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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!
Comments (23)
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Don’t forget the Fascist Rabbit Warren of Efrafa and General Woundwort in Watership Down. They were a mean bunch.
posted by Joe F. on 10-16-2008 at 7:17 am
“Bunnies arent just cute like everybody supposes,
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses,
And whats with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies, Bunnies, it must be bunnies!”
posted by Dai on 10-16-2008 at 7:42 am
Thanks, Dai — that’s going to be in my head all day now…
/or maybe midgets
posted by maggie on 10-16-2008 at 7:55 am
I cannot say how much I loved the “Bunnicula” books when I was a kid! I had my own copies and read them over and over. I’m totally sending the link to this page to my mother and sisters; they raise Netherland dwarf rabbits. Tiny things, but they could totally be evil in disguise!
posted by Amy D on 10-16-2008 at 8:15 am
I had a rabbit named yettanotherdamnrabbit (yetta for short)that would only eat meat like sliced turkey it was vicious….my friend tried to pet it after I warned hi not to and he still has a scar shaped like buck bunny teeth from where he was attacked by the crazy thing….my crazy alcholic aunt that I lived with would get trashed and say it was ungrateful and evil then proceed to throw it out in the snow ….I rescued that canibal rbbit like 25 times in the winter….not sure why it always tried to bite me when i did
posted by KiKi on 10-16-2008 at 9:11 am
Dai – you beat me to it! :-)
posted by mri on 10-16-2008 at 9:26 am
Bunnical books are amazing!
posted by Anna on 10-16-2008 at 9:29 am
I have a bunny of my own. His name is Dexter and since I don’t keep him in a cage, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and he’s sitting by my head, watching me.
posted by Laura on 10-16-2008 at 9:36 am
Doesn’t a bunny finally kill Anya in the Buffy finale during the huge fight?
I always loved how Anya was terrified of bunnies…so funny.
posted by Lilly on 10-16-2008 at 9:56 am
What about the Bunny Man? Urban legend, but creepy nonetheless.
posted by Megan on 10-16-2008 at 10:29 am
Frank the Bunny
posted by joanne on 10-16-2008 at 10:44 am
Ever see the bunnies on the Ravin Rabbids game? They are creepy and cute at the same time.
Also,
“That’s no ordinary bunny rabbit.”
posted by Erin on 10-16-2008 at 11:13 am
I’m a big fan of the Newcastle Vampire bunny, seeing as how it’s in my home town. I was always led to believe that it was installed sometime in the mid-late 1800’s, around the time of the publication of Dracula, as a bit of fun for the locals – I could be wrong though…
posted by Debbie on 10-16-2008 at 11:16 am
I’m with Joe… Those Watership Down rabbits were awful. The killer cartoon rabbits in the movie version were terrifying!
posted by tiffany on 10-16-2008 at 1:01 pm
Anya was killed by a demon, not a bunny. Before she was a vengence demon, she raised rabbits as a human. I watch too much effing television.
(recaptcha: road broth)
posted by Katlillie on 10-16-2008 at 10:01 pm
What about the Trix Rabbit? A pedophile rabbit is the scariest kind of rabbit.
posted by Youwannaseesomethingreallyscary on 10-17-2008 at 8:24 am
Lets not forget Little Bunny Fu Fu. Taking out mice just for fun is just warped.
posted by JoeV on 10-17-2008 at 10:40 am
My college campus is infested with rabbits. It’s always funny to watch freshmen squeal “OOOH! Bunnies!”
And Bunnicula is the best.
posted by Harlequin on 10-17-2008 at 10:58 pm
28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds
posted by kat on 10-18-2008 at 12:09 am
What about the real giant rabbits in Germany? Creepy!
posted by Dawn on 10-19-2008 at 8:12 pm
I’m a lifelong rabbit lover and a former breeder, so this was interesting. I recognized many of them! But the poor “swamp rabbit” was probably just desperate to find some place to get out of the water; rabbits can swim, but they sure don’t like to!
And I used to love the “Bunnicula” books. But, I agree…General Woundwart and Efrafa should have been included.
posted by Kate on 10-22-2008 at 11:26 pm
bunnicula was the best. i totally remember reading those books. and the killer rabbit from monty python was great too. lol.
posted by pookie on 10-26-2008 at 4:34 pm
God, Dal, I think I know that! Anya Jenkins sang that song in BtVS. Hee, hee, hee, man, I never knew it was true.
reCAPTCHA: the deeper
posted by Jen Pen on 2-27-2009 at 9:40 pm