I really love to talk movies with my friends. When the opportunity arises I really love to talk ‘bad movies’ with them. We can talk for hours about all the bad movies we’ve seen over the years, and usually I bring up two. The absolute worst I’ve ever seen was “Manos, The Hands of Fate.” Most of my friends have seen this one they generally agree. But when I mention “Night of the Lepus”, they look at me in bewilderment. So I try to describe the film, telling them it is about a group of people being terrorized by giant rabbits. After the laughter subsides… I tell them, “No really… it’s a real movie.” Yet they never believe me. I would swear to them the movie really existed and that it starred Stuart Whitman, Janet Leight and DeForest Kelley and they had to fight off giant rabbits.

I would describe in detail how people would be attacked by these fake giant rabbit paws, and then the scene would cut to a close-up of the ‘attacking’ rabbit. I even went so far as to tell them that I had learned the film was based on a novel called (are you ready for this) “The Year of the Angry Rabbit” by Russell Brandon. Even mentioning that it came out around the time that giant animal movies were all the rage wasn’t enough to convince them.

Now you might think to yourself that all I had to do was look it up on the Internet, but most of these conversations took place back before the Internet was around, and nowadays we’re usually out at a restaurant somewhere and we’re too cheap to have Wi-Fi. So at this time I would like to personally thank the Warner Brothers Gods for actually releasing “Night of the Lepus” on DVD. That’s right my friends, I am finally vindicated at this time for all the ridicule I took for trying to tell you about this movie. I plan on keeping this DVD around with me so all I have to do is whip it out of my bag and say, “SEE?”

Now that you believe me… “Night of the Lepus” is, as I mentioned, a really bad movie. It was not meant to be bad, it just is. The story is familiar, in that we have scientists trying to improve the world by inventing a hormone to change the breeding habits of the rabbits that are overrunning the ranchlands. Unfortunately, the hormone doesn’t quite work and instead turns the lovable little bunnies into giant, 150-pound eating machines. And we’re not just talking carrots either, these floppy-eared monsters like to make snacks of humans as well!!

The idea is silly, the ‘special effects’ are laughable, and the acting sub-par (despite the high profile cast). BUT, in defense of the film, it is one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ types of films. I was not only glad to see this release, but appreciated that Warner Brothers took the time to create a fairly clean transfer. I’m actually planning on getting a group of friends together (preferably the ones who thought I was crazy) and making a late night party of watching it.

Directed by: William F. Claxton
Starring: Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley
Extras: Trailer
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital Mono
Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 10/4/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG
Website

We'll give Night of the Lepus an A (But only because I can prove it now...).