Leprechaun: Origins *Catching up*

Warwick Davis is still the best thing to happen to this series

A group of four young adults come to a small village in Ireland while on vacation. They walk into a pub, and meet a man that says he can take them to the oldest ruins in the town so the group can get their fix for history knowledge. The man leads them into a small cabin in the woods so they have somewhere to stay overnight, until they can head to the historic sight in the morning (yup, this is the type of movie Cabin in the Woods was satirizing). Unfortunately, the man was using the group as an offering to a leprechaun that has been terrorizing the village for years. The group knows that they must escape the village boundaries to be safe, and leave the town to deal with the menace.

When I heard about this movie I went online stating I had concerns about it, and what do you know my concerns came to fruition. Look, I actually like the old Leprechaun movies, they are a bit of shlock-ey goodness that goes well with a drinking game, and makes me laugh. This movie is not a Leprechaun movie. This movie is what the others never wanted to be, a serious interpretation of the leprechaun myth. I'll have you know my standards were extremely low for this movie, because I knew what I was going into; but, this movie just stepped all over the old series. I like that I am getting treated to a slasher/monster movie again for the first time in years; but, this movie just didn't scare me like the classics of old (which is the only thing I can surmise this movie was trying to do). This isn't going to be a classic like A Nightmare on Elm Street, and it isn't going to be classically bad like the old series. This falls somewhere in that in-between line where it is laughably bad, but not in the way a movie series like The Puppet Master is. All of your favorite old slasher movie tropes are present and accounted for. You've got your "woman running upstairs to get away," you've got your "fumbling with the keys," you've got your "lack of electricity because of XYZ," you've got more tripping in this movie then a paraplegic convention. Normally I count that against a movie, but when they are blatant about it, so wrapped up in making sure that every cliche scene from old horror movies is present, I have to respect them. This movie is not going to win any "story of the year" awards, it is not going to scare you into wetting your shorts, this is the movie that spawned so much liver damage in future generations. This movie gave us a new movie to drink to, and hey that is as good a reason as any to put it into the pantheon of classically bad horror movies. If they change that name, and don't give themselves any ties to the old series I can say this is a good-bad horror movie.

So to go with the theme of the story, the direction here was wonky as well, but in that so bad it is good kind of way. Let's go with camera for starters. Most of the time that camera feels like it is being held by a three year old trying to help daddy at work. Which is great and all for this style of film; but, here is my gripe (even going away from the so bad it is good theme). Instead of them crediting Dylan Postl (AKA Hornswoggle from the WWE), they really should have credited the Loch Ness monster since we get no clear shots of the leprechaun. I'm all for them having made a shitty costume for old Horswoggle to run around in, but they need to embrace it. Someone probably spent hours on this crappy suit they put him in, and we never get to see the damn thing.  Everything else in this movie falls right into pattern, from the music to the art direction; but, this one thing was too much for you guys to admit to? Embrace your faults like The Leprechaun of old, and I could have had a bit more respect for you.

Now we get to the part where I am torn. On the one hand, at least they didn't try to usurp the role Warwick Davis did perfectly, on the other hand I don't want to have a boring mute leprechaun. I want my leprechaun speaking in verse, using an Irish brogue, making crappy one liners. I know no one can follow up the performance Warwick Davis gave, he treated every movie like he was being paid a king's ransom to be their, and never disappointed, but they could have at least tried. So given my current predicament I am going to abstain comment on the performance given by Dylan Postl. He had no lines, and spent most of the movie just walking around in a costume acting sinister, so there is not much to comment on anyway. The rest of the cast is ripe for critical analysis. Our scream queen for the movie is Stephanie Bennett who just does great for not having much experience. she really hammed up her performance and that is all I can ask from a girl in a movie like this. Brendan Fletcher does fine as the background noise, but with a pedigree like his I wanted him to be more front and center. The best performance of the movie has to be given to Garry Chalk, who surprises no one by being the best in this limited cast. He gave us a pretty good Irish brogue, and knew exactly what kind of energy the role called for.

Final Verdict: Pirate it I can't forgive this movie completely for stepping over the good name that was Leprechaun, but it did a little better than horrible as it's own thing. This should give you an idea of how bad movies are that rated lower than this.