Movies so bad they're good

Why is it that this time of year brings out not just horror movies, but bad horror movies.

Oh, there are good scary flicks to choose from over Halloween weekend, but let's face it, the overwhelming majority of "scary" titles are stinkers. And those that are mediocre are even more difficult to sit through.

The trouble is, these movies just aren't bad enough. What we need are supernova, ultra-bad, unintentionally funny movies of extreme ineptitude.

In other words, movies so bad they're good.

You know, the kind with dialogue so wacky and creatures so bizarre and special effects so cheesy that they're fun in a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or "RiffTrax" kind of way. Only instead of Tom Servo and Crow doing all the kibitzing, you offer your own wisecracks.

Occasionally, when my kids were young, we would watch a bad movie with the sound off and make up our own silly dialogue. Or we'd leave the sound up and just make fun of it as it progressed (pre-"MST3K").

But if the movie was really unbelievably awful, we wouldn't have to do anything — except laugh uproariously at the idiotic things that were said and done on the screen.

I started thinking about this when I received "Night of the Lepus" to review for the Warner Archive Collection (1972, PG, $19.95). This fabulous manufacture-on-demand website for old-movie fans (or old fans of movies) boasts hundreds of older titles that have never been on DVD, each earning a home-video revival thanks to this online store (www.WarnerArchive.com).

When these movies come my way for review, they are usually things I've seen in my deep, dark movie-going past, but "Night of the Lepus" somehow slipped by me when it was released in theaters.

The story has Janet Leigh and Stuart Whitman as married scientists trying to slow an infestation of rabbits on Rory Calhoun's ranchland. But one of their experimental bunnies escapes (thanks to their dopey daughter), which leads to infected rabbits multiplying into mutant hares that terrorize the countryside.