Leprechaun Retrospective, Finale and Leprechaun: Origins (2014)

Today on Movie Russian Roulette, Alex watches a movie that he forgets ten minutes after watching.

the "WWE Superstar" should be your first warning

Overview: Four American college kids take a trip out to the boonies of Ireland, where the Leprechaun kills almost all of them.


That's literally the entire plot. I didn't know the name of a single character in this movie. Most of the dialogue is just twentysomethings screaming incoherently or shrieking expletives as they run from the Leprechaun. Speaking of our main man in green, since this is his origin, he's clearly gotta be lookin' a lot better than the other movies, right? I mean, it's a prequel so he-

wut

Yes, that's right. Somehow this is what he looks like when he's younger.

Notable moments/quotes: Generic college douche: "That's why they call it the woods, babe. Lions n tigers n... shit."

An old lady who happens to be driving the back roads picks up our heroes, only to somehow lock them inside an ordinary car and deliver them back to the evil villagers. Oh yeah, the friendly villagers are actually out to sacrifice these kids to the Leprechaun. You know how it is.

Only surviving cast member, referencing a much better movie: "Fuck you, Lucky Charms." She then chops off the Leprechaun's head with a machete that looks more like a katana.

My thoughts: Observant readers may notice that the above section was short and entirely devoid of lines from the Leprechaun. Well, that's because the directors of this movie about a serial killer leprechaun decided to not give the leprechaun any godsdamned lines. This is the problem with the In Da Hood Leprechaun films all over again. Once again, the people behind this film go for "realistic" horror. I mean, for fuck's sake, that thing a bit above this doesn't look the least bit by a leprechaun! They could have called it a goblin, or a Gollum, or a Mother Teresa, and it'd still look more like that than a leprechaun!

"It's a right shame, me boyo."

Now, the movie does attempt to justify this in a roundabout way through the backstory of the village. They used to have a very successful gold mine, but this mine was actually just them stealing from the Leprechaun. Therefore, it kind of makes sense that he'd look all creepy from living that long in a cave but COME ON. I don't know why I have to keep saying this, but this is a movie about a killer leprechaun! What's the point in using a mythological creature as a baddie if you only use the name? The leprechaun in this movie is particularly bad, as it doesn't seem to have any supernatural powers, unless "can run fast and has sharp claws" counts as supernatural. Hell, my cat can do that, and I don't try to make horror movies starring him.

"Soon."

Now, if this movie really wanted to go the serious route, it has a few elements in the script that could have been greatly expanded upon to deepen the horror. It's revealed during the movie that these college kids are sacrifices to appease the Leprechaun, so the kids are fighting both the not-so-green menace as well as the townsfolk. I actually sat up with rapt attention when the movie revealed the villagers were helping the leprechaun. "Ah!" I thought. "Now we'll get to see the movie go on about humans being the real monsters and all that trite shit! Progress, technically!" But, NOPE, the movie barely touches on this in favor of just jumpscares and shakycam. Ugh.

The movie also seems to believe that showing us people who are scared means that its audience will become scared, too. While that's true on a shallow level, it's a cheap trick at best and its effectiveness wears off quickly. After about half a minute of shrieking college girls cowering from the Leprechaun, I was over it. The movie also conceals the Leprechaun through camera angles and out-of-focus shots, focusing on its (bland) main characters.

In my opinion, horror comes from the unknown and the unfamiliar. The movie takes a decent first step towards this by obscuring the leprechaun, but if they were serious about driving home a decent horror movie, much more should have been done. Ultimately, we know it's a killer leprechaun thanks to the title, so much of the suspense has been lost, but still more could have been done. The older Leprechaun movies managed some creepiness just from the Leprechaun's otherworldliness and unkillable nature, even amidst all the jokes. Where did this thing come from? How do we stop it? What does it want? These questions drive the "narrative" in many of the movies. However, the movie doesn't bother to answer the first or third questions, and the second it answered with "Uh, cut its head off, I guess, bro?"

Ultimately, this movie is unsalvageable. WWE Studios, I'm sure you do great (snicker) work on whatever it is you do, but you screwed the shamrock on this one.

And that brings us to the end of the Leprechaun movie series. Unfortunately, this movie completely ignores everything that made the old movies kind of fun and campy and tries to make another generic slasher film. I'm not saying that remakes and reboots should all be exactly the same as the source material... the point of such things is to tell a story in a new way, after all... but unless the films have some measure of respect for what came before them, the endeavor is going to fail. Attaching yourself to an established series, brand, and story comes with certain expectations. I'm sure Hollywood just sees it as a way to help ensure a quick cash grab is successful, and I'm sure this helps, but eventually audiences get wise.

In conclusion, this movie series started out as a fun series of movies that aren't at all afraid to admit that their ideas are stupid and just run with them. However, from the fifth movie on, the movies fall prey to the early 2000s need to shit all over anything light-hearted in movies and tried to change with the times and become more serious. I'm left a little exhausted, and in truth I wish I'd never seen any movies past the peerless Leprechaun 4: In Space. These last four movies have made the rest of the movies seem less worthy in retrospect, because they gave rise to such awful timesucks devoid of redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong, all these movies are bad, but only the early ones reach that elusive state of "funny bad" rather than just being a dull bad.

I give Leprechaun: Origins a Nic Cage Ruminates About the Future out of five. I'm off to go find a fun movie to watch. Or just bash my head against a wall for a few hours so I can feel something again. Not sure which. Facebook and Patreon are still around.