Review of Leprechaun (1993) by Vince F — 16 Dec 2009

*out of****.

A juvenile attempt at horror that defines everything I hate about 90ies horror flicks. I own parts 2&3 and on a dreaded impulse, and out of mere boredom, I decided to rent the "original masterpiece" last night just to confirm my suspicions on how much I hate this movie and to indulge in some nostalgia, as I remember owning this as a 9 year old but even then I don't think I was to impressed.

The movie opens with poor old 3rd class farmer, Mr. O' Grady, returning home in a slick limousine, questioned by his spouse, who for some reason refers to her husband as "Mr." (perhaps this could have been a house keeper but the credits confirm she is the misses) on how them poor folk can afford such excessive spending. It turns out that Grady has found a leprechaun and stolen his bag of gold, and they will never have to worry about money again. You don't need to have a grade 3 education to know that the leprechaun has somehow followed him home (this is never explained how) and dispatches the wife, almost dispatchers Mr. O' Grady, but is outwitted and stuffed in a crate, and in one of the movies many lame plot devices, is terrified of 4 leaf clovers, and this is used to keep him in the crate, and before the leprechaun is burned alive, dumb ass Grady has a stroke and doesn't succeed.

Cut to ten years later. Jennifer Aniston and her father are moving in to the old homestead, (a lame country song about clovers and crap overplays). Somehow the leprechaun is still in the crate, patiently waiting to be let loose. After establishing our "character" (very briefly) the leprechaun escapes and wants his gold, dispatching anyone who gets in his way. This plot does not thicken exactly, but it jells.

The characters are all annoying, and the major players are never really in a threat, the leprechaun only dispatches side players (one example is an overlong stalk sequence involving a police officer that totally brings the movie to a dead halt). I don't know what the director was going for with the characters, but they were totally despicable. We have Jennifer Aniston complaining non stop, we have typical male hero who lets his biceps do all the acting, an annoying kid who emphasizes how cool he is by swearing every couple of minutes ("Fuck you Lucky charms" UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!) but the major insult to character development would have to be the adult with a child mentality played by the fat guy from Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure. The movie tries to bring sentimentality from this character, trying to get sympathy for him, but it was so obvious and lame that I hated him more then anyone else. Now on to the leprechaun himself, Warwick Davis must be a good sport, (and must have been behind on the rent), the antics of this villain were loathsome, he's given typical one liners that were embarrassing, and for some reason the director thinks seeing the little dude on all sorts of transportation devices (tricycles, roller skates, pogo sticks, wheel chairs), while filmed in fast motion, is suppose to funny. Too bad it was overdone after the 3rd time and eventually became tedious. The rules regarding him are little hazy as well, he is invincible, but bullets can slow him down, and claims he's powerless without his gold, but still can appear at will, close doors telepathically, and attach dismembered limbs.

The direction is cocky and self proclaimed, with the director having no grasp on suspense, comedy, momentum or style. The color schemes in this movie were horribly tacky, with bright colors and lighting popping up left and right. He also overused the fast motion device. His attempts at comedy would only appeal to five year olds, but even then...

The gore is rarely seen, and when it is shown it's typically karo syrup goop, and the 4 kills that happened, were tiresome without decent pay offs, that overlong cop stalk sequence was finished off with a lame neck snapping, and the damage done to the leprechaun always brought the movie to halt, like the scene where he loses his eye and replaces it with another one. That pogo stick death was incredible in its ineptness.

If I recall, this movie seem to be regarded with esteem by fellow youngsters, and obviously that's who the director was appealing to, as any honest person will admit, as the whole demeanor should insult anyone with a pinch of maturity.

The movie isn't fun or even"so bad it's good", its garbage in every sense. Unfortunately it succeeded in becoming a franchise, as to this day there are 6 sequels and for all I know more are on the way.

The horror!!!!!!!