It wasnt the first time that a movie had oversold it's monster when 'Night of the Lepus' hit screens in 1972, and it certainly wouldnt be the last. But; as with 'The Giant Claw' before it, "Lepus" seemingly bit off more than it could chew, transforming this pseudo 'Atom Age' giant monster Horror drama, into a completely unintentional comedy.
The plot follows Roy and Gerry Bennett (Played by cinema legends Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh) as scientists assisting ranchers who have a big problem on their hands, thats about to get BIGGER!
See, life of the ranch has had problems of late, as a large infestation of rabbits have rendered large swathes of crops inedbile and are creating holes all over the prairie. They're reaching serious infestation levels when ranch owner Cole Hillman is put in touch with Roy via a mutual friend Elgin (played by DeForrest Kelly) Roy and Gerry visit the ranch with their daughter and agree to take some of the Rabbits away to test some new hormonal serums on them, with the aim being to make them sterile and re-release them into the population with a viral version of the serum which would spread through the populace…as the alternative is spraying poison all over the land, which will kill absolutely everything.
After testing on over two dozen rabbits, the pair are struggling to find a breakthrough, when their daughter Amanda, takes a liking to one of the test rabbits, and while her parents arnt looking, she swipes it from the facility to take home as a pet…However; when returning to the ranch with the rabbit, Cole's son see's Amanda with the rabbit and forces her to set it free. Not realising that the rabbit they just set free had in fact been infected with an experimental hormonal serum with an unintended consequence…rapid growth and gestation abilities.
In no time at all, a nearby mineshaft is brimming with ultra fertile rabbits the size of wolves. and they're only going to get bigger! When the gang discover the giant rabbits, they try to trap them by blowing up the mine shaft they've occupied…but they forget that rabbits can dig! and within hours, the town is swarming with giant killer bunnys! leaving it down to Roy, Gerry and Cole to try and slow the rabbits approach to civilization by ANY means necessary!
So, for those of you that havent seen this one, the main reason it lives on in infamy amongst cult film aficionados, is the same reason 'The Giant Claw' does, the cast were told that the 'Killer rabbits' were going to be terrifying snarling beasts vicious critters with appearances more in line with the scariest offerings from 'Watership Down' than your average bunny. However; whether it was technical limitations or budgetary concerns. the studio didnt have the ability to make the rabbits look disturbing. they basically had enough of a budget to buy a couple dozen normal rabbits, a couple of 'rabbit costumes' for stuntmen to dress in, and a few gallons of fake blood/jam to smear on the rabbits to make them 'blood soaked'…and the end result is a film where our cast look on in terror as the CUTEST little bun-buns you've ever seen slow motion ride through the countryside.
It does rather 'defang' the viewing experience…transforming what did have the potential to be an actually kind of spooky 'what if?' in line with 'The Birds' or 'Rats: Night of terror' into something that is endlessly laughable. and as a result, the entire film suffers for it.
The script itself is a bit of a shame honestly, I can see how the bones of this could have made for a particularly engaging novel or short story. as a cinematic offering, the story itself isnt terrible either, reminding me very much of the early 50s creature features…However; I came to this expecting a horror film, maybe with some light drama elements…but instead its more of a Drama with some suspenseful horror elements peppered in. and given what i've said about the 'horror' and how almost all of the 'horror' in this is led by the rabbits scenes…the end result is a kind of flat drama, with the selling point absolutely deflated…
The pacing is painfully slow, this is an 80 minute feature that takes 50 minutes of setup to really get going. the film overexplains itself to extreme lengths, the act transitions are WAY too slow burn, to the point that the acts kind of just all blur into themselves without enough key plot points to hand to help tentpeg the structure of the script. The dialogues slow going and overly detailed. The characters are just about fine enough for this kind of thing, and they do get some time to have a bit of development granted across the runtime.
But the horror comes in way too late, is undercut by the failure to make the subject actually scary, and it ultimately means it feels like a horror film thats in a chronic sense of 'build up' that never pays off…it just fizzles out.
The direction is pretty nice here, its definitely got a creative vision behind it, though again, we as the audience cant escape the fact that they're limited on what they can do with the bunnies…while there is some creative model work used, and they try their best with some bluescreen work…it ultimately ends up being a film that looks pretty solid, and has some creative flourishes…but never quite nails what it sets out to do.
The cine is equally rock solid, and probably the best part of this film, some fantastic shots, that really help keep the film popping visually, nicely coordinated into decent sequences that try and make the best of a bad situation. Barring a couple of bizarre editing choices in the 3rd act. I had no quibbles with this one.
The performances are about as good as they can be, with the dialogue choices being rough around the edges, the cast can only work with what they've got, counterbalancing that issue we have the fact that the film has horror and suspense royalty bouying up the feature. But even with some of the cream of the crop on the bill, a poorly written script can only get you so far, and the end result is a scenario where a great cast do their best with a bad hand and sort of, kind of pull it off. I dont think the performances were particularly beliveable, but they were compelling.
And as for the soundtrack? its pretty solid, an acoustic and string arrangement very much of the 70s. it gives the film a degree of melancholy that I felt compelling, its quite well utilised. but maybe a tad generic.
If your a fan of weird and cult cinema 'Night of the Lepus' is definitely a film you should see at least once. Its not as interesting a piece as say 'Killdozer' or 'The Strangeness'…But it has enough going on to make it worth your time just about. If however you arnt that invested in movies that have just a single core gimmick carrying the whole thing, you will be bitterly dissapointed with this one. and absolutely should avoid it at all costs.
Myself? I thought it was underwhelming…but fine. I was expecting a bit more out of it on the horror, gore and violence front. But theres a charm in seeing them try and convince the audience that this REALLY TRUELY IS terrifying, that kept me hanging on till the end. Not one i'll be rushing back to watch again. But I didnt hate it. I just kind of hoped it would be better.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/night-of-the-lepus/
