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Night of the Lepus

Play trailer Poster for Night of the Lepus PG 1972 1h 28m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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0% Tomatometer 11 Reviews 27% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Arizona rancher Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun), dealing with massive rabbit overpopulation on his land, calls on a local college president, Elgin Clark (DeForest Kelley), to help him. In order to humanely resolve the matter, Elgin brings in researchers Roy (Stuart Whitman) and Gerry Bennett (Janet Leigh), who inject the rabbits with chemicals. However, they fail to anticipate the consequences of their actions. A breed of giant mutant rabbits emerges and starts killing every human in sight.
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Night of the Lepus

Critics Reviews

View All (11) Critics Reviews
Bob Baker Time Out Impossible not to admire the total withholding of irony in Claxton's approach to this kamikaze project. Jan 26, 2006 Full Review Eric Henderson Slant Magazine Rabbits produce two things in obscene quanities: other rabbits and rabbit pellets. Rated: .5/4 Oct 28, 2005 Full Review Roger Greenspun New York Times It is this technical laziness as much as the stupid story or the dumb direction that leaves the film in limbo and places it in neither one camp nor the other - neither with Attack of the 50-Foot Woman nor with Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail. Rated: 1/5 May 10, 2005 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy It's hard to take anything seriously after a rancher (50-year-old Rory Calhoun) describes the pair (44-year-old Stuart Whitman and 45-year-old Janet Leigh) as "that young couple." Rated: 1.5/4 Aug 10, 2021 Full Review David Bax Battleship Pretension It's not bad enough to be funny but it's ridiculous enough in its very existence that maybe it would have been better if it had actually tried to be comedic. Which serves as a reminder, should you need it, that Tremors is pretty much a perfect movie. Oct 29, 2018 Full Review Robert Sellers Radio Times A total bloody shambles. Rated: 1/5 Oct 2, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (263) audience reviews
Walter W How many eyes does horror have? How many times will terror strike? To answer these and other questions from the promoters of “Night of the Lepus” (1972 PG) you have got to watch this B rated movie. To be 100% accurate a Lepus is a constellation in the southern hemisphere near Orion and Columba. It’s the most misleading film title in the history of movies. However in biology, it can also be the name for a Hare, a rodent like mammal with long ears. That makes way more sense. If you needed just one excuse to add Plex to your Smart 온라인카지노추천 it would probably be “Night of the Lepus”. A movie that aids my search for all that is trashy, but fun in cinema during my lifetime. To add gravitas to this crazy movie it opens with genuine 1950's newsreel footage of Australia's rabbit plagues anchored by legendary USA newscaster Jerry Dunphy then segues seamlessly into the film. Famous for his intro line in the LA market, "From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California, a good evening." This sci-fi horror movie is not bereft of star power. In the opening credits: Stuart Whitman, Rory Calhoun, Janet Leigh, DeForest Kelley (“Star Trek” looking like Ned Flanders) and more. Witness giant rabbits born from a tragic moment in a lab and released on the world thanks to a silly blonde girl. Science may have made a tragic mistake, but not as much as these stars for cashing in pay checks to work with director William F. Caxton (“Twilight Zone” 4 eps in the early 60’s and “Desire in the Dust” 1960). The glory days/use by date for these actors had passed and the upkeep in the Hollywood hills is not cheap. Watch on in awe as rabbits as big as cars for some unknown and unexplained mysterious reason only move from where they are “holed up” behind the shroud of night. Kind of like Vampire Hares. This movie may have inspired comedy troupe Month Python's Killer Rabbit scene in "Holy Grail". I especially loved the scuttling, shambling sound effects the horde of creatures make while destroying all in their path...hilarious teamed with the sci-fi space sfx. Watch out for: Glaringly obvious scale models including a toy train set from singer Rod Stewart’s attic. “Night of the Lepus” is so good, it’s bad. You read that right this not a typo. #Plex Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/07/25 Full Review Emoji M No. Why does it exist Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/10/24 Full Review Colin G Cinema was made for movies like this. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/03/23 Full Review Red T The acting isn't good, mainly because you can tell the actors filmed their scenes without knowing what the bunny scenes would look like. It's very simliar to the Giant Claw only much worse overall. Janet Leigh is probably the best thing in this and shes just ok. Almost all the characters are one dimensional. The special effects are laughably bad and the ending especially. A seizure warning should be put on the ending. The music isn't good either especially the rabbit music. The worst part is the horrifically bad editing. The rabbit scenes feel like they are from an entirely different movie and don't match style wise at all. It's so jarring and they always are in slow motion also which really drags the scenes on top of that and messes with the pacing terribly because as the movie goes on there is more and more of the rabbits and there always in stupid slow motion. This feels like stock rabbit footage merged with a creature feature. The non rabbit scenes in the first half are ok enough and actually kind of works at points but the moment they show up it falls apart and never gets back up. This gets incredibly boring in the last 30 minutes or so because of the stock characters, the slow rabbit scenes, the fact you can't see anything in the end because of all the electric zapping, the laughable effects. The idea is just stupid to begin with and even with modern CGI it would'nt work. You just can't make rabbits scary. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/18/23 Full Review CodyZamboni Movie is silly and dumb, with tons of ridiculous shots of bunnies, slow motion hopping thru fake miniatures. Top notch cast, Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, DeForest Kelly, cashing an easy check for appearing in this mess. Movie does get points for surprisingly bloody gore, and an inventive climax. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Rabbits just aren't scary- outside of medieval England- and this movie's attempts to make them intimidating fail miserably. The one and a half star rating comes from a person who loves bad movies, so if you have no patience for that, don't bother. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Night of the Lepus

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Movie Info

Synopsis Arizona rancher Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun), dealing with massive rabbit overpopulation on his land, calls on a local college president, Elgin Clark (DeForest Kelley), to help him. In order to humanely resolve the matter, Elgin brings in researchers Roy (Stuart Whitman) and Gerry Bennett (Janet Leigh), who inject the rabbits with chemicals. However, they fail to anticipate the consequences of their actions. A breed of giant mutant rabbits emerges and starts killing every human in sight.
Director
William F. Claxton
Producer
A.C. Lyles
Screenwriter
Gene R. Kearney, Don Holliday
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, A.C. Lyles Productions
Rating
PG
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 22, 2013
Runtime
1h 28m
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