Night of the Lepus

Meet Tucson actress Francesca Jarvis, one of the stars of the film, at a pre-film Q&A! In addition to being attacked by giant rabbits in Night of the Lepus, Francesca has also appeared in numerous films shot in Tucson and Arizona, including Junior Bonner with Steve McQueen, White Line Fever with Jan-Michael Vincent, and the Oscar-winning Lilies of the Field with Sidney Poitier!

There’s big, nose-wiggling trouble this Easter when giant bunny rabbits terrorize Southern Arizona in the hilarious 1972 camp classic, Night of the Lepus, filmed right here in Tucson!  Hippity Hoppity Horror comes to Ajo, Sonoita and the University of Arizona campus, and the holiday will never be the same. See it on the big screen in glorious 35mm film!  Free Easter candy while supplies last!

A hopping herd of giant, bloodthirsty bunny rabbits terrorize the Arizona desert in this campy 1972 animals-gone-wild shocker! In Night of the Lepus, a scientist couple (played by Stuart Whitman and Psycho-star Janet Leigh) try to put the brakes on an epidemic of massive bunny herds that have been eating all the crops of local ranchers. However, their “weird science” hormone experiments don’t seem to be working.  But when their young daughter accidentally lets one of the test rabbits escape, the hormones kick in. This drug-addled bunny naturally starts mating like crazy, grows to mammoth proportions, and before you can say “Here Comes Peter Cottontail,” an angry family of monster rabbits are wreaking bloody havoc on the residents of a small desert town.  Eventually the National Guard is called in to keep the creepy critters at bay, but is Arizona doomed to become a rabbit-ravaged wasteland?  Also starring Rory Calhoun and Star Trek’s own DeForest Kelley, Night of the Lepus is a hilarious horror hoot that must be seen to be believed! (Dir. by William F. Claxton, 1972, USA, 88 mins., Rated PG)