Leprechaun Series Wrap Up

The lure of the Leprechaun and his pot of gold was strong enough to warrant four pictures in four straight years.  Then a bizarre hood themed revival a short time later and finally a real deal rebootquel for modern audiences some twenty years later.  That’s a legacy for any franchise to be proud of regardless of how low rent it is. 

Original writer/director Mark Jones (Rumpelstiltskin (1995)) along with effects artist Gabriel Bartalos (Friday the 13^th Part VI: Jason Lives, Darkman) and Warwick Davis (Solo: A Star Wars Story) created a very well known and instantly recognizable horror icon.  He may not run in the same circles as your mega boogeymen but there’s an endearing quality to the Lep that people connect with.  In all honesty he comes across the most like a third rate Freddy Kreuger with his one liners and seemingly unlimited magical powers but that doesn't mean he isn’t fun to hang out with.  It’s just that we never learn much about him as a character or exactly how his powers or world in general works.

This leads me to my biggest gripe of the whole thing, consistency.  I gotta say I really kinda hate that each installment has its own set of rules surrounding the Leprechaun’s abilities.  For example in several films he clearly demonstrates he can teleport yet uses that power at random.  It’s especially frustrating when you see him chase after his victim on foot or drive any kind of vehicle.  Another thing he can do is control any object, including humans, through a jedi force or whatever but once again, it’s used at random.  There are a few instances where he mentions his gold is tied to his powers so whenever he’s missing his schillings he’s weaker.  But this device is used as an awful excuse for his prey to escape and for scenes to end.  It’s also never established that employing his powers drains his energy so he has to be careful with it.  By and large the guy seems to be infinitely magical so I don’t understand why anything is ever a problem.  Combine that with the fact that he can’t be destroyed by any conventional means and in this sense they made the character way too powerful.

A related weird issue is the constant resetting of the sequels.  It becomes a doubled edged sword.  The good news is none of them connect in any way whatsoever so you can pop in and out as you please without having to worry about being lost story-wise.  It also allows enormous latitude to do whatever the fuck you want each time out.  Let your imagination run wild.  In this case however that approach comes across sorta lame and lazy with the smaller budgets imposing limitations.  Shooting the Leprechaun into space is the craziest they ever got but I argue it’s not inventive enough despite a large humanoid spider monster showing up towards the end.  So then the decision to not build off the previous films is ultimately a detriment in my opinion.  The universe never gets filled out and we never get a deeper insight into the Leprechaun’s psyche.  It’s a shame.

Aside from some neat looking practical effects work Warwick Davis is really the main thing that makes most of these films fairly entertaining.  His enthusiasm for the part is palpable and that rubs off to a degree.  He’s perfectly wicked in his mischievous attitude.  I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say these movies are worth watching for his performances alone but check out a couple of clips online and then decide if you can handle an entire ninety mins of it.

For my money part 2 is by far the best.  They did everything they could with the premise in that one.  It’s strange that the original didn’t lean into the concept nearly enough so there was plenty for the first sequel to capitalize on.  The St. Patrick’s Day theme, the drinking, the monkey’s paw wish twisting, manipulating victims fantasies, half a plot revolving around something other than the Leprechaun hunting down his stolen gold, balancing the humor and horror well, etc.

And I guess I want to apologize a bit for ragging as much as I did on part 3.  It’s one of those cases where you look back and realize you never knew how good you had it.  An effort was put in to expand the mythology of the series which none of the others even attempt.  And sure, I’m not so into how goofy they went with the comedy but the wishing stuff, technical aspects and effects work is easily more enjoyable than a good chunk of what came after it.

Lastly, it’s too bad Returns didn’t make any waves because the filmmakers did as good a job as you can expect both bringing the Leprechaun into the twenty first century and paying homage to the first picture.  It’s not amazing or anything but maybe folks weren’t interested without Warwick Davis in the lead.  Being associated with the Syfy channel probably didn’t help much either.  Oh well.

While this was an amusing bunch of B tier horror to examine it’s not essential for anyone out there yearning for a better understanding of the genre or the times.  If these seem like your thing then by all means have at ‘em.  If you’ve shied away all these years then don’t worry, you’re not missing a ton.  Maybe give the original or part 2 a shot and go from there.  Happy (belated) St. Pat’s Day and if you happen to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow don’t touch it.  Once you get a Leprechaun into your life it’s hard to shake him loose.  He might rip your face off too.