It’s been quite the year for horror franchises stretched beyond their capacities: We’ve gotten the tenth entry in the Hellraiser series, the ninth in the Children of the Corn series, the ninth or eleventh in the Halloween series (depending on how you treat Rob Zombie’s films), and the thirteenth in the Puppet Master series, and this is all coming on the heels of a year that gave us new installments in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Child’s Play, and Saw franchises, among others. Apparently not wanting to feel left out, the Leprechaun series decided to add to its ranks with Leprechaun Returns.
The eighth film in the series, it follows the examples of this year’s Halloween and quite a few entries in the Godzilla franchise by placing itself as a direct sequel to the original, forsaking all of the wackiness in between. Sadly, this means that this new timeline has no place for a leprechaun in space or in tha hood. Instead, we’re following the daughter of Jennifer Aniston’s character from the original as she transfers to a new college, with her new sorority house coincidentally the very homestead at which her mother and her friends were barely able to subdue the lilliputian gold-monger. She and her new sorority sisters endeavor to take their house off the grid and become relatively self-sustaining. Fair enow. What no one banks on, pretty much ever, is that a leprechaun, not quite dead from a battle twenty-five years ago, is gonna pop up and start murdering anybody. Forget the Spanish Inquisition, nobody expects this! Insert the usual pint-sized slasher shenanigans the series has been built on.
First and foremost, we’re once again without Warwick Davis in the title role. Granted, I don’t fully count Leprechaun: Origins as a legitimate piece of this franchise due to it being so tonally and materially disconnected from all of the other films, so for me this is the first time we’re getting a Leprechaun movie without Davis, and it’s a shame. This isn’t to put down Linden Porco, as he does well enough, but it’s just not the same, and you know how change sucks.
Aside from him, the acting is mostly fine, but the actors are given precious little in the way of characterizations to work with: We’ve got the uptight project manager type, the resident drunkard, the girl who makes bad sexual decisions, the guy she makes them with, the quiet artsy guy, and our protagonist, who’s mostly known by her relationship to an ostensibly crazy woman, a strange metaphor of sorts for the film itself. I will allow that the script isn’t so bad as to just go “Hey, remember that Leprechaun movie twenty-five years ago? Man, that movie was great, wasn’t it?” (ahem, lookin’ at you, Independence Day: Resurgence!), though a few nods are tossed in here and there, but what little remains is so rote that they may as well have just remade the original altogether.
On the plus side, though, the film ably adopts the tonality and innate silliness of the original, allowing itself to have some fun with the obviously goofy premise of it all, making the viewing experience all the easier and more enjoyable. As a return to form for this franchise, it’s a welcome sight, though the film’s very existence is yet another sign that we’re likely gonna keep seeing these dead horses beat well into the future, with only the slight consolation of a decent movie every now and again to look forward to. Bottom line: This movie is fine as a Leprechaun movie, and if you dig the rest of the series, you’ll likely dig this one as well. Now if only we can get some interesting new IPs out there before we get saddled with a crappy new Pumpkinhead flick…
Allusions of Grandeur 