Night of the Lepus

U.S.A. / 1972 Directed by William F. Claxton Starring Stuart Whitman Janet Leigh Rory Calhoun Color / 88 Minutes / PG Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) Warner Home Video

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		Review by Brian Lindsey

5     5   10 = Highest Rating

It's amazing to think this project was actually greenlit... Somebody thought that what the movie-going public really needed was a monster movie about giant, man-eating rabbits.     Uh huh. That's right — giant, man-eating rabbits. And they were serious! I was one of the few people who saw Night of the Lepus during its 1972 theatrical run, and although an impressionable 10-year old at the time, the concept of killer bunnies the size of a Volkswagen Beetle was just too ridiculous for even an enthusiastic "Monster Kid" like me to buy into. Fortunately the film didn't exactly set the box-office on fire, so at least we haven't had to endure gargantuan pandas or Koala bears in the interim.     In an unnamed state in the American southwest, a population explosion among (normal sized) rabbits has resulted in a plague of the furry critters ravaging the countryside. Cattle rancher Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun of Motel Hell and Angel) needs to take action or he'll soon lose his prime grazing lands to this horde of hungry hares. Unlike most of his neighbors Hillman doesn't want to use poison to kill them off, fearing residual effects on the ecosystem; an earlier eradication of coyotes in the area is suspected in the massive rabbit baby boom. He contacts an administrator at the state college, buddy Elgin Clark (Star Trek's Dr. "Bones" McCoy himself, DeForest Kelley), for advice. Clark points him to the scientific research team of Dr. Roy Bennett (Stuart Whitman) and wife Gerry (Janet Leigh), specialists in devising environmentally friendly means of controlling pest infestations. Rabbits aren't exactly their forté but they agree to help, hoping like Cole to avoid the use of cyanide and other poisons. Roy thinks the best approach is to stop them from breeding. His plan is to inject a small number of rabbits with a special hormone and then release them into the general population. Theoretically, the rabbits' normal breeding cycle will be interrupted as the hormone — which supposedly causes confusion about sexual orientation! — is passed genetically to the next generation.     Naturally something goes horribly wrong.     An old prospector is found torn to bits; the gory remains of a truck driver are discovered along a lonely stretch of highway looking, says the crusty sheriff (Paul Fix), like an axe was used on him. But it wasn't an axe wielded by some maniac. The coroner reveals that the victims show evidence of having been "gnawed, chewed... bitten." Hillman, who's been finding bear-sized rabbit tracks on his property of late, puts two and two together and calls on his academic friends. Without telling the sheriff, he, Clark and the Bennets locate the nest of the behemoth bunnies in an abandoned mine and, upon sealing it up with dynamite, believe the danger over. Conveniently, they forget that rabbits are burrowing creatures... even after one of the mutants bursts from the earth and nearly kills one of Hillman's ranch hands. (Janet Leigh promptly guns the monster down with the calm alacrity of Beverly Garland in a Corman flick.) That night the giant rabbits sweep across the land, overrunning Hillman's ranch and killing a number of people. The sheriff is finally let in on the true nature of the problem, which he accepts at face value. (No Thomas B. Henry/"Are you nuts?" moment here.) A company of National Guard troops is rushed to the area just as a two-mile wide horde of the horrible hares is spotted heading straight for the town...     Night of the Lepus is a near total throwback to the giant monster movies of the 1950s. All the major clichés of those black and white atomic beastie flicks are present and accounted for, even the faux TV news report that opens the film (here subbing for the typical narrator and Cold War stock footage). The plot's basically a reworking of 1957's Beginning of the End — only substituting rabbits for grasshoppers — with bits of Tarantula (1955) tossed into the mix. (At least those old movies had the good sense to super-size genuinely repellent types of critters to provide their mutated menace, not cute and cuddly ones!) The only concessions to the Seventies are the discussion of the environmental impact of pest control and the rather bloody (for a PG rating) killings and corpses. With no swearing or nudity, if not for these elements — and the fact that it's in color — Night of the Lepus could very easily have been made when Eisenhower was prez. (The gore would probably land it an "R" certification nowadays.)     Whitman (Shatter, Treasure of the Amazon), Leigh (Psycho), and the other veterans in the cast don't use the absurdity of the scenario as an excuse to deliver bad performances, comporting themselves with professional seriousness — which is the main reason this movie is at least mildly amusing. Also humorous are the 'shock' shots of rabbits with fake blood smeared on their twitchy little noses. In fact, real rabbits are used extensively but there's only one Bert I. Gordon-style process shot — placing the giant rabbits and a human onscreen simultaneously — in the entire film. Some of the miniatures used for the Hillman ranch and the approach to town, which the rabbits traverse in slow motion, are surprisingly good. Still, one could employ the best model makers in the world and their skill could never negate the fact that it's friggin' rabbits lumbering across their handiwork. Director William F. Claxton (who helmed a zillion episodes of Bonanza) wisely keeps the bunny suit-wearing stunt man mostly out of frame or shoots him very close up, so that you really can't tell its supposed to a giant rabbit that's attacking. (Oh no! Harvey's gone homicidal!)

Warner's Night of the Lepus disc presents the film in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and digital mono audio. Picture is grainy and a bit too dark-looking at times but is superior to any television broadcast I can ever recall seeing; sound quality is clear and strong. Since it's practically a miracle that a major company would ever release this film on DVD much less deck it out with all sorts of bells and whistles, the goofy (and deliberately vague) theatrical trailer is all you get in terms of extras — unless you count the optional French language track. Mon Dieu! C'est un lapin énorme! 11/01/05

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