If you didn’t like this movie, why the fuck did you watch it?
And now for an old classic in fucking BAD movies. Look, literally everyone going into this movie should know it’s a giant shit show. They didn’t even attempt to make it sound like serious horror back when the were producing it. But it’s been 26 years at the time of this review. There is zero reason for anyone to not know the Leprechaun franchise is basically one long running joke. They were just trying to figure out how loony-toons they could get with the concept. Shit, by nowadays standards, with movies like Sharknado, this franchise didn’t even go far enough.
But it’s a classic. It was the beginning of a larger movement for writers and directors to have more fun with horror as a concept. The industry was finally beginning to come around to the idea that bad could mean good. All the major franchises jumped on the concept, and that brought us some of the best horror movies I can think of.
Leprechaun can be summed up in the big one-liner deliverd by the child actor at the end “Fuck your Lucky Charms!”
That’s it. That’s the material you’re working with here. That’s what makes the magic. If you came expecting cinema gold you came to the wrong place. I mean, what the hell do you expect? It’s a movie about a 3 foot tall, shoe shining, homicidal sprite, in a fucking green tuxedo. Without even knowing about it first hand, that should have tipped you off as to what you were about to get.
Honestly, if you didn’t watch it to riff it with your friends, you’re the problem. The movie is silly, not even remotely scary, hammier than an Italian smoke house, and carries the plot of something you might expect out of Troll 2. I’ll give it this, it is better than Troll 2… though you’d have to be in Birddemic territory to be worse than Troll 2.
So really, if you don’t like this movie, you’re the problem. What was your motivation to even watch it if you didn’t see this crap fest coming? What? A movie that revolves around the same creature that’s supposed to help poor old cobblers sounded like an epic horror movie?
Pull the stick out of your ass, butter up the popcorn, get your best punning material on, and for fuck sake, try to enjoy it. People don’t go to Donkey Shows for a sophisticated exhibit on human and donkey anatomy. Don’t watch Leprechaun expecting Shakespeare.
The dialog is kampy, the characters are walking tropes that seem like they were pulled out of a hat, the acting is almost bad enough to be a porno, there is a plot but it’s nigh incoherent, the atmosphere is downright cartoonish, don’t expect the FX to make it any better, and all in all, it’s just good fun. They did everything wrong in just the right way and it’s oh so perfect. The best part is, you know they did it on purpose so you have to give them extra credit.
This is for Horror Heads and Riffers only, of course.
This is another one of those rare reviews where I’m not going to get into the spoilers, but lets be honest, the plot’s so fucking thin, what’s there to spoil? A three foot tall, offensive Irish stereotype, in a green tuxedo, is awakened when someone messes with his treasure. The little bastard will stop at nothing to get it back, killing all the cast of in fun and kampish ways. The only thing to spoil is the order the cast is killed in and whether or not the child actor lives to the end.
Just watch it and have fun.