I did something the other night that I haven't done in ages: veg out for an entire evening in front of the television. But this was a special occasion. Mister Oblivious had turned me on to some sale DVDs, which I purchased without hesitation. Yes, both films were in my much loved "so bad they're good" category: Dracula AD 1972 & Night of the Lepus.
Dracula AD 1972 was an attempt on the part of Hammer Films to breathe new life into its vampire film franchise. I'm not sure how well the film played back in the day, but the crazy 70s fashions, awful rock music, and depiction of teen life all add up for a pretty entertaining laugh fest. As usual, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee elevate the material into something better than it is!
The second film on my double bill was the legendary Night of the Lepus. I've wanted to see this film in its entirety since I read about it in the Golden Turkey Awards as a little kid. It's one of those horror movies where an animal species grows to monstrous proportions, in this case rabbits.
No, I'm not joking! Rabbits. The film has pretty good acting (except for the kids) and great special effects work. The problem is that no matter how big you make a rabbit, it still is a rabbit. (Really, they could have stuck about any other little animal in there and made the movie work. If it would have been a herd of giant rampaging tarantulas I would have probably peed myself.)
The thing that amazes me is that Night of the Lepus isn't some low budget wet fart of a movie from American-International or Crown. It was by MGM, the same studio that produced Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and Doctor Zhivago! All I can assume is that the MGM lion must have been smoking a lot of dope back in 1972 to greenlight this one!
People either get my obsession with bad movies or they don't. If you don't, run away from these movies as fast as you can! But if you are a like minded aficionado of all cinematic things cheesy you should really add these to your collection.
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