Giant bunnies are not scary. MGM learned that the hard way with the 1972 schlock film Night of the Lepus. No amount of fake blood or artificial saliva could turn those rabbits into real monsters, and the brief moments when actors in bunny suits attacked their co-stars looked like some kind of “Meet the Easter Bunny” mall event gone horribly awry. (“Here comes Peter cottontail, and he’s headed right for us! Run!”)

The stilted acting, the harebrained plot, the hordes of rabbits smeared with goo – Night of the Lepus was simply awful, but there is one subtle aspect of the film that, as a natural history nerd, really bugs me. The giant rabbits