Night of the Lepus

(1972) ***

I tried very hard to suspend my disbelief with this one. I really tried. I thought to myself, "gosh, how terrifying that'd be to be chased by, well, anything the size and mass of a tiger, even if that thing was a gigantic bunny rabbit." It didn't work though. Every time I saw one of those wide angle shots of bunnies tear-assing through scale model barnyards or train tracks, all I could think was, "how *cute*!" (Octo squealed with delight, "Bunnies!")

Farmlands in Arizona are being overrun with a pestilence of rabbits. They eat all the crops and generally cause mayhem. A local scientist is contracted to come up with a way of curbing the rabbit population without poisoning the whole countryside. His plan is to tinker with their hormones so they won't want to have so much rabbit-love. What his serum does instead is make them grow super-large and makes them carnivorous. His experiments seem to be running fine until his dipshit 9-year old daughter nabs one that she "likes" (in that little girl, "I WANT ICE CWEEM," kind of way) which happens to be one of the bunnies that's been shot with the serum.

This potential disaster becomes an actual disaster after her 13 year old ranch-hand friend makes her get rid of it, an act which officially made these kids the live-action Marvin and Wendy. It runs off, mates and makes an armada of lion-sized bunny rabbits which run wild around the area, eating dozens of people.

Well, let's examine that word, "eating." I'd imagine that something carnivorous the size of a lion could probably rip large chunks out of a person. What happens to these people is more akin to, let's say, a really horrific fall off a skateboard. There's very little structural damage to the body, only flesh wounds; except in the case of one guy, who had his left arm completely pulled off. It's my assertion though that this was done by a rabbit who pulled a little too hard trying to get better leverage on biting the guys hangnails off.

So there are giant bunny rabbits which means a whole bunch of miniature sets with plenty of scale-model (although, amusingly, not always exactly to the same scale) trinkets, like spoons and bowls and pans. Here's where I stopped being able to suspend my disbelief (well, there and also during the opening credits when I found out that DeForest Kelly was in this movie). The panoramic shots of bunnies running across populated areas were adorable. It sort of made me think that if such a thing were ever to occur, families with small children would be screwed -- no matter what safe haven they'd find, the moment they'd take their eyes off of junior, he'd be off like a flash, drawn as a moth to a flame towards those giant, awesome furry things.

Great laughs to be had watching this. No scares though.