WillSushyMedia
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
rushtonconnie
I just wrote a whole review but " an error occurred". I can't remember what i even wrote but basically this was a funny film. My side hurts from laughing stitches and my voice hurts I laughed that hard. It's great fun not to get caught up into the plot of movies but this just lets you sit back and.... enjoy(?) the killing suspense. ( pun intended :)
This was my mothers most memorable film and she kindly suggest this amazingly tragically grafic film. I AM NOT DISSAPOINTED!!!!!!!!
It's great fun and deserves all of the stars I gave it :)
classicsoncall
Let me ask you something. Say you're at the drive-in with your family and you hear the announcement made in my summary line above. Do you immediately start your car and leave or wonder whether you need a hearing aid? Well, every car turned on it's lights and headed out the exit, apparently in the belief that a herd of killer rabbits is just one of those things you might run into every now and then. One could make a case that they really didn't care for the flick showing at the drive-in - it was "Every Little Crook and Nanny", and YES!, that was a real movie that came out the same year this one did. With Lynn Redgrave and Victor Mature in the cast, it rates a whole point higher than this one on IMDb.You know, sometimes I struggle to write these film reviews, and sometimes they just write themselves. This is one of those times where the words just gush forth in dubious admiration for a flick that's so outrageous it just had to be made. Who came up with this concept? It would have been right at home in that bizarre year of 1959 which offered up such celluloid treats as "The Giant Gila Monster" and "The Killer Shrews". Both of those pictures, along with 'Lepus', make the best use of extreme close-up shots to enlarge their title creatures to monstrous proportions against the miniaturized buildings they over run.One of the principals here is the old Texan himself, Rory Calhoun, ditching his vest and leading the charge against the giant mutant killer bunnies, along side Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh, a nifty trio of actors who somehow managed to keep a straight face throughout the proceedings. DeForest Kelley also got roped into this thing, and for a guy who once had trouble with tribbles, I'm wondering how the heck he came along for this ride.The thing is, nobody ever got wise to the fact that it was the Bennett's (Whitman and Leigh) own daughter who was responsible for the hare-raising horror that followed when she switched places with a serum injected rabbit she liked for another one that she put in a quarantine cage. The kid got away scot-free and no one was any the wiser. Even crack sheriff Cody (Paul Fix) couldn't solve this puzzle, after all those years keeping the peace in North Fork. You'll have to forgive all my TV Western references, you can blame director William Claxton who brought along a host of former acting colleagues from prior projects.The biggest kick I got out of this flick were all those great slow-mo rabbit stampedes, ominously approaching their intended victims or descending on the next unfortunate town in their path. By this time in 1972 it seems the film makers should have eased up on the brightness of the fire engine red blood on all those poor victims. I'd understand if this was a Hammer film, but it wasn't, so next time, let's try to tone it down a bit, OK?
loomis78-815-989034
After a prologue that explains how rabbits have multiplied and become a serious threat to humans, we head to the Arizona desert where scientists Roy (Whitman) and wife Gerry (Leigh) try to slow down the rabbit population problem in the area. They inject a lab rabbit with a growth hormone-altering serum, and before they could say "where did he go doc?" the critter escapes and infects all the other rabbits making them grow to enormous sizes. The over running rabbits paw and chew the population of the small nearby town as the Sheriff (Paul Fix) and concerned scientists (including a sleepwalking Deforest Kelley Star Trek's Bones McCoy) try to stop them. So the real question is how this ridiculous idea ever made it to the screen in the first place? Chalk it up to the overblown excess of some of the early 70's movies had at the time. As you might expect, everything is taken deadly serious making it even dumber. Some campy humor would have gone a long way with this unbelievable plot line. The actors try to make this convincing but the attacks are silly and the blood looks like red paint. Director William F. Claxton brings no suspense or even a scare to this limp horror film. It was bad enough making rabbits the evil in a movie, but to have them grow to the size of bears and kill humans by ripping them to shreds? This was sunk before it was ever launched.
gavin6942
Cole Hillman's (Rory Calhoun) ranch is plagued with rabbits, and he wants to employ an ecologically sound control method. As a favor to Hillman, Elgin Clark (DeForest Kelley) calls in zoologist Roy Bennett (Stuart Whitman) to help. Bennett immediately begins injecting rabbits with hormones and genetically mutated blood in an effort to develop a method of disrupting rabbit reproduction.This is a film that has fared well in recent years compared to its original outing. There is no getting around it -- this is a pretty bad movie, with a young girl and Janet Leigh providing the most pointless characters and subpar acting. And the rabbits? I was surprised this was not Bert Gordon, because it is right up his alley.But now, looking back forty years, we can poke fun at it, and actually be fairly impressed by the effects. I would much rather see the miniature sets than a super-imposition or computer cheese. This looked about as real as large rabbits can, I suppose.Maybe they should not have taken themselves so seriously and they would have done better -- clearly the writer wanted a serious film, as the overall tone is quite realistic all things considered. But giant rabbits? That plays best as camp, and should have been written as such.
