Thursday, 10 June 2010

Leprechaun - Horror Film Review

The Leprechaun box set was on sale for around £12, it contained the first 5 Leprechaun films (think there are 6 in total).  I picked it up as I have always wanted to see the films after the Leprechaun showed up on a DVD of the top horror film slashers.

Leprechaun is a slasher film.  It stars Warwick Davis (of Willow, and Star Wars fame) as an evil Leprechaun.  As a boring side note, I once saw Warwick Davis at a sci-fi convention, though I had no idea who he was at the time.  The film is a prequel to the Friends sit-com series and sees Jennifer Aniston's character going on vacation to red neck country with her father.  The house they are staying at was the scene of Leprechaun inspired craziness after a American Irishman arrived there after having captured a Leprechaun and forced it to give the man its gold coins.  Leprechauns in real life are evil demons.  This one followed the man back to his house, and then unleashed mayhem in a bid to get his gold back.  The Irishman managed to trap him in a crate where the Leprechaun was stuck for 10 years.  The Leprechaun sees anyone as a potential thief of his gold and has no qualms against killing anyone he sees as guilty.  Jennifer and a bunch of other teenagers come under siege from the mad wee fellow and must find a way to stop his reign of terror.

Warwick is cool as the Leprechaun.  The Leprechaun is able to teleport, as well as use magical powers.  Each of his 100 coins he gets back grants him more power.  He is able to perfectly imitate the voice of any Human or Animal, he can seemingly summon children's toys (such as a pogo stick, tricycle, and skate board) and is indestructible for the most part, able to get shot close range many times, limbs severed, and beaten with no permanent consequences.  He is kinda a idiot though.  He is obsessed with his gold, and is completely delusional that everyone in the world is after it, all he goes on about is punishing people for taking his gold.

The Human characters are ok, but there so likable that it is obvious that none of them are going to die.  The film has very few deaths, around 4 overall I think it was.  Mostly the Leprechaun attacks via his razor sharp teeth, and claws, and does like to wise crack, though not as much as Freddy Kruger.  He is not remotely a scary character, his green Leprechaun costume puts paid to that.

It was an entertaining film, though lack of ideas meant it did kinda outstay its welcome a bit with too much screen time for Warwick Davis running around shouting about his stolen coins.


No comments: