Connection
Night of the Lepus is a american film of genre Science fiction directed by William F. Claxton released in USA on 4 october 1972 with Stuart Whitman
Night of the Lepus (1972)
If you like this film, let us know!
- Infos
- Casting
- Technical infos
- Photos
- Videos
- Film quotes
- Characters
- Music
- Awards
Add to a movie listReleased in USA 4 october 1972
Length 1h28
Directed by William F. Claxton
OriginUSA
Themes Films about animals, Films based on science fiction novels, Natural horror films, Giant monster films, Disaster films
Rating41%
Night of the Lepus, also known as Rabbits, is a 1972 American science fiction horror film based on the 1964 science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit.
Released theatrically on October 4, 1972, it focuses on members of a small Arizona town who battle thousands of mutated, carnivorous killer rabbits. The film was the first science fiction work for producer A. C. Lyles and for director William F. Claxton, both of whom came from Western film backgrounds. Character actors from Westerns the pair had worked on were brought in to star in the Night of the Lepus, including Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, and DeForest Kelley.
Shot in Arizona, Night of the Lepus used domestic rabbits filmed against miniature models and actors dressed in rabbit costumes for the attack scenes.
Before its release, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) renamed the film from its original name of Rabbits and avoided including rabbits in most promotional materials to try to keep the featured mutant creatures a secret. However, the studio itself broke the secret by issuing rabbit's foot-themed promotional materials before the release. Widely panned by critics for its premise, bad directing, stilted acting and laughable special effects, the film's biggest failure was considered to be the inability to make the rabbits seem scary. Night of the Lepus has gained cult status for its poor quality and was released to home video for the first time in October 2005 when it was released to Region 1 DVD. It has been featured in Rifftrax, the comedy troupe of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, former members of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 ensemble.
Synopsis
Rancher Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun) seeks the help of college president Elgin Clark (DeForest Kelley) to combat thousands of rabbits that have invaded the area after their natural predators, coyotes, were killed off. Elgin asks for the assistance of researchers Roy (Stuart Whitman) and Gerry Bennett (Janet Leigh) because they respect Cole's wish to avoid using cyanide to poison the rabbits. Roy proposes using hormones to disrupt the rabbits' breeding cycle and takes some rabbits for experimentation. One is injected with a new serum believed to cause birth defects. However, the Bennett's daughter Amanda (Melanie Fullerton) loves the injected rabbit, so she switches it with one from the control group. Amanda is then given the injected rabbit as a pet, but it soon escapes.Actors
Stuart Whitman
(Roy Bennett)
Janet Leigh
(Gerry Bennett)
Rory Calhoun
(Cole Hillman)
DeForest Kelley
(Elgin Clark)
Paul Fix
(Sheriff Cody)
Comments
Leave comment :
Suggestions of similar film to Night of the Lepus
There are 203 films with the same actors, 12 films with the same director, 13156 with the same cinematographic genres (including 1838 with exactly the same 2 genres than Night of the Lepus), 5441 films with the same themes (including 3 films with the same 5 themes than Night of the Lepus), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked Night of the Lepus, you will probably like those similar films :
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)
, 1h28Directed by Donald G. Jackson
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Comedy, Action, Horror
Themes Post-apocalyptic films, Films about religion, Films set in the future, Political films, Dystopian films, Disaster films, American disaster films
Actors Sandahl Bergman, Cec Verrell, William Smith, Rory Calhoun, Nicholas Worth, Lee Garlington
Rating55%
This film is set in an post-apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout and, as a result, the government places a high priority on those that can still breed. Shortly before the movie opens, a group of mutant amphibians (who have been exiled to the desert by humans) capture a group of fertile women and are using them as sex slaves.
The Food of the Gods (1976)
, 1h28Directed by Bert I. Gordon
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Films based on science fiction novels, Natural horror films, Giant monster films, Disaster films
Actors Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, Ida Lupino, Belinda Balaski
Rating46%
The film reduced Wells' tale to an "Ecology Strikes Back" scenario, common in science fiction movies at the time. The "food" mysteriously bubbles up from the ground on a remote island somewhere in British Columbia. Mr. and Mrs. Skinner (John McLiam and Ida Lupino) consider it a gift from God, and feed it to their chickens, which grow larger than humans as a result. Rats, wasps, and grub worms also consume the substance, and the island becomes infested with giant vermin. One night, a swarm of giant rats kill Mr. Skinner after his car breaks down in the forest.
, 1h20Directed by Ray Harryhausen, Eugène Lourié
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Fantastic, Fantasy, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Dinosaur films, Films about magic and magicians, La préhistoire, Films based on science fiction novels, Animaux préhistoriques, Natural horror films, Giant monster films, Arme nucléaire, Disaster films
Actors Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Woods
Rating65%
Far north of the Arctic Circle, a nuclear bomb test, dubbed "Operation Experiment", is conducted. Prophetically, right after the blast, physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) muses, "What the cumulative effects of all these atomic explosions and tests will be, only time will tell." No sooner said, the explosion awakens a 30-foot (10 m) tall, 100-foot (30 m) long carnivorous animal known as Rhedosaurus, thawing it out of the ice where it had been held in suspended animation. Nesbitt is the only witness to the beast's awakening and is later dismissed out-of-hand as being delirious at the time of his "sighting". Despite the skepticism he persists, knowing what he saw.
Stagecoach To Fury (1956)
, 1h15Directed by William F. Claxton
Origin USA
Genres Western
Actors Forrest Tucker, Mari Blanchard, Wallace Ford, Paul Fix, Leslie Banning, Wright King
Rating59%
A stagecoach with a mixed group of passenger en route to the town of Fury makes a stop at a layover. Upon arrival the passengers are held up by Lorenzo Garcia and his gang of bandidos capture and disarm the passengers, shooting one when he stops to raise his fallen trousers when he puts his hands up. The two staff of the coaching stop are missing presumed murdered. Garcia questions former Army captain Frank Townsend, now riding shotgun on the stagecoach on the location of the Federal Government gold shipment they expected to be carried by the stagecoach. After Garcia shoots and wounds Tim O'Connor the driver to encourage information, Townsend reveals that the stagecoach was to remain at the layover until a wagon containing the gold shipment would arrive and transfer the cargo to the stage.
Python 2 (2002)
, 1h29Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Action, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Natural horror films, Films about snakes, Giant monster films, Children's films, Disaster films
Actors William Zabka, Dana Ashbrook, Simmone Mackinnon, Mike Mitchell, Raycho Stevanov Vasiliev, Hristo Chopov
Rating29%
One of a pair of giant bioengineered pythons with acidic venom and armor-like skin, created by a Russian and American joint military operation led by U.S. Army Colonel Robert Evans Jefferson, Jr. (Marcus Aurelius), escapes into Russia's Ural Mountains. Jefferson and his team go to retrieve it, but the plane carrying the captured bioengineered python is shot down by Chechen rebels, however, russian troops led by Colonel Zubov (Ivaylo Geraskov) arrive, killing the chechens and recapture the bioengineered python, however, they find disaster in a clandestine Russian military base where the creature slaughters soldiers and scientists alike, the only survivor in the Military base is Zubov.
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009)
, 1h30Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Horror comedy, Action, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, La fin du monde, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, Transport films, Underwater action films, Submarine films, Films about sharks, Natural horror films, Films about cephalopods, Mise en scène d'un poisson, Giant monster films, Comedy horror films, Disaster films, American disaster films, Film de catastrophe animalière
Actors Debbie Gibson, Lorenzo Lamas, Sean Lawlor, Gina Torres, Jay Beyers, Vic Chao
Rating25%
Off the coast of Alaska, oceanographer Emma MacNeil (Deborah Gibson) is studying the migration patterns of whales aboard an experimental submarine she took without permission from her employer. Meanwhile, a military helicopter drops experimental sonar transmitters into the water, causing a pod of whales to go out of control and start ramming a nearby glacier. In the chaos, the helicopter crashes into the glacier, and the combined damage breaks the glacier open, thawing two hibernating, prehistoric creatures. MacNeil narrowly avoids destruction as, unknown to her, a giant shark and octopus are freed. Some time later, a drilling platform off the coast of Japan is attacked by the octopus, which has tentacles large enough to wrap around the entire structure. After returning to Point Dume, California, MacNeil investigates the corpse of a beached whale covered with many bloody wounds. Her employer Dick Richie (Mark Hengst) believes them to be from a tanker propeller, but MacNeil insists they appear to be from a creature. Later, she extracts what appears to be a shark’s tooth from one of the wounds. Elsewhere, the huge shark leaps tens of thousands of feet into the air from the ocean and attacks a commercial aircraft, forcing it to crash into the water.
Tarantula (1955)
, 1h16Directed by Jack Arnold
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Films about magic and magicians, Natural horror films, Films about spiders, Giant monster films, Disaster films
Actors John Agar, Leo G. Carroll, Mara Corday, Clint Eastwood, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott
Rating64%
A man with Neanderthal features and wearing pajamas stumbles through the Arizona desert, falls and dies. Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar), a bright, handsome and sympathetic doctor from the small town of Desert Rock, is called to view the body. Asked to give an opinion as to cause of death, he finds himself perplexed. Surprised to learn the deceased was someone he knew – biological research scientist Eric Jacobs – Dr. Hastings suggests he be given permission to perform an autopsy to learn why the man's face is distorted beyond recognition. The sheriff refuses, judging an autopsy unnecessary as Jacobs' associate, Dr. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), signed the death certificate and there is no indication of foul play.
Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
, 1h22Directed by Motoyoshi Oda
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Dinosaur films, La fin du monde, Kaiju films, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, La préhistoire, Transport films, Animaux préhistoriques, Natural horror films, Giant monster films, Godzilla films, Films about extraterrestrial life, Disaster films
Actors Minoru Chiaki, Hiroshi Koizumi, Takashi Shimura, Haruo Nakajima, Masao Shimizu, Yoshio Tsuchiya
Rating57%
Two pilots named Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi are hunting for schools of fish for a tuna cannery company in Osaka. Kobayashi's plane malfunctions and is forced to land near Iwato Island, an uninhabited strip of rocks formed by volcanic eruptions. Tsukioka then looks for Kobayashi and finds him safe, with only a wrist sprain. While talking, the two men hear some strange sounds and find two monsters fighting. Tsukioka immediately recognizes one of the monsters to be Godzilla. The two monsters then fall off a cliff, into the ocean.
, 1h37Directed by Dwight H. Little
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Natural horror films, Films about snakes, Giant monster films, Reptile, Disaster films
Actors Johnny Messner, KaDee Strickland-Behr, Matthew Marsden, Nicholas Gonzalez, Eugene Byrd, Karl Yune
Rating47%
A team of researchers funded by a Manhattan pharmaceutical firm – Jack Byron, Gordon Mitchell, Sam Rogers, Gail Stern, Cole Burris, and Ben Douglas – leave for a jungle in Borneo to search for a "blood orchid", a flower they believe can be used as a type of fountain of youth. Though their guide Bill Johnson has misgivings about which path to take, Jack bribes him to take an unsafe path. The team goes over a waterfall and has to wade through the river. A giant anaconda emerges from the water and swallows Ben whole, but the rest of the team escapes the river. Bill assures them that it was the largest snake he has ever seen and that it should take weeks for it to grow hungry again; however, most of the team demands that the expedition be called off. They travel to Bill's friend, John Livingston, who lives on the river to see if Johnson can borrow his boat; however, they find Livingston dead and his boat crashed.
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
, 1h15Directed by Ray Harryhausen
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantastic, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, Transport films, Natural horror films, Films about cephalopods, Giant monster films, Disaster films
Actors Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Harry Lauter
Rating58%
A nuclear submarine on maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean, captained by Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey), comes into contact with a massive sonar contact. The boat is disabled but manages to free itself and return to Pearl Harbor. Animal tissue of great proportions is discovered jammed in its dive planes. A man-and-woman team of marine biologists, Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis), is called in; they identify the tissue as being part of a gigantic octopus. The military authorities scoff, but are finally persuaded after receiving reports of missing swimmers and ships at sea being pulled under by a large animal. Both scientists conclude the sea beast is from the Mindanao Deep, having been forced from its natural habitat by hydrogen bomb testing in the area, which has made the giant creature radioactive, driving off its natural food supply.