http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HairRaisingHare

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Ah, rabbits. Who could possibly think of a more cute, cuddly, and harmless creature? With their wriggling noses, comically long ears, and fuzzy little tails, they're just so adorable!

Except, of course, when they aren't.

Twisting the easily-recognized and almost universally-beloved form of the rabbit into something terrifying is a common type of subverted cuteness, because we all have the expectation of rabbits as sweet and innocent. Sometimes this is done by making the rabbit carnivorous or otherwise extremely dangerous, but just making it look or act scary is enough to have it fall into this trope. Also, anything that plays the rabbit for horror falls in this trope, which means that stuffed animals and people in costumes all apply.

Of course, in Real Life, rabbits aren't always harmless. As wild animals, they can be pretty vicious when they need to be, particularly around mating season when fighting off rival suitors. Those big goofy teeth aren't just there to look cute and chop vegetables. They can really do some damage.

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The Trope Namer is the 1946 Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodies short of the same name, though the short itself doesn't really produce any examples.

See also: Grotesque Cute, Killer Rabbit (which, despite its name, covers all cute but deadly animals, not just rabbits), Rascally Rabbit (where the rabbits use their wits, rather than violence, to overcome their enemies) as well as Devious Dolphins for another instance of a normally cute animal getting this treatment. Contrast Righteous Rabbit.

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Examples

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Anime & Manga

Art

Russian surrealist painter Vasya Lozhkin frequently includes examples of this ◊ in his paintings.

Comics

Fan Works

Angel Bunny in Divided Rainbow is nothing short of merciless, uniting all his fellow animals against Rainbow Dash in a nonstop campaign of torment.

Killer rabbits, inspired by a cryptozoological creature in Islamic legend called the al'miraj,and enhanced with a liberal dose of Caerbannog, appear in the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal. Travellers in the klatchian desert have to fight off a pack of them in Gap Year Adventures.

All of the Bonnie variants in Something Always Remains, particularly the current one In-Universe and the once-human Bonnie who currently haunts the Spring Bonnie suit .

Films — Animated

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live Action TV

Music

The electronica/darkwave band The Birthday Massacre practically live and breathe this trope. Every album art features at least one Franken-bunny. Usually feature several.

The rabbits in Alice Human Sacrifice.

The music video for the song "Sour Girl" by the Stone Temple Pilots features some Teletubby-esque rabbits that are pretty scary - or at least, creepy.

The artwork from Eths' 4th album, Teratologie, features dead rabbits. Flayed dead rabbits.

Echo & the Bunnymen is the name of a creepy, dark post-punk band.

Voltaire's song Bunnypocalypse in which hordes of undead rabbits overrun the world.

The mascot for digital hardcore band Rabbit Junk is a grinning rabbit with razor-sharp teeth and a sutured forehead.

The music video to song Voracity by japanese pop rock band Myth & Roid shows a rabbit mask wearing Humanoid Abomination haunting creepy woods.

Mythology

In the Popul Vuh, a Maya epic story, the evil gods of the underworld have a rabbit scribe. Depictions of the court of the underworld usually include it.

The al'miraj of Islamic/Arabic legend inhabits a remote island and is said to resemble a rabbit, but with insane red eyes and a lethal spiked horn on its head. It is also so dangerous and territorial that sorcery is the recommended way to deal with it. Please note that the Qu`ran strictly forbids all forms of sorcery.

In some stories, the jackalope is a savage and aggressive creature.

Pinball

The Enchanted Hares of Magic Girl are anything but cute and fluffy.

Tabletop Games

Theater

Before a significant Retool dropped them, Cirque du Soleil's magic show effort Criss Angel BeLIEve had tons of these once the action shifted to Angel's mind when he was "injured" in a stunt gone wrong.

Toys

One kit in Aurora's Monster Scenes line of models, entitled "Gruesome Goodies," was a kind of Mad Scientist Laboratory set which featured among other thing a fierce-looking rabbit in a big jar. Although most of the stuff in the kit was intended to be used with Monster Scenes' Dr. Deadly, some promotional materials suggested the rabbit was apparently supposed to be used as an accessory for the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kit (which was only released in Canada for some reason); the idea being that the rabbit had been given some of the "Jekyll juice" as a test.

TV Tropes

The Easter Bunny image ◊ on Accidental Nightmare Fuel. To hammer the point in even further, there appears to be a severed leg with a child's sneaker below the table beside him.

Video Games

Webcomics

Web Original

Western Animation

Real Life