Many years ago - when the incredibly strange film festival was actually a film festival in it's own right rather than about 10 films tacked onto the International Film Festival I went to see a film called "Night of the Lepus".
Lepus had stuck in my head more than any other ISFF film I ever saw because it was meant to be so serious but it was absolutely hilarous. It's of that generation of horror films that came out about the time of Jaws - where nature turns on mankind - I've also seen Grizzy (featuring a killer bear) and Piranha (somehow the little buggers made there way to the river at a kids camp).
But Lepus is quite different to these, as Lepus is the scientific name for rabbit (although calling it "Night of the Rabbit" would have made it even more awesome!).
Anyways, on Friday night I was checking out Aro video to see if there was anything to watch over the weekend and to my joy I came across Lepus! It was a miracle - usually if you see a film at the ISFF you never come across it in polite society again. I had of course told Rich many times over about Lepus so I HAD to get it out again.
I know lots of people don't like horror films but I defy anyone to watch this one and not end up in fits of laughter. I know that rabbits can decimate farm land and all - but they are kind of cute and not really menacing at all.
The basic premise of the film is a farmer is trying to rid his land of his rabbit problem and doesn't want to use poison, so he enlists the help of a couple of scientists to see if they can help him out in some way - perhaps a disease that only affects rabbits would help?
The rabbits are then injected with the mystery serum, one escapes, grows huge and they start eating people and eventually the national guard is called in to sort the whole mess out.
Ridiculous? Yes? Hilarious? YES! It's the stuff trash cinema dreams are made of.
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