#Gene R. Kearney

[disease]

SILENT SNOW SECRET SNOW [1964] DIRECTOR: GENE R. KEARNEY

[adamwatchesmovies]

Night of the Lepus (1972)

If you seek out bad movies, you’ve probably heard of Night of the Lepus. This means - I’m sorry to say it - the best part of the movie has already been spoiled for you. Even if you don’t know why this movie was doomed from the start, it’s only good for so many laughs. While you’ll have plenty of opportunities to ridicule what’s happening on-screen, I doubt this film will become a new favorite.

To humanely reduce the rabbit population ravaging rancher Cole Hillman's fields, scientists Roy and Gerry Bennet (Stuart Whitman and Janey Leigh, as compelling as a couple of lettuce heads) genetically modify the animals to make them less fertile. When their daughter, Amanda (Melanie Fullerton) releases a test subject into the wild, the state is soon overrun by giant Lepus timidus.

When rabbits were introduced to Australia in 1859, no one could’ve foreseen the damage they would cause to the continent's flora and fauna. The incident inspired the horror-comedy novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit, whose tone was completely lost upon screenplay writers Don Holliday and Gene R. Kearney. With the help of director William F. Claxton, they are trying to scare us using giant bunnies. You’d think someone would’ve raised their hands and questioned the decision. Maybe someone did at some point and to show them who's boss, this film takes the premise as if it were gospel. When the army calls for all residents to roll up their windows for fear of the giant, mutated rabbits stampeding their way, they should be laughing their eyebrows off. Instead, the people in this movie take it completely seriously, following every order to the letter without fail.

Incompetently directed, Night of the Lepus doesn’t appear to know how it could frighten audiences even if its life depended on it. Every time you see the titular monsters bounding through the tiny streets, all you can do is “awww” or laugh. There are never any ominous or moody shots. The tension is non-existent. When the film ends, you’ll be shocked. Was that it? There’s no way that was the climax. It was so easy!

Not helping the picture are the weak special effects. I can give a pass to the miniatures - how else would they have made the creatures look big? But you can clearly see the seams in several of the composite shots and whenever we get a close-up of someone fighting for their life as a giant rabbit attempts to chew their arms off, you think you’re watching a tussle between a drunken fan and the baseball team’s mascot. It’s pathetic. The actors underreact as they are about to die and when they’re calm and collected, the performances are awful.

This is one of the dullest horror movies I’ve ever seen - or it would be if it weren’t for the hugely misguided and idiotic premise. Actually, it is still fairly boring because what’s wrong about it is obvious and consistent. A true bad movie classic like Plan 9 From Outer Space keeps finding new ways to be bad. It surprises you. This movie? Not so much. After about 15 minutes, you’ve seen the range all the major actors have and after a couple of shots of the beasts chowing down on people (well, we don’t really see it, but we see the attacks and aftermath), you fully understand why this film isn't going to work. Night of the Lepus is worth seeing once so you can say you’re part of the club but don’t expect to return to this movie over and over. (On DVD, August 16, 2019)

[squirrelfm]

"Rub his foot while your at it, honey, and see what kind of luck that brings us. As a matter of fact, rub all four of them." ~ Gary Bennett

[moviesandmania]

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972) Reviews of giant mutant rabbits horror

‘There was no limit to the Horror… no end to the’ Night of the Lepus is a 1972 American science fiction horror film about marauding giant mutant rabbits attacking farmers and their families. Directed by William F. Claxton (Twilight Zone episodes) from a screenplay written by Don Holliday and Gene R. Kearney, based on the 1964 science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit. The movie stars…

[thebabysittersguidetoexorcisms]

[adalinde]

Sue Lyon as Betsy

Night Gallery (TV-show), 1971

Ep. "Miss Lovecraft Sent Me" by Gene R. Kearney

[perception-de-ambiguity]

my top 111 first viewings of 2017

(pictured films in bold)

1) Reality's Invisible (Robert E. Fulton, 1971)

2) 화엄경 / Passage to Buddha (Jang Sun-woo, 1993)

3) 河童のクゥと夏休み / Summer Days With Coo (Keiichi Hara, 2007)

4) E V E R Y T H I N G (David OReilly, 2017)

5) Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch, 2017)

6) Path of Cessation(?) (Robert E. Fulton, 1974)

7) Gambling, Gods and LSD (Peter Mettler, 2002)

8) "Short Films by Robert Fulton" (Robert E. Fulton, various)

9) 边走边唱 / Life on a String (Chen Kaige, 1991)

10) 50 Feet of String (Leighton Pierce, 1995)

11) មុនដំបូងខ្មែរក្រហមសម្លាប់ប៉ារបស់ខ្ / First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Angelina Jolie; second unit director & director of photography Alexander Witt, 2017)

12) the KILLING of a SACRED DEER (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2017)

13) 百日紅～Miss HOKUSAI～ / Miss Hokusai (Keiichi Hara, 2015)

14) Nazar (Mani Kaul, 1990)

15) Ад / Põrgu / Hell (Rein Raamat, 1983)

16) Manoel dans l'île des merveilles / Manoel on the Island of Marvels / Manuel on the Island of Wonders (Raoul Ruiz, 1984)

17) Odchádza clovek / A Man Leaves Us / The Man is Leaving (Martin Slivka, 1968)

18) 風月 / Temptress Moon (Chen Kaige, 1996)

19) Krisha (Trey Edward Shults, 2015)

20) Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

21) Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952)

22) A Reflection of Fear (William A. Fraker, 1972)

23) mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017)

24) Le tout nouveau testament / The Brand New Testament (Jaco Van Dormael, 2015)

25) Une femme a passé / A Woman Passed By (René Jayet, 1928)

26) Good Time (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2017)

27) Le pays des sourds / In the Land of the Deaf (Nicolas Philibert, 1992)

28) Munchsferatu (Julien Lahmi, 2017)

29) Silent Snow, Secret Snow (Gene R. Kearney, 1964)

30) માટી માણસ / The Mind of Clay / Mati Manas / Maati Manas (Mani Kaul, 1985)

31) Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974)

32) Rekni mi neco o sobe - René / Tell Me Something About Yourself: Rene (Helena Trestíková, 1992)

33) L'amour à la mer / Love at Sea (Guy Gilles, 1964)

34) सिद्धेश्वरी / Siddeshwari (Mani Kaul, 1990)

35) The Passing (Bill Viola, 1992)

36) 霸王別姬 / Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1993)

37) Play for Today: "The Lie" (Alan Bridges; written by Ingmar Bergman, 1970)

38) 另一種教育 / Lessons from a Calf (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1991)

39) उसकी रोटी / Uski Roti / His Daily Bread (Mani Kaul, 1970)

40) Simon Killer (Antonio Campos, 2012)

41) 金刚经 / The Poet and the Singer / Diamond Sutra (Bi Gan, 2012)

42) 青梅竹马 / green plums and a bamboo horse / Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985)

43) Docteur Jekyll et les femmes / The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (Walerian Borowczyk, 1981)

44) "Leighton Pierce - short films" (all the ones I've watched)

45) Elsewhere (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2001)

46) I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like (Bill Viola, 1986)

47) No Man of Her Own (Mitchell Leisen, 1950)

48) Without Memory (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1996)

49) Pointilly / Le château de Pointilly (Adolfo Arrieta, 1972)

50) Otello / Othello (Sergei Yutkevich, 1956)

51) The Fourth Dimension (T. Minh-ha Trinh, 2001)

52) Deadfall (Bryan Forbes, 1968)

53) En kärlekshistoria / A Swedish Love Story (Roy Andersson, 1970)

54) Code Blue (Urszula Antoniak, 2011)

55) ...Geist und ein wenig Glück (Ulrich Schamoni, 1965)

56) Mulholland Dr. - Pilot (David Lynch, 1999)

57) Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2004)

58) Dawn of an Evil Millennium / Dawn of an Evil Millennium: The Trailer (Damon Packard, 1988)

59) The Pursuit of What Was (Huang Ya-li, 2009)

60) Фабрика / Fabrika / Factory (Sergey Loznitsa, 2004)

61) カラフル / Colourful / Colorful (Keiichi Hara, 2010)

62) Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (Louie Schwartzberg, 2013)

63) Cruel Optimism (Paul Clipson, 2017)

64) A Woman's Tale (Paul Cox, 1991)

65) Chargez ! (Johanna Vaude, 2017)

66) 시 / Poetry / Shi (Lee Chang-dong, 2010)

67) Eastern Avenue (Peter Mettler, 1985)

68) Nothing Personal (Urszula Antoniak, 2009)

69) High-Tech Exploration par Johanna Vaude (Johanna Vaude, 2016)

70) The Reflecting Pool (Bill Viola, 1979)

71) Retour en Normandie / Back to Normandy (Nicolas Philibert, 2007)

72) Les films rêvés / Dreaming Film (Eric Pauwels, 2010)

73) Dream Enclosure (Sandy Ding, 2014)

74) 白い朝 / Ako / AKO: 16 ans japonaise / White Morning (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1965)

75) The Unnamed (Huang Ya-li, 2010)

76) Twilight's Last Gleaming (Robert Aldrich, 1977)

77) Dzieje grzechu / The Story of Sin (Walerian Borowczyk, 1975)

78) Liebelei (Max Ophüls, 1933)

79) 달마가 동쪽으로 간 까닭은 / Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (Bae Yong-kyun, 1989)

80) The Wheel of Becoming (Bill Viola, 1977)

81) Abendland (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2011)

82) Frost (Fred Kelemen, 1997)

83) Arrière-saison (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2016)

84) 海よりもまだ深く / After the Storm (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2016)

85) 幻の光 / Maborosi (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1995)

86) Look Inside The Ghost Machine (Péter Lichter, 2010)

87) Chez moi / My Home (Phuong Mai Nguyen, 2014)

88) दुविधा / Duvidha / Indecision / In Two Minds (Mani Kaul, 1973) 

89) Emperor of the North Pole (Robert Aldrich, 1973) 

90) Le roman d'un tricheur / The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936)

91) Le convoi / Fast Convoy (Frédéric Schoendoerffer, 2016)

92) Deserts (Bill Viola, 1994)

93) Charles Manson Superstar (Nikolas Schreck, 1989)

94) 空山灵雨 / Raining in the Mountain (King Hu, 1979)

95) Voda a práca / Water and Labor (Martin Slivka, 1964)

96) Impressions: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks (Jason S., 2017) 

97) Контакт / Kontakt / Contact (Vladimdir Tarasov, 1978)

98) Fountain of Dreams (Jordan Belson, 1984)

99) Les perles de la couronne / The Pearls of the Crown (Sacha Guitry, 1937) 

100) Fassbinder: at elske uden at kræve / Fassbinder - lieben ohne zu fordern (Christian Braad Thomsen, 2015)

101) Adventure Time with Finn & Jake: Food Chain (Masaaki Yuasa, 2014)

102) 海街diary / Our Little Sister (Kore-eda Hirokazu, 2015)

103) Metachaos (Alessandro Bavari, 2010)

104) Love's Refrain (Paul Clipson, 2016)

105) Le bercail (Marcel L'Herbier, 1919)

106) Never Let Go (John Guillermin, 1960)

107) 오아시스 / Oasis (Lee Chang-dong, 2002)

108) Hounds of Love (Ben Young, 2016)

109) We hear the distant ring of Saturn (Dalibor Baric, 2016)

110) Faisons un rêve... / Let's Have a Dream (Sacha Guitry, 1936)

111) 蝴蝶夫人 / Madame Butterfly (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2009)

[brokehorrorfan]

In addition to the Drag Me to Hell details revealed earlier today, Scream Factory has announced four new titles coming to Blu-ray in February: Games, The Night Walker, Gate II, and Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Games will be released on Blu-ray on February 13. The 1967 psychological thriller is directed by Curtis Harrington (Night Tide) and written by Gene R. Kearney (Night of the Lepus). Simone Signoret, James Caan, and Katharine Ross star.

The Night Walker will be released on Blu-ray on February 20. The  1964 psychological thriller is directed by William Castle (House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts) and written by Robert Bloch (Psycho). Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Hayden Rorke, Judi Meredith, Rochelle Hudson, and Lloyd Bochner star.

Gate II will be released on Blu-ray on February 20. The 1990 sequel to The Gate sees the return of both director Tibor Takács and writer Michael Nankin. Louis Tripp reprises his role as Terry, starring alongside Pamela Segall.

Colossus: The Forbin Project will be released on Blu-ray on February 27. The 1970 science fiction thriller is directed by Joseph Sargent (Jaws: The Revenge) and written by James Bridges (The China Syndrome). Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, and William Schallert star.

Specs for these titles are in progress and will be announced at a later date.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 37, 2017

Decisions in motion: passive body acceleration modulates hand choice. Bakker, R. S., Weijer, R. H. A., van Beers, R. J., Selen, L. P. J., & Medendorp, W. P. (2017). Journal of Neurophysiology, 117(6), 2250–2261.

Thalamic projections sustain prefrontal activity during working memory maintenance. Bolkan, S. S., Stujenske, J. M., Parnaudeau, S., Spellman, T. J., Rauffenbart, C., Abbas, A. I., … Kellendonk, C. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 987–996.

Reinstated episodic context guides sampling-based decisions for reward. Bornstein, A. M., & Norman, K. A. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 997–1003.

Improvements in Attention and Decision-Making Following Combined Behavioral Training and Brain Stimulation. Filmer, H. L., Varghese, E., Hawkins, G. E., Mattingley, J. B., & Dux, P. E. (2017). Cerebral Cortex, 27(7), 3675–3682.

Echo-acoustic flow shapes object representation in spatially complex acoustic scenes. Greiter, W., & Firzlaff, U. (2017). Journal of Neurophysiology, 117(6), 2113–2124.

Daily modulation of the speed–accuracy trade-off. Gueugneau, N., Pozzo, T., Darlot, C., & Papaxanthis, C. (2017). Neuroscience, 356, 142–150.

Causal evidence for retina-dependent and -independent visual motion computations in mouse cortex. Hillier, D., Fiscella, M., Drinnenberg, A., Trenholm, S., Rompani, S. B., Raics, Z., … Roska, B. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 960–968.

Breaking down hierarchies of decision-making in primates. Hyafil, A., & Moreno-Bote, R. (2017). eLife, 6, e16650.

Prefrontal Dopamine D1 and D2 Receptors Regulate Dissociable Aspects of Decision Making via Distinct Ventral Striatal and Amygdalar Circuits. Jenni, N. L., Larkin, J. D., & Floresco, S. B. (2017). Journal of Neuroscience, 37(26), 6200–6213.

Systems-based analysis of dendritic nonlinearities reveals temporal feature extraction in mouse L5 cortical neurons. Kalmbach, B. E., Gray, R., Johnston, D., & Cook, E. P. (2017). Journal of Neurophysiology, 117(6), 2188–2208.

Homeostatic circuits selectively gate food cue responses in insular cortex. Livneh, Y., Ramesh, R. N., Burgess, C. R., Levandowski, K. M., Madara, J. C., Fenselau, H., … Andermann, M. L. (2017). Nature, 546(7660), 611–616.

Relation between choice-induced preference change and depression. Miyagi, M., Miyatani, M., & Nakao, T. (2017). PLOS ONE, 12(6), e0180041.

Brain circuit-gene expression relationships and neuroplasticity of multisensory cortices in blind children. Ortiz-Terán, L., Diez, I., Ortiz, T., Perez, D. L., Aragón, J. I., Costumero, V., … Sepulcre, J. (2017). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(26), 6830–6835.

Flexible information routing by transient synchrony. Palmigiano, A., Geisel, T., Wolf, F., & Battaglia, D. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 1014–1022.

Identification of a motor-to-auditory pathway important for vocal learning. Roberts, T. F., Hisey, E., Tanaka, M., Kearney, M. G., Chattree, G., Yang, C. F., … Mooney, R. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 978–986.

A cerebellum-like circuit in the auditory system cancels responses to self-generated sounds. Singla, S., Dempsey, C., Warren, R., Enikolopov, A. G., & Sawtell, N. B. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 943–950.

Egocentric and allocentric representations in auditory cortex. Town, S. M., Brimijoin, W. O., & Bizley, J. K. (2017). PLOS Biology, 15(6), e2001878.

Cortical gamma band synchronization through somatostatin interneurons. Veit, J., Hakim, R., Jadi, M. P., Sejnowski, T. J., & Adesnik, H. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 951–959.

Attention-related changes in correlated neuronal activity arise from normalization mechanisms. Verhoef, B.-E., & Maunsell, J. H. R. (2017). Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 969–977.

Serial, parallel and hierarchical decision making in primates. Zylberberg, A., Lorteije, J. A., Ouellette, B. G., De Zeeuw, C. I., Sigman, M., & Roelfsema, P. (2017). eLife, 6, e17331.

[um-mar-vazio]

PHANTOM OF WHAT OPERA? Written & Directed by Gene R. Kearney A comic sketch about the Phantom of the Opera and his surprised—and surprising—victim. Leslie Nielsen as the Phantom Mary Ann Beck as the Beautiful Prisoner

[docrotten]

Night of the Lepus (1972) – Episode 59 – Decades of Horror 1970s

“Rabbits aren't your bag, Roy.” It’s pretty safe to say rabbits aren’t anyone’s bag in Night of the Lepus, especially the pseudo-savage, overgrown, mutant versions in this film. The Black Saint was unable to join us for this episode and Doc Rotten is still on hiatus, diligently working on the next issues of the Gruesome Magazine quarterly print and electronic editions. Sometimes, you just can’t do everything you want to do, can you, guys? In the interim, your regular host, Jeff Mohr, is joined by the capable and knowledgeable Bill Mulligan, film director, and Chad Hunt, comic book artist/writer and co-host of Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast. Join them as they weave their way through the killer rabbits of Night of the Lepus.

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 59 – Night of the Lepus (1972)

Night of the Lepus is director William F. Claxton’s only entry in the horror film. Most of his experience is in the western genre, so it’s no surprise that most of the cast are frequent performers in westerns. Highly recognizable leads and supporting cast are played by Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, Stuart Whitman, DeForest Kelley, and Paul Fix, who all give it the old college try, but they don’t have much with which to work.

The screenplay is written by Don Holliday and Gene R. Kearney and is based on The Year of the Angry Rabbit (1964), an Australian, comic/horror/science fiction novel by Russell Braddon. Though the plot is outrageous, the novel is appreciated for its comic shadings. In Night of the Lepus, however, the filmmakers forsake any attempt at humor and go straight for outright horror, a fatal mistake. Unfortunately, no matter how ominous the script or intense the acting, the special effects are not up to the task of inciting horror from domestic rabbits performing on miniature sets.

Despite its flaws, Night of the Lepus still holds a special place in the hearts of the members of your faithful Grue Crew. Jeff Mohr has on an ongoing bromance with Rory Calhoun. Though he agrees it is a terrible film, Bill Mulligan professes a love for many of the images in Night of the Lepus and uses them in his party videos. Now there’s a party we’d love to attend! Chad Hunt, well, Chad Hunt can’t figure out why, but when he’s channel surfing and runs across Night of the Lepus, he can’t keep from pausing to watch the proverbial trainwreck.

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans:  leave us a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at theblacksaint@decadesofhorror.com or docrotten@decadesofhorror.com.

Check out this episode!

[thebabysittersguidetoexorcisms]

[thebabysittersguidetoexorcisms]

[thebabysittersguidetoexorcisms]

[um-mar-vazio]

PHANTOM OF WHAT OPERA? Written & Directed by Gene R. Kearney A comic sketch about the Phantom of the Opera and his surprised—and surprising—victim. Leslie Nielsen as the Phantom Mary Ann Beck as the Beautiful Prisoner