I've always been fascinated with funny not-so serious movies that are indeed terrible yet very entertaining like the original Leprechaun series. And I am trying to understand, and even try to be sympathetic, to the cause of reviving or "remastering" original films. Usually when not done right such "remastering" is sometimes so horrific that one comes out of the movie theater yelling to the moon: "why!?"I was approaching "Leprechaun: Origins," the remake of the Leprechaun series that also included its original star WWE's Dylan "Hornswoggle" Postl with even more open-mindedness being that these types of movies can be forgiven because they entertain us with their playful nature. I was expecting as per another WWE jewel "Santa's Sleigh," which was about a raging evil Santa Claus bent on going on a killing spree for whatever the fuck the reason was, to be asinine fun. In that movie, the filmmakers heavily relied on the silliness of the whole concept and outright refused to take itself seriously, making it one of my favorite dumb movies to watch for the Holiday season.
But I am confused as to what "Leprechaun: Origins" is. Is it one of those movies that I can laugh at or am I supposed to feel vewwwyy scawwwy? Well I felt neither when I saw this film. There were times when I felt I was watching a typical slasher movie and a few of those my heart did stop for a fraction of a second. Then I realized that I am supposed to be watching Hornwoggle play a creepy looking yet tricky little gnome like creature say one-off jokes and Irish sounding fuck you rhymes.
The Leprechaun, if there was any in the movie, refused to show itself fully. Maybe that is due to its cheap make-up. Come on Vince McMahon, you own a entertainment empire, you couldn't afford a descent get up and make-up for this "realistic" Leprechaun? Instead we are treated to Predator-like killer vision and weird cuts of the now beastly figure that is supposed to be the namesake of the movie. And by the way, Hornswoggle had no single line in the movie. Not one little memorable zinger. The Leprechaun is now a some random Jim Henson crafted monster that can be easily transported to any other scary movie with a different name. Though it was a very generic monster at times this monster could be easily mistaken more for the Chupacabras than for a Leprechaun with buckled boots, striped stockings, a green top hat and coat who likes to make humans miserable with mind tricks and by grabding their dicks if they ever dare take his gold. That was the Leprechaun we all know and love. But that's not what I saw in this movie. I don't know what the fuck this is besides some ghoulish looking monster that eats people. The story-line is generic. The now monster is generic. The characters are generic. There was no thematic elements that good horror movies would have. It was just a bunch of snotty little American pricks in Ireland being chased around in the woods by some monster who wants to eat them because his gold was taken - and that pretty much sums up this movie's plot in a nutshell.
There were however some good qualities that I think if played along further and given more time to develop this movie could have been different. To make it better I would start by changing the monster back to the original (although with some updates to its appearance) Leprechaun who actually speaks and gets bitchy when his gold is stolen adding as revenge your girlfriend's tits getting blown up to smithereens using his magical powers and making you inhale worms up your nose. That is what these little bastards called Leprechauns, according to Irish folklore, actually do. And that's what I expected going into this film with the added benefits of more modern theatrics and cinematography. Although putting that into film may not win you an Oscar, it will sure as hell would make for a fun and entertaining movie that at least knows what it is and knows what its doing. The main problem with this movie is that the filmmakers actually took their lucky charms too seriously and forgot that they were making a movie about a fucking Leprechaun and thought they could get away with it.
I would say though it was entertaining to a point as an acceptable generic monster movie. But that doesn't make it an outstanding monster movie, especially one that is supposed to be about the lovable and yet misunderstood and funny monster of our time: the Leprechaun.
Memorable line: "Fuck your Lucky Charms!"
Grade: D
