Night Of The Lepus

Night Of The Lepus is one of those 1970s "animals attack" movies, and it has the "so bad it's good" reputation often applied to Ed Wood films. It's about a herd of giant, killer rabbits terrorizing a rural area.
Everything I've read makes fun of Night Of The Lepus because Bunnies Aren't Scary. And ordinarily, that's true. There are scenes of bunnies running through a model town (to make them look giant) in slow motion that are supposed to be ominous but end up being adorable. If I had a family restaurant, I'd play that on a loop rather than sports or the news.
Giant bunnies: fun for the whole family!
On the other hand, there are scenes of bunnies looming over dead bodies with red paint (I'm sorry, blood) smeared all over their faces, bearing their giant bunny front teeth and growling horribly. I'm not scared of that because I can tell how they did the shot (close ups, red paint, a decent foley guy) but it was effective. I went in expecting something laughable but damned if I weren't thrown by that footage. I know if I were a little kid or just really good at suspending my disbelief, that would freak me right the hell out.
Killer bunnies: run for the hills!
The other thing was, I didn't have the heart to laugh. All the actors were so earnest; they really wanted their movie to be a scary one. Yes, it is bad. Yes, it is ridiculous. But it didn't quite make it to So Bad It's Good territory because I don't think there was a single actor who wasn't at least competent. (Maybe the two little kids, but child actors who can actually act are few and far between as it is.)
I felt like if I laughed, somewhere Rory Calhoun's ghost would shed a tear and not know why.

End of line.
-Sally