bennetts with Hillman watching their children running on a grassy field at the Hillman farm where a normal rabbit is shown sitting on the grass before the end credits roll to the film's western score.
My Thoughts
Night of the Lepus is one of those so-bad-its-good films that I grew up with, and has a message about not upsetting the balance of nature that I can appreciate as a pseudo-adult.
As I pointed out before, Night of the Lepus was just one of a number of killer animal films made in the 1970s, many of which had even worse special effects and acting from far less talented actors. That being said though, this is a movie about deadly rabbits....not killer bees, rampaging wild dogs, people turning into snakes, or even a killer great white shark....rabbits.
Three years later, the British comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) would explore the idea of a killer rabbit, though for comedic effect rather than as a serious horror device.
Night of the Lepus, despite all its many, many flaws, is still worth to time to sit and watch at least once....if only to chuckle and shake your head at how horrible most 70s flicks were. That's not to say the movie isn't entertaining in its own way, but if you're looking for good and slightly more serious 70s horror films, there are far better options.
All the same, in spite of this, Night of the Lepus holds a special place in my heart as one of those cult classics that I watched with my grandparents back in the day as a kid, and I think of it as a misunderstood beauty in its own way.
Now, if I were going to direct a remake, I totally know how I'd go about making the rabbits appear scary....
Night of the Lepus is one of those so-bad-its-good films that I grew up with, and has a message about not upsetting the balance of nature that I can appreciate as a pseudo-adult.
As I pointed out before, Night of the Lepus was just one of a number of killer animal films made in the 1970s, many of which had even worse special effects and acting from far less talented actors. That being said though, this is a movie about deadly rabbits....not killer bees, rampaging wild dogs, people turning into snakes, or even a killer great white shark....rabbits.
Three years later, the British comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) would explore the idea of a killer rabbit, though for comedic effect rather than as a serious horror device.
Night of the Lepus, despite all its many, many flaws, is still worth to time to sit and watch at least once....if only to chuckle and shake your head at how horrible most 70s flicks were. That's not to say the movie isn't entertaining in its own way, but if you're looking for good and slightly more serious 70s horror films, there are far better options.
All the same, in spite of this, Night of the Lepus holds a special place in my heart as one of those cult classics that I watched with my grandparents back in the day as a kid, and I think of it as a misunderstood beauty in its own way.
Now, if I were going to direct a remake, I totally know how I'd go about making the rabbits appear scary....
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| Imagine him with a leather mask and a chainsaw. |
See y'all next time, nostalgia fans!
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