Night of the Lepus (also known as Rabbits) is a 1972 American science fiction horror film directed by William F. Claxton and produced by A.C. Lyles.

Character actors from Westerns the pair had worked on were brought in to star, including Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun and DeForest Kelley.

Widely panned by critics for its silly premise, poor direction, stilted acting and bad special effects, the film's biggest failure is considered to be the inability to make the rabbits seem scary.

Rancher Cole Hillman seeks the help of college president Elgin Clark to combat thousands of rabbits that have invaded the area after their natural predators, coyotes, were killed off.

Elgin asks for the assistance of researchers Roy and Gerry Bennett because they respect Cole's wish to avoid using cyanide to poison the rabbits.

Jackie finds more of the animal tracks in Billy's shed, while Amanda goes into the mine and runs into an enormous rabbit with blood on its face.

Roy and Elgin update Sheriff Cody on the situation and, after realizing the rabbits have escaped the mine, call in the National Guard.

As night falls, the rabbits leave Galanos to continue their rampage, making their way to the main town of Ajo and eating and killing everyone in their path.

They recruit a large group of people at a drive-in theater to help herd the rabbits with their car lights, with assistance from the machine gun fire of the National Guard.

DeForest Kelley and Paul Fix had both played the same role of Chief Medical Officer (although different characters) of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek.

The script for Night of the Lepus was based upon Australian author Russell Braddon's science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit (1964).

In directing Night of the Lepus, he applied the same techniques used in his other films and declined the use of "standard" horror effects that would have enhanced the atmosphere, such as "canted camera angles, dark shadows, [and] eerie music."

"[8] Fellow The Rifleman actor Paul Fix was given the role of the sheriff of the town under siege, while DeForest Kelley, who frequently guest-starred in Westerns, was cast as Elgin Clark, the college president who asked researchers to try to stop the rabbits.

[10] In a July 1972 issue of The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote it was not an "especially memorable movie", that it was typical for the genre of science fiction horror, and that it failed because the rabbits, despite attempts to make them "appear huge and scary, still look like Easter bunnies".

[12] In the Monthly Film Bulletin, Tom Milne felt Night of the Lepus had a promising beginning before moving into a "well-worn horror groove", such as the effort to trap Gerry and Amanda alone in a deserted area for a last-minute rescue.

[13] In the 1977 piece Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, Charles Derry compared it to the earlier successful works The Birds and Willard, particularly the former, noting that both featured a "loveable creature".

[17] Reviewing the title for Classic-Horror.com, Julia Merriam gave Night of the Lepus credit for attempting to be a "socially-conscious eco-horror", but criticized the slow pacing, bad dialog, poor editing with a heavy reliance on stock footage that did not appear to be from the same film, and senseless character actions such as entering a rabbit-filled cave just to photograph them.

[21] A VOD featuring comedic commentary by Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy of RiffTrax (an offshoot of Mystery Science Theater 3000) was released on February 7, 2014.