Ranchers in the American Southwest must deal with hordes of rabbits that are laying waste to their lands. Most would prefer to use poison, but the more humane Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun) enlists the services of a husband and wife team, Roy and Gerry Bennett (Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh) who propose to keep the bunnies from breeding by injecting them with hormones. Unfortunately, one test rabbit who's been given an experimental serum escapes into the wild and promptly causes mutations among its kin, leading to murderous four foot tall predators that cause even more damage than they were doing before. Eventually the National Guard must be called in to deal with the problem.
This scenario is amusing, no doubt about it. No matter how hard the filmmakers and animal trainers try to make our antagonists fearsome, it doesn't really work. Director William F. Claxton handles everything in a workmanlike fashion, but, much like everyone on screen, tends to take the proceedings a little too seriously. That said, there's definite camp value in hearing lines such as "There's a horde of killer rabbits coming this way!". The actors give the movie more gravitas than it deserves; Whitman, Leigh, and Calhoun are joined by DeForest Kelley ("Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not Elmer Fudd!"), Paul Fix, and Melanie Fullerton. Music, cinematography, pacing, and special effects are all adequate enough; fans of B horror may be pleased by the amount of bloodletting going on.
This little movie was actually a little ahead of the curve, predating "Jaws" by a few years; it may be on the cheap and cheesy side of "nature strikes back" cinema, but it's still entertaining for what it is.
Five out of 10.
This scenario is amusing, no doubt about it. No matter how hard the filmmakers and animal trainers try to make our antagonists fearsome, it doesn't really work. Director William F. Claxton handles everything in a workmanlike fashion, but, much like everyone on screen, tends to take the proceedings a little too seriously. That said, there's definite camp value in hearing lines such as "There's a horde of killer rabbits coming this way!". The actors give the movie more gravitas than it deserves; Whitman, Leigh, and Calhoun are joined by DeForest Kelley ("Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not Elmer Fudd!"), Paul Fix, and Melanie Fullerton. Music, cinematography, pacing, and special effects are all adequate enough; fans of B horror may be pleased by the amount of bloodletting going on.
This little movie was actually a little ahead of the curve, predating "Jaws" by a few years; it may be on the cheap and cheesy side of "nature strikes back" cinema, but it's still entertaining for what it is.
Five out of 10.