10 WTF Ideas Turned Into Horror Movies
4. Night Of The Lepus
Nobody had a clue what Night of the Lepus was about when it hit theatres back in 1972. Even though the creature feature centred around a town being terrorised by mutant monsters, the trailers and posters never revealed what the Lepus looked like.
If horror veterans wanted to learn the truth back in the day, they had to go see the movie on the big screen (or ask somebody who had the misfortune of watching it).
As soon as the Lepus reveals itself, it's obvious why the titular monsters remained hidden in the promotions. It turns out the Lepus are (get ready for this), giant bunnies. To the shock of nobody, Night of the Lepus was torn apart by critics, due to how hilariously unintimidating the "monsters" were. (Smearing ketchup on the wascally wabbits to simulate blood didn't help either.)
Being the devil's advocate, this premise could work if prosthetics or animatronics were used to make the carnivorous cottontails look unnerving.
Instead, the filmmakers just used ordinary rabbits (except in certain shots where the creature is clearly a man in a furry costume). And since rabbits look freaking adorable, viewers will be gushing over the cuddly critters when they're supposed to be scared out of their minds.