Leprechaun: Origins

The “Leprechaun Franchise” is not a good one. Brian Orndorf described it as, “Conceived as satiric dig at the unstoppable killing machine craze of the 1980s and ‘90s, the original film merged silliness and shock with some degree of care, launching a franchise that carried on for five increasingly ridiculous sequels, making star Warwick Davis a cult icon and his agent very happy. 2003’s “Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood” was the swan song for the tiny monster, but a decade of dormancy hasn’t been as educational as one would hope.” “Leprechaun: Origins” is the unavoidable 2013 remake, redoing the ridiculous story into an R-rated horror with a completely redoing enemy. Unfortunately, the production tells the audience that it wants to be completely seriousness, which will only make you find way more insane.

Visiting Ireland for vacation, Jeni (Melissa Roxburgh) and Ben (Andrew Dunbar) are working out their relationship, while their friends David (Brendan Fletcher) and Sophie (Stephanie Bennett) come along to enjoy the time of their lives. Arriving in a village that has Celtic artifacts, the friends are welcomed by a man named Hamish, played by Garry Chalk, who wants to help these kids enjoy a great excursion of Ireland, giving them a night in a solitude cabin in the woods, with plans to give them the secrets of the “Stone of the Gods.” Trying to sleep that night, Jeni sees that something isn’t right, with the friends seeing they’ve been locked inside the cabin, used as a sacrifice for the Leprechaun, played by WWE wrestler Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl, a terrifying creature out to suck out the blood of its victims.

Orndorf mentioned, “The 1993 film wasn’t a work of art, but it had a personality, blending broad shenanigans with horror touches, playing into trends of the day as it teased high camp. The sequels turned the premise of a killer fairy into DTV burlesque, with Davis rising above plummeting production values and unfortunate co-stars to shine as the mischievous devil, protecting his pot of gold with quips and various methods of murder.” This type of exaggeration doesn’t concern director Zach Lipovsky and screenwriter Harris Wilkinson, who tries to come back to that brutality to the franchise’s name, bringing the story to Ireland (actually shot in Canada, which doesn’t look anywhere close to Ireland) and redoing the look of the slasher villain, turning him into a Gollum-looking creature, not a tricky but polychromatic character of Irish folklore. Orndorf said, “Laboring to resuscitate the series with a fresh perspective is laudable, downright necessary when one considers the state of the franchise a decade ago, but going dark with a premise that requires light confuses the whole endeavor.”

Not wearing his buckles, hat, and cannot walk, this new Leprechaun has been turned into some shadowy character, putting Postl under a thick layer of rubber as he had difficulty to express this performance as a scary villain. Orndorf mentioned, “There are no recognizable features to the gray blob, forcing Lipovsky to use a hazy, golden “Leprechaun Vision” to communicate a POV, while speedy edits suggest movement.” The design of the Leprechaun is horrible, turning a character that might give people have a hard time sleeping into a snarly, dull creature who doesn’t speak, making “Leprechaun: Origins” a survival flick where the human characters run for their lives from some shadowy movement in tall grass and dark corners. Orndorf mentioned, “Not that the new picture had to jazz up established tomfoolery to compete, but its sense of gloom and doom is ruined by a forgettable enemy. Davis’s performance, his sense of theatricality, and his villainous make-up are deeply missed.”

Orndorf goes on to say, “The rest of “Leprechaun: Origins” is a paint-by-numbers affair, with the humans picked off one-by-one, while gold plays a important role in the story, generating a sense a guilt with the Irish as they feed the visitors to the roving monster to protect their lives. Violence is plentiful, but prosthetics are iffy at best, and HD cinematography by Mahlon Todd Williams is dispiritingly flat, failing to bring out any atmosphere. Lipovsky tarnishes the visual look of the film further by employing body-mounted cameras to accentuate a few deaths -- cheap tricks to ornament a fading endeavor. Performances are lackluster as well, swimming upstream with dreary characterization before the acting solely focuses on pleas, panic, and post-sprint heavy breathing.” For everything they put into redoing the Leprechaun, it’s strange the rest of the production is so typical, scared of trying something amazing with the usual traits. “Leprechaun: Origins” is tiring and a mockery.

Like I have mentioned before in my review of every single entry in this putrid series, don't watch it. You will feel nothing but pain and stupid by watching it and it's not even worth seeing, I promise you that.

Phew, I'm finally done with this series. Boy, was that difficult to get through. Now that I'm finally done with this series, check in tomorrow to see what the next bad franchise I will be telling everyone to avoid in "Halloween Month."