Leprechaun Returns

image source

Yep. There’s a new movie in the Leprechaun franchise. It was released initially as an on-demand film, and will be airing on the Syfy channel in 2019 (at least according to what I found on the internet). A young woman named Lilia (played by Taylor Spreitler) has joined a sorority that is working on fixing up the house from the first movie. Oh, and her mom was Jennifer Aniston’s character from the first film. It doesn’t take long before the titular leprechaun (played by Linden Porco) returns to retrieve his pot of gold, and murder everyone in sight. Alright, I really feel like I should only recommend this to hardcore Leprechaun and slasher fans. So, this is probably the best-acted Leprechaun movie in a long time. I mean, nobody in this is winning an oscar, but they serve their roles well-enough. The highlight is Linden Porco as the leprechaun. While I can admit that he’s no Warwick Davis, I still think it’s clear he’s having the most fun in this film. On the other hand, I also wish that actor Mark Holton (Francis from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure) was underused. This also might be the goriest Leprechaun movie (and there is a touch of dark humor as well). The movie can also take some weird tuns that I honestly didn’t expect a Leprechaun movie to take. Without giving too much a way, there’s a character who dies and comes back a ghost or hallucination. The most explanation they really give is someone just shrugging their shoulders. You can easily pick apart the story, and a lot of moments in the movie. This movie has one of those kills where a character stands in place screaming “help me!” when all the viewer has to think is just move. There’s also a point where a character in the movie who should know better still clearly makes the wrong decision. The character development is paper-thin. The most we get is Lila’s backstory. Everyone else is just there to potentially die. The ultimate question to ask about Leprechaun Returns is: is it good. No. But, I had a lot of fun with it, and it’s probably the first movie in this series I think I’ve enjoyed since Leprechaun 4: In Space. Take that for whatever it’s worth. 

6 / 10