Main Cast: Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley
Release Year: 1972
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Giant Flesh-Eating Rabbits Ravage American Southwest After Scientist Slips Up! Such is the plot of this unintentionally campy horror outing. The trouble begins when a researcher's experiment to use hormone injections to control Arizona's burgeoning rabbit population goes terribly awry, causing the cuddly rodents to grow to enormous proportions. In order to facilitate their growth, the rabbits need extra protein, and what better source than the relatively slow-moving human population that surrounds their huge subterranean lairs? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
With obvious special effects that include everything from real rabbits stomping miniatures to splinters (filmed in slow motion) to attacks by men dressed in fuzzy long-eared suits, Night of the Lepus is all good, unintentionally campy fun. Sadly, the rest of the flick is nothing to be too concerned with. Stuart Whitman makes his usual '70s leading-man appearance, with his out-of-control hair and sideburns contrasting perfectly with his dangerously low-zippered shirt and old-man chest. Original scream queen Janet Leigh slums it up here as well with the help of uncomfortably tight jeans and some truly heinous dialogue. The real star is, of course, the killer rabbits, which one gets to see a lot of before the movie is done. Better taken in parts than as a whole, Night of the Lepus is silly to its core, even if it never seems to get the joke in any of its grueling 90 minutes. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Jerry Dunphy - TV Newscaster; Paul Fix - Sheriff Cody; Robert Hardy - Prof. Dirkson; Chuck Hayward - Jud; Francesca Jarvis - Mildred; I. Stanford Jolley - Dispatcher; Don Starr - Cutler; Henry Wills - Frank; Chris Morrell - Jackie Hillman; Melanie Fullerton - Amanda Bennett; Inez Perez - Housekeeper; Phillip Avenetti - Officer Lopez; William Elliott - Dr. Leopold; Frank Kennedy - Doctor; Peter O'Crotty - Arlen; Walter Kelley - Truck Driver
Credit
Henry Cowl - Consultant/advisor, Lou Schumacher - Consultant/advisor, Ted Schilz - First Assistant Director, William F. Claxton - Director, Stan Jolley - Second Unit Director, John McSweeney, Jr. - Editor, Jimmie Haskell - Composer (Music Score), Wes Dawn - Makeup, Stan Jolley - Production Designer, Ted Voigtlander - Cinematographer, A.C. Lyles - Producer, William F. Calvert - Set Designer, Howard A. Anderson Company - Special Effects, Jerry Jost - Sound/Sound Designer, Hal Watkins - Sound/Sound Designer, Don Holliday - Screenwriter, Gene Kearney - Screenwriter, Russell Braddon - Book Author
Rancher Cole Hillman is having problems with the rabbit population on his ranch, who are destroying his crops. College president Elgin Clark, as a favor to benefactor Cole, calls in zoologists Roy and Gerry Bennett, who create an (untested) serum for disrupting the breeding cycle of rabbits. However, their daughter Amanda has become attached to the rabbit that has become the serum's test subject and switches it with a rabbit from the control group; she is thus able to take the injected rabbit out of the controlled environment of the lab. The injected rabbit gets away and breeds. The serum doesn't disrupt their breeding cycle, but does something worse: it causes the rabbits to become gigantic meat-eaters. When several people are slaughtered by the carnivorous carrot-munchers, Roy and Gerry attempt to find a solution before the whole of the American Southwest is overrun by giant rabbits.
