MovieChat Forums > Night of the Lepus (1972) Discussion > It's a satire/send-up of Classic Drive-I...

It's a satire/send-up of Classic Drive-In fare!

posted 17 years ago by Fargo_North
9 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this movie on TCM tonight and I read some reviews here after it ended and my opinion is it was intended as a satire/spoof of the Classic "Giant Creatures Gone Amok" movies of the 1950's! Definitely NOT meant to be taken seriously as many reviewers and discussions seem to think. The movie uses cliches, situations and character stereotypes from those movies, in fact it even makes a self-reference in the scene where the Sheriff goes to the Drive-In theatre (remember them?) and rallies the movie goers to fight the approaching horde of Monster rabbits! The Producer and Director however, failed to realize the opportunity to make this scene even MORE self-referential by showing one of the movies they were spoofing like "Them!", "The Amazing Colossal Man" or "The Blob" on the movie screen instead of the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon!

"...and your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!!"

[–] smarcusaurelius 17 years ago

Did anyone catch the name of the movie on the marquee outside of the drive in?

[–] soncoman 16 years ago

The marquee at the drive in says "Metro Goldwyn Mayer Presents 'Every Little Crook and Nanny'"

[–] mr_hunchback 17 years ago

For anyone hooked on entertainment media during the 70s, the idea that this film would be a spoof would have gone way under the radar. There were tons of generic all-star disaster films and TV shows in those years and the ones that were supposed to be satire slapped viewers a mile wide with the humor of their intentions. No, this is no "serious" bit of filmmaking, its just another quick-buck cliche bag that blew it's budget on aging stars and used what little was left on special effects. I'm betting only the tech guys in the editing and effects studios were laughing. No one else would have known what the rabbits would look like during the location shoot (probably not even the director or producer), so they played it straight. And I'm sure the joke was lost on many of the backers after it was finally edited together and screened. Looks great today, but in the overcrowded disaster genre of the early 70s, it had to stack-up against Towering Inferno.

[–] Fargo_North 17 years ago

So are you saying that you believe it was intended as an attempt at a serious horror movie?!?

...and your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!!

[–] preppy-3 17 years ago

Actually it WAS intended as serious. Heck it's based on a serious novel!!! Janet Leigh herself admits it was horrendous but says it READ better than it played. She pointed out that nobody thought it through--giant bunny rabbits just aren't scary! I can admit it seems hard to believe that they thought it would work--but they did.

[–] Fargo_North 17 years ago

I agree, it must've looked a lot better on paper than on film.

...and your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!!

[–] Fargo_North 17 years ago

I just checked Badmovies.org and according to a post there, the book itself actually IS a political satire about Australia going to war against the rest of the world and unleashing a herd of giant killer rabbits.

...and your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!!

[–] McQualude 16 years ago

It may have been meant as a parody but that doesn't make it funny or entertaining. It was actually much better than I expected but poorly paced and edited.

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/classic_60s_scifi/

[–] FortySecondStreetFreak 16 years ago

YOU...ARE...WRONG.

Go away.