bUNNEY

As Halloween approaches, you’ll be hit from all sides with tales of ghosts, witches, vampires, monsters, and other assorted scary icons. But none can be more terrifying than bunny rabbits!

1. Gargoyle Rabbit

This terrifying gargoyle is known as the Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle. He perches above a solicitor’s office behind St. Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle, England. No one knows why he is there, or what makes him glare with such evil. Image by Leo Reynolds.

2. Giant Mutant Rabbits

The 1972 film Night of the Lepus is the definitive monster bunny movie. Plagued by too many rabbits, a community turns to scientists who experiment on the rabbits to keep them from reproducing. An escaped rabbit reproduces anyway, and the results are huge carnivorous mutants that eat anything in their way, including humans!

3. Were-Rabbit

In the 2005 claymation film Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a mysterious nocturnal rabbit is raiding a community’s vegetable gardens, threatening the annual vegetable contest. It turns out that the hero of the story is suffering from a curse (brought on by his own machinery) that causes him to turn into a giant rabbit when he is exposed to moonlight!

4. Vampire Rabbit

Bunnicula, the Vampire Rabbit was a 1982 animated ABC Weekend Special based on a series of children’s books by James Howe. Bunnicula was a family pet who sucked the juices out of vegetables. Not all that frightening in reality -unless you’re a vegetable. Nevertheless, Bunnicula can sprout bat wings, fly, and move things with the power of his mind.

5. Killer Rabbit

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog guards the entrance to the cave of Caerbannog in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yes, he may look like a innocent little fluffball, but he can bite your head off before you even realize it, as he did Bors, Gawain, and Ector in the movie. Run away! Run away! The Killer Rabbit also appears in the musical Spamalot. You can purchase a Killer Rabbit here.

6. Imaginary Rabbit

Evil rabbits can even invade our thoughts! The 2001 movie Donnie Darko left many with nightmares of imaginary human-size rabbits, and not the benign imaginary friend we met in the movie Harvey. The apparition of a 6-foot rabbit named Frank saves Donnie Darko’s life and tells him the world will end in 28 days. Frank incites Donnie into committing criminal acts -and why not, if the world is going to end anyway?

7. Versatile Rabbits

Bunnies can portray any evil character, as they demonstrate in the 30-second Bunnies Theater. See bunnies perform in Alien, The Shining, Freddie vs. Jason, Night of the LIving Dead, Saw, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (as well as non-scary films) at Angry Alien.

8. Swamp Rabbit

Not all killer rabbits are fictional. In April of 1979, president Jimmy Carter was fishing near his home in Plains, Georgia when he was attacked by a swamp rabbit! The rabbit swam toward the president’s boat and tried to board. Carter had to fend it off with an oar. Press secretary Jody Powell is quoted from his 1986 book The Other Side of the Story:

The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon climbing into the Presidential boat.

After some objected that rabbits can’t swim, a picture of the incident was produced, clearly showing the rabbit swimming. The rabbit’s political affiliation is still unknown.
Obviously, bunny rabbits are out to get us. Beware!