Rabbits (1972)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Rabbits |
| Original title | Night of the Lepus |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1972 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | William F. Claxton |
| script |
Don Holliday Gene Kearney |
| production | AC Lyles |
| music | Jimmie Haskell |
| camera | Ted Voigtlander |
| cut | John McSweeney Jr. |
| occupation | |
| |
Rabbits (Original title: Night of the Lepus ) is an American horror film from 1972. The screenplay of the animal horror film produced by MGM is based on the novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit by Australian author Russell Braddon. The leading roles are played by Stuart Whitman , Janet Leigh and Rory Calhoun .
action
Rancher Cole Hillman's land is plagued by rabbits. After their natural enemies, the coyotes, have been exterminated in the area, they reproduce unchecked and destroy the crops of the local farmers and ranchers. Hillman goes to the University President Elgin Clark to ask him for help in the fight against the rodents. Because Hillman wants to poison the animals, Clark asks Roy and Gerry Bennett for assistance. The Bennetts are behaviorists. Roy suggests examining some of the animals and using hormones to interrupt the females' conception cycle.
Roy injects a new serum into one of the test animals. One wants to cause miscarriages with it. Amanda, the daughter of Roy and Gerry, is in love with the test animal and exchanges it with one of the other guinea pigs. Amanda is later given the injected animal as a pet, but the rabbit soon manages to escape.
During an inspection tour, Roy and Cole come across a large animal trail. At the same time, Amanda and Jackie, Cole's son, are on their way to a gold mine. There they want to meet Jackie's friend Billy, who has a hut there. However, you cannot find Billy. Jackie finds large animal tracks in the hut. Amanda searches for her friend in the mine, meets a giant rabbit with a bloody mouth and runs away in panic.
Mutilated bodies were soon found in the area. Billy is among the dead. The Bennetts, Cole, Clark and two of Cole's cowboys, Frank and Jud, go to the mine to destroy the giant rabbits with explosives. They can blow up the mine, but they don't kill all rabbits. The surviving animals attack Cole's ranch the following night. Jud is killed, the rabbits move on to the nearby small town and attack everyone they meet. Then they retreat into the building to protect them from daylight.
The next morning, after receiving briefings from Roy and Clark, Sheriff Cody calls the National Guard for help. The following night the rabbits move on to the next town. Cole suggests energizing the tracks of a railway line. With the help of visitors to a drive-in movie theater, the rabbits can be driven to the tracks through the headlights. There they are killed by machine guns of the National Guard.
Reviews
The lexicon of international film describes the work as "a horror film that uses ecological arguments to hook its rather hair-raising story." Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine described the film as an "absolute waste of time". The TV Guide admires the people who entered a producer's office with the film idea for this stupid monster film. of the New York Times particularly criticized the fact that the film doesn't even try to scare the rabbits. The technical laziness, the silly story and the stupid direction bring the film to oblivion.
background
The work is one of the few US films that premiered abroad. In Ireland it was released in cinemas on September 8, 1972, in the USA on October 4, 1972. In Germany, the film was released in theaters on March 30, 1973 in a version shortened by two minutes.
Stan Jolley , who was also the director of the second unit, was responsible for the equipment .
Most of the scenes with the giant rabbits were filmed with normal animals running through model landscapes. Rabbit attacks were carried out by an actor in a rabbit costume. The blood on the animal mouths was simulated with ketchup.
MGM feared that the original title Rabbits would not be suitable for a horror film. As a result, no reference was made to rabbits on posters or in trailers.
Web links
- Rabbits in the Internet Movie Database (English)