SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

While working in Southern Arizona, a group of scientists attempting to curtail the local rabbit population finds that a rabbit injected with a serum to curb their breeding cycle has turned those it has come into contact with into ravenous, gigantic rabbits devouring the countryside.This one here was pretty good and did have a lot going for it. One of the film's better parts is in the second half where the mystery about the unknown creatures doing the damage is rather nice and is done in the perfect manner. This one handles it by building up a stream of suspense sequences that only underscore how dangerous the threat is because it slowly dawns that there's something dangerous going on. These are highlighted by the early attacks on the population, and they are all done rather nicely and do their job of making the threat rather imposing and something to be taken advantage of. Once the rabbits get fully grown, there's a lot more fun to enjoy from this, as there's plenty of scenes to provide either action or suspense. The tunnel destruction plan where the rabbits are seen interacting with the cast as they discover who's really causing it with the chase through the tunnel, the farmland attack from their initial rampage on through to overrunning the house and the diner attack where the swarm overruns the town all provide plenty of suspense since there are various tactics within them to make them feel creepy and has some fun with the story. There's also the farm swarming scene in the middle that gets really action-packed and manages to feel really big and grand due to the size of the creatures and the size of the herd. That's what makes them good villains in a creature feature such as this since one creature bigger than a man is bad enough but to have a herd that large at the same size is simply terrifying and it works for the film. Alongside a rather clever and creative ending here which is just fun and some rather nice bloody deaths, these here are the film's best parts. There wasn't much in the way of flaws with this one. One of the flaws is that there's too ludicrous a situation causing them to get loose. It's obvious that the daughter will cause it, and rather than feeling sympathetic towards the situation but will instill more a feeling of rage and hatred for doing such a thing. They're not cute, and their actions just induce outright hatred for their stupidity. The gigantic rabbits at times do look really cheesy, especially when shown in a specific feature for a close-up. It's hard to take them seriously when they're in those poses as the over-sized fangs and cute face throw up a disorienting tactic that can be cause for some concern. The last flaw in this is the use of the real-life footage at the beginning to explain the film's back-story. Basing a film off a real-life incident can work, but the real footage goes against the later scenes and the effect it has is a little jolting, especially in such a weak-rated film. Otherwise, there isn't much here against this one.Rated PG: Violence, Language and mild animal violence.

After a prologue that explains how rabbits have multiplied and become a serious threat to humans, we head to the Arizona desert where scientists Roy (Whitman) and wife Gerry (Leigh) try to slow down the rabbit population problem in the area. They inject a lab rabbit with a growth hormone-altering serum, and before they could say "where did he go doc?" the critter escapes and infects all the other rabbits making them grow to enormous sizes. The over running rabbits paw and chew the population of the small nearby town as the Sheriff (Paul Fix) and concerned scientists (including a sleepwalking Deforest Kelley Star Trek's Bones McCoy) try to stop them. So the real question is how this ridiculous idea ever made it to the screen in the first place? Chalk it up to the overblown excess of some of the early 70's movies had at the time. As you might expect, everything is taken deadly serious making it even dumber. Some campy humor would have gone a long way with this unbelievable plot line. The actors try to make this convincing but the attacks are silly and the blood looks like red paint. Director William F. Claxton brings no suspense or even a scare to this limp horror film. It was bad enough making rabbits the evil in a movie, but to have them grow to the size of bears and kill humans by ripping them to shreds? This was sunk before it was ever launched.

It's safe to assume that this is the only film you'll ever see that contains the line "there is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way." A really lousy thriller about giant rabbits terrorizing an Arizona town. Scientists Stuart Whitman & Janet Leigh inject a rabbit with a serum to help eliminate a growing Lepus problem. Their dim-witted daughter steals the rabbit and loses it out in the wild. Mayhem ensues in the form of some very bad special effects. This claptrap is not helped by some very stodgy acting (particularly by Rory Calhoun as a nature loving rancher) and very inert direction by William F. Claxton. Paul Fix and DeForest Kelley (sporting a mustache) are in it too. Claxton directed a number of great TWILIGHT ZONE episodes but had only a marginal film career. There's an OK music score by Jimmie Haskell, whose work as a composer consisted of scoring primarily exploitation films while he maintained a prolific career as an music arranger on such A-movies as THE COLOR PURPLE & BIG.

Just re-watched Night of the Lepus - It is a love hate thing. Favorite movie of a Deforest Kelley fan, that's my excuse. This didn't seem like the same movie I watched. It's an excellent example of the art of miniature and a camera effects even if the makeup effects are pretty lacking. I have Mr. Kelley's script so I'm pretty biased to be fond of this one but really it is ... special. The story skips huge gaps like the reason that the mutant bunny spread's it's toxic genes is all because the little girl like it. Really ? and Mommy and Daddy didn't even ASK her what happened to her pet bunny. It's short but you might need something to drink. Huge parts filmed on blue screen. Not as engaging as Valley of Gwangi but certainly wins points in miniatures and bunnies.. tons of bunnies.