SCORETOBER!!! Day 8 Leprechaun!!

Day 8

Leprechaun

The only thing better than if I were paid for all this, is watching every Leprachaun film and more Warwick Davis.

But the last two films they replaced him with some other guy, and in the end? The films made me want to cry.

In the end those first few films always keep me grinnin’, Because Warwick Davis as the Leprechaun is a gift that keeps on givin.

I won’t be writing this entire review in the verse of rhyme. Because its far too difficult and would take even more time.

I’m stopping myself. That’d be a challenging review all its own and I am not feeling that challenged today. Say it for another month.

Anyway yes. Today we discuss Leprachaun. A film I had the pleasure of seeing in theaters with my family growing up. Which again was a rarity given my dad and his being unable to stand anything blood and guts. But the rating wasn’t so bad apparently and he felt it looked like it could be cheesy and alright.

Pluss we did this thing as a family. Which I sorely miss, and am eternally grateful for having had parents do with myself and my sister.

Every Sunday, we would do a family thing together. Which a majority of the time ended up being Movie related. And the way it always worked was in the name of fairness. One week we’d see something I wanted to see, and then the following week what my sister wanted to see, and then something my parents wanted to see.

I still remember grumbling about wanting to see The Fly 2, but we went to see the rerelease of Bambi instead, and to rub salt in the wound the line directly next to us was for Hellbound: Hellraiser 2. It was not a fun outing for me knowing I was missing two horror greats, just to witness Bambi on the big screen.

So Leprechaun was one of those picks we all agreed to see.

And my mom and dad actually did find pretty funny, rightfully so. We all enjoyed it.

As with all my other choices, the music and the movie stuck with me and even as the sequels got more ridiculous, I still watched them, bought them, and love them. In a perfect world I feel we would still be treated to a Leprechaun VS Wishmaster movie. But alas.

Well lets dive on in and get to the good stuff alright, yes? Yes.

The Film

Did this movie freak me out as a kid? No. It made me laugh my ass off. Was I ever afraid of the Leprechaun? No. Actually I still have dreams about them now and again. Kinda funny dreams too actually.

No they didn’t involve sex like the dreams with the Grudge girl, or the Ring girl.

I really have odd taste…..

Anyway here we begin, in the most Irish of Irish places. With a limo, a happy irish husband drinking the most Irish of whiskeys, greeted at the door by his most irish of wives. Greeting him with the Irish greeting an Irishmen receives when he comes home having emptied a bottle of the most irish whiskey.

Dan O’Grady struck it rich you see. He caught a Leprechaun. Somehow, and he took from him his pot of gold. The Leprechauns most prized possession, and source of their power! He’s done his homework and he believes he and his wife have struck it rich! So he rented a limo to drive him home. Told his wife to start packing and promises by tomorrow they’ll be living in a mansion. She believes he’s drunk unfortunately, but he’ll prove her wrong. He makes sure that a package was delivered to the house from the mortuary. Which seems odd enough as it is. But he seems very pleased with this, and more so the fact it hasn’t been messed with.

He just warns his wife to keep clear of it and pack her things. But she has far better priorities. Tea!

Now that’s the kinda Irish I can get behind. Tea fixes everything.

Well Dan is going to take care of some business before they pack, but he’ll be there for tea. Which she readily prepares. Until she hears what sounds like a child singing from their basement. Which happens to be the location of the crate brought for her husband from the mortuary.

Well, the idea a child is in a crate not screaming for help. But instead singing happily.That’s a bit troubling. However Mrs. O’Grady isn’t questioning the how and the why. So much as she’s handling the who’s in there and let me get you out.

Low and behold doing so frees the terror or any with Irish blood in their veins. The leprechaun. Who is quick to point out to the woman  the gold buckles on his shoes. Juuust before she has an ‘accident’ and tumbles down the stairs to her death.

Which would upset the Leprechaun, if not for the fact he smells tea boiling. See, a fine man of culture.

Now tea is important to people of Europe. So Dan is not one minute late for tea with his wife. He arrives ready for a cup, and to explain to her exactly what had happened. Which sounds like a good plan, and I am sure she would have appreciated it without a doubt. But the Leprechaun greets him instead, with a kettle full of tea. The Leprechaun is alright.

I mean murderous intent aside and all, dude makes tea and waits for you. That’s pretty sweet.

Well the sweetness wears off as O’Grady discovers what has become of his wife, and the Leprechauns demand for his gold. Dan isn’t going to take this lying down. He’s down a wife, but he won’t be letting a Leprechaun stand for this, especially with his tea.

As said earlier, Dan seems prepared for all of this. Which I always found interesting as it made me really wonder if this had been something he’d been planning for a while. Stumbled upon, or heard about. As he has stashed away upstairs in his bedroom the very key to controlling a Leprechaun, their one weakness. A four leaf clover.

Which comes and goes in this series honestly. There’s a few different ‘weaknesses’ he has but this was by far the most straight forward, and funnest.

So Dan the man grabs a shotgun as well and begins blasting away. The Leprechaun tells him it’s no good as he’ll just come back once he heals, but Dan is out of fucks to give. He’s storing the little shit in a wood crate, ceiling it up with the four leaf clover on top and getting the gasoline. Seems a bit extreme but okay.

The Lep even tells him fire won’t do any good, but Dan is not-a-vailable. He’s going to burn the whole damn house down. Which will really look suspicious to the police come morning. Well poor Dan can’t handle all of this stress, and the Lep also seems to be aiding in his discomfort as Dan has a heart attack just as he lights a match, but seems to die just before he can toss it. Saving the life of lil lep in his crate. Leaving him to sit and think about what he’s done. For 10 long years.

So we fast forward 10 long years and get the most 90’s thing to ever 90’s. A jeep CJ-5 and a California girl in a sun dress. To be more specific Jennifer Anniston in a sun dress.

So the CJ-5 is pretty well known as a workhorse jeep, it got a lot of use because of its ruggedness, however it really took off with the production of the CJ-7 which became famous the same year Leprechaun came out, because it was the jeep model used and popularized by Jurassic Park. Which attributed to a lot of its sales back then.

This has no bearing what so ever on the film. I just thought it’d be interesting to share that I know film stuff, and blow away expectations of me talking about how short Jennifer’s sundress is in the film. It’s not, it’s perfectly acceptable. Moving on.

She’s playing the 90’s equivalent of a sure of herself proud to be a woman…woman. Who also is the most city girl to ever step out of the valley and find herself on the rural country of the most beautiful green land and Irish homestead on the most Irish of settlements, North Dakota.

She is unpleased with her dads decision to move them out here to this land, and dirty old house full of tarantulas, cobwebs, and a 10 year gasoline soaked Leprechaun in a crate. This is slightly understandable.

However the house being infested with tarantulas legitimately raises immediate concerns and questions which demand answering.

They could’ve used any small domestic spider. But they went with unholy hairy huge tarantulas. Fuck it, why not. Yolo and all that.

Well she is denouncing and degrading her fathers logic and decrees this house to be unlivable and below the standards of any one. Immediately getting the hell out of dodge and heading back for her Jeep. Where she runs into a part of the three person team hired to do work around the house. Whom Is also rather 90’s hot and she discovers this for herself as she spills paint thinner everywhere, immediately causing concern that both these people and the house will combust at any moment.

If the Cotton house in Hellraiser was the house that fed on blood. This is the house that fed of flammable liquids.

She pardons herself and tosses money at the man as she’s so city born that apologizing is an alien concept to her. When the man even tells her he doesn’t need money, just an apology. She looks confused and tosses more money at him. She returns to her speech of doom and this house being the equivalent to the devils bathroom and she is getting out of there as soon as possible. Which causes him to laugh, gaining her curiosity. He decides its worth noting that she, as all girls are afraid and run at the site of small bugs and dirty things. This challenges her core beliefs and pride as a woman in the 90’s. So she begins a heroic speech about being a modern woman who ain’t afraid of no house and that he mistook her rant about hating and not wanting to live in tarantula city. That she in fact fully intends to stay at that house.

Which would’ve won her victory points had her dad not come out of the house, tired of her shit tossing her bags out and saying he’s done, he won’t fight her on this and she’s right. They don’t have to stay there. She snarls at him and is close to dousing him in lighter fluid herself, demanding he immediately take her things back into the house. She will NOT be shown up by some hunky country man.

So as for the rest of our team of home flippers? They consist of the highest quality the county can offer. A young boy who works without a license, and a mentally handicapped man. These are our painters. Okay.

So the house seems to be in good hands. Everyone has a part to play in its restoration and eviction of the tarantulas and Leprechaun. Which thanks to a clumsy trying to flirt Jennifer. The Lep has been awoken and is now aware of the infestation of tarantulas as well as state of disrepair the house is in. Immediately making him wonder what happened for 10 years and how did that house stay on the market that long. One would assume.

I would at least.

Well he doesn’t have time to wonder about real estate in the Irish plains of North Dakota. Instead he calls the attention of our slow painter, who’s name is Ozzie. Lep begins his singing of childrens rhymes and Ozzie can’t help but be curious. Eventually leading him to discover the crate, enjoying the smell of 10 year soaked gasoline wood, but hating the dust. He brushes the crate top off and the somehow still in tact four leaf clover falls to the floor. Freeing Warwick Davis from his ten year prison.

Ozzie is both mesmerized and horrified at the wrinkled nutsack of a being standing in front of him, and has to ask what the hell he is. Which slightly offends Lep as he’s not sure if that’s a dig at him being a Leprechaun, or his size. So he sticks with assuming he means Leprechaun and proceeds to point out to Ozzie his fancy top hat, the gold buckles on his shoes. Ozzie soon understands and all is right with the world.

To be fair. Murderous and irritable as the Leprechaun is. He’s being very chill with Ozzie. He just ask the man if he’s happened to see his pot of gold anywhere around, letting him know that should he lie about if he has seen it or not, he’ll bite off his ear and turn it into a shoe. Because Leprechauns are amazing shoe makers and shiners. He even offers up a shine to Ozzie’s sneakers. I honestly had not known Leprechauns cared that much about shoes but. Here we are.

Well Ozzie just gets the hell out of there as fast as he can. Assuring Lep on his way out that he has no gold, hasn’t seen any gold and wants nothing to do with gold. Which Lep seems okay with for now.

Of course Ozzie tries immediately warning everyone of the Leprechaun in the basement and no one wants to believe his simple minded ranting. So it’s time to get back to work. At least you’d think so, but the young boy Alex decides instead he’ll just keep pelting rocks at ozzie with his slingshot.

NO HE’S NOT THAT CRUEL! I just felt I’d mention it as that has no barring what so ever later in the film.

Actually the group gives him the benefit of the doubt and they decide to investigate back in the house. Do they find Warwick waiting to shine their shoes? Lep offering tea or death? No. Instead they find famous twitch streamer Ironmouse. Skittering around looking for morsels of food and souls to bring to hell.

They find a rat…..just a rat. No Vtubers.

Unfortunately.

So they laugh and everyone leaves before Snuffy the raccoon shows up as well and Nyanners, because then no one will get any work done.

They are ready to return to work. Until Ozzie, the work horse of the team. Chases off after a rainbow. I’m not going to say anything negative. I just wonder what the dad paid for their services.

Ozzie and Alex take off to find the end of the rainbow, only to actually FIND the end of the rainbow and  with it, an old truck I can guaran-damn-tee you is full of hobo spiders, rattlers, and if they’re lucky recluse spiders.

However the truck is instead full of gold. There’s a cold coin Ozzie finds and declares to be his, which Alex is fine with as he discovers an entire bag full of gold coins. Ozzie immediately wonders if this indeed could be the gold the Leprechaun mentioned and begins to worry. Alex tells him to shove his worries in his pocket!

Meanwhile back at Project Tarantula house, Jennifer Aniston, or Tory I guess. Is busy getting house painting lessons from Nathan. A few up down strokes and she’s a master. Painter…

Leading to both one of the funnier, and more awkward scenes. Nathan is hitting it off with Tory it seems and he appreciates enlisting additional help to do his work. She offers to go over to his truck and pick up more paint for the house and as she does, Lep is hanging out under the truck, eyes her legs and begins caressing her ankles while admiring her shoes. Tory is more than okay having her ankles felt up and. Without hesitation, concern, or question. Assumes its Nathan. Rather happily assumes its him, and begins smiling playfully while asking him what he’s doing. Only to turn around and notice Nathan is actually focused on his task and paycheck versus her smooth womanly features.

This causes alarm and she cries out as the caressing ends and she gets scratched when pulling her leg back. Her father and Nathan immediately run over to investigate her health and the wound. She quickly tells them something scratched her. That her leg was being caressed, and she thought it was Nathan until it scratched her. Causing Nathan to ask “You’d let me?” and her father to give a look any father would when learning their daughter thought the hired help was caressing her leg and she let them. But he ignores it for now, trying to make it less awkward and tells her maybe it was a cat or a critter rubbing against her leg. She then brings it right back to awkward town by telling both of them “I know what it feels like when a man caresses your leg, it wasn’t an animal”, her dad immediately ask another logical dad question. Which goes unanswered as most father’s questons do.

Its quick back and fourth stuff like that I love, especially when it includes awkward humor thrown in. Well the moment is short lived as we hear the calling of a sad kitten. Immediately giving cause to the caressing she felt and an answer to the scratches on her leg. The dad goes to investigate this sad sounding kitten which seems to be stuck in a tree trunk. Horror logic tells us, this is not a kitten. It’s a trap. And not the kind you find on google.

Of course it’s the Lep! He’s coaxing the dad to reach into the tree trunk so he can take a bite out of him. To be fair, he hasn’t eaten in 10 years. In fact all he’s had to eat so far has been a bug so. Lep gotta eat.

Well the three large gashes on his daughters leg weren’t concern enough for a hospital trip. But dad’s bite wound is. So the trio load up into the jeep and head off, with Alex and Ozzie tag along, because why not stop work.

The funniest part of this is once again goes to the Leprechaun. As he hobbles off to the barn as the others take off, and he comes out riding a tricycle, complete with tiny tinging bell. Taking off at top speed and tailing the jeep.

As Tory, the dad and Nathan head off to the Emergency Room, Ozzie and Alex take off for a local coin dealer and pawn shop. Leaving the coin with the man so he can look up its value for them. This of course means the man is marked for death.

Which comes swiftly for him on three wheels. If one thing is for sure? It’s that the leprechaun movies will always provide you with hysterical corny death scenes. Which the world of 1993 was not ready for yet, and thank Pazuzu for that.

Lep reclaims his coin from the shop owner and proceeds to play with a pogo stick on the mans chest and face. Crushing him to death while Lep rhymes and has the time of his life. But more importantly. The leprechaun thanks to the pawn shop. Finds himself a new ride. A battery powered kids Truck.

Which thanks to his magic travels at over 60mph.

As we are nearing the magic mark in run time for killing, The Leprechaun lets us know as he’s only just begun his rampage. As he speeds along the highway headed back to the house. He gets pulled over by a patrolman for. Yes. Speeding.

The man obviously has questions about a leprechaun driving a kids truck. Which obviously would’ve been best left unanswered. However he has nothing else better to do. So he pulls Lep over and immediately regrets it, as Lep begins gnawing on his face, because you just don’t mess Lep and his wheels. So of course the patrolman dies! He doesn’t just die though. He gets his neck snapped while taking a time out under a tree!

He's not just killed! He’s dead!

Well as the Lep kills and enjoys himself, the group is busy eating at a diner. Tory is rambling about country folk not serving Evian water and watercress salads. But they serve such horrific things as Meatloaf smothered in gravy. Alex and Ozzie of course make no mention of their secret coin trip and loot. Because your chair of loot is always bigger when fewer know.

As the group feast and make their way back home. The Lep is already there, devouring their food, and…and cleaning their shoes. Literally every pair of shoes in the house he pulls out, shines and cleans to perfection. Leaving them on the table.

Again, Leprechauns are shoe makers by trade. Not at all something that will play an important part in the film.

Once everyone makes it back home, stupidity in horror films takes hold of them. They find the floor covered in snacks, torn bags and scattered food. They also spot all the clean shoes on the table. But the only one who takes notice is Tory.

Now, logic would dictate you to ask, who has been here? Obviously it was a person, because the house has been ransacked and there are shoes sorted out on the table.

Instead their logic tells them “A bear must’ve gotten in here because it smelled the food.” Now, it is possible, and has been known that circus bears often wonder from the circus and their handlers to enter peoples homes, eat their food and sort out their shoes on the table. But not in this case.

So Nathan heads out to investigate any signs of bear. Only he finds a bear trap on the ground setup by the Lep, and lands his leg right in it. Immediately pleasing Lep. As it allows him to play surgeon with Nathan. Only Nathan doesn’t want to play. Thus beginning the greatest fight of little person versus man with a maglite.

It’s pretty damn funny honestly and gets even better when the others come along and join the fight. Everyone slapping and smacking the Leprechaun as he tries fending them off. Ozzie takes Alex to the house for safety and calls the police. Immediately alerting them ‘The attack has begun, there’s a leprechaun on the loose, send the army”, of course they find this cute and no one is coming to help. Nathan is given a shotgun eventually and blows away poor Lep. But as we learned with O’Grady. It only takes him out for a little bit as he vanishes and the group rethinks their strategy.

They find the best plan of attack is not to attack an ancient 700 year old being. But to instead get the hell out of there and load up into the truck.

Which is a good idea honestly. Up until they discover the truck wont start on account that the Leprechaun has devoured the distributer cap, and is now going to trash the truck with our heroes inside.

But that’s not enough, oh no. He wants payback for being shot, and also play time. So he takes off to the barn. This barn is the Lep’s playground. The group watch hysterically from the Truck as we hear the Leprechaun using power tools and a welding torch in the barn. What should emerge from his quick Loony Toons like labor, but a quickly crudely made go kart with a pitchfork battering ram. And cute horn.

Which he happily,and I do mean happily, rams right into their truck. Which sends it flying and toppling over into a spin. Lep is known for his cute contraptions being of unimaginable strength and I love it.

But once they’ve been toppled he leaves his death machine to investigate the truck. Only to find everyone alive and escaping his wrath. Which is fine with him. It just means more play time. But he’s also polite enough to remind everyone if they just give him his gold he’ll happily leave.

Again that sounds perfectly reasonable.

So our group finds themselves back inside the house and working on their next move. Thanks to the mastermind of Ozzie he leaks out to the group that he and Alex know about his gold and have it. Well file that under something the group could’ve used earlier to escape all this mess.

Tory demands to know where the gold is hidden and comes to the smartest conclusion in the film series history. If he wants his gold. Lets just give it to him and he’ll leave us alone.

Now armed with the knowledge of the golds location. Tory heads out to the well and fishes it out. Just in time for the Leprechaun to appear and immediately ask her if that’s his gold. Well she’s not going to mess around and immediately gives it to him.

To no surprise this immediately makes him happy. He’s super happy in fact. He got exactly what he’d been after for over 10 years and he promptly leaves them alone!

Movies over, roll credits.

Only its not. Because Lep is no fool. He’s counting his gold to make sure he has exactly 100 gold coins. Unfortunately he has only 99. So they all gotta die for cheating him.

But where you ask, is coin 100? Well as this film came out in the 90’s and you are reading this now assumingly having seen the film otherwise why have it all spoiled for you now. Ozzie tried testing the golds purity by biting on a coin like they do in the movies. Only when he bit the coin he swallowed it.

So now the last coin. The coin that could save their lives. Is resting in Ozzie’s belly.

Which honestly if the group has some laxatives they could easily solve this problem. I mean shit prisoners deal with this kind of stuff all the time. Not saying leprechaun trickery is normal in prison. But I am saying they know a thing or two about swallowing contraband and digging out the condom filled packages from their toilets.

The group however does not have any laxatives. So Ozzie makes the suggestion that they instead try another method. Visiting the old folks home and seeing Mr. O’Grady, as he survived his heart attack, and has lived there over the past 10 years. Their only problem now, is how do they get past the Lep when he’s right on them every moment.

Enter comedy gold to the rescue. Tory decides she will drive out there to find him. But they need a distraction. So the group gathers up every shoe in the house into a box. Runs outside and begins tossing one after the other. The Leprechaun is too proud a shoemaker to leave those shoes dirty on the ground. He picks up each one and cleans them by hand with his little pocket swatch as Tory makes her escape in the Jeep and heads toward the home.

Sadly there are only so many shoes in a box, and the Lep has his magic back. So he teleports himself into the Jeep and follows her. Even worse off? He gets to O’Grady before her and nearly kills him. Chasing poor Tory around the hospital in a wheelchair. Yes. A wheelchair. It’s every bit amazing as it sounds.

But thankfully she escapes and discovers the nearly. Mostly dead O’Grady. Who tells her the key intel she needed. The only way to stop a Leprechaun is with a four leaf clover, and thankfully his farm, her new home. Has a huge patch of clovers nearby. Because you can take the Irish out of Ireland, but you can’t take the Ireland out of the Irish!

Its now a race against time. Tory is racing home in the jeep, while Lep pursues Tory at high speed, in his Wheelchair. The man is committed to the gag. I appreciate it, as should we all.

Tory makes it back and begins her search immediately. But so does the Leprechaun. He knows what she’s up to and he can’t have that. So the two begin a cat and mouse chase once more. Though Tory can’t beat him. She does manage to at the least take out his eye! A score for the humans, a crushing loss for Lep.

His magic wont allow him to grow a new eye. What DOES however allow him a new eye. Is the dead body of the patrol officer he killed, as he gleefully rips out the dead mans eye and pushes it into his own skull. Just like that he turns a defeat into a mild setback. The power of magic at work kids.

But Nathan is there now and he has the power of a 12 gauge farm house shotgun. Which trumps eye magic, and the Leprechaun is sent flying, chest full of buckshot. Giving the group time to run back to the clover patch and continue their search.

And wouldn’t you know it? Saints be praised they eventually stumble upon a four leaf clover! Oh happy days!

They all believed enough in Leprechaun magic and lore that they found one! Well almost all of them believed. Alex did not. He saw these grown ass adults digging around a clover patch and said fuck that noise. He instead grabbed the bear trap from earlier, and goes about setting up his own Leprechaun trap in the barn. Much to the delight of the Lep who watches from the rafters. Surely this wont play out poorly.

I mean come on, obviously it’s gonna play out poorly. Alex isn’t exactly the brightest and kids tend to be a pain in the ass. So his plans go badly. The Lep attacks Alex and the two begin a struggle, Alex crying for help doing his best to keep his head from being pushed into the bear trap he setup intended for the Leprechaun, and Lep doing his best to crush the kids head.

But Ozzie comes to the rescue. He wont let anyone hurt his best friend in the whole world. So he calls out the Lep. Cussing him out. “Leave him alone you son of a bitch! It’s me you want! I swallowed your coin!” With that the Leprechaun grabs a plunger and chases after Ozzie.

Actually he doesn’t, which is sad. Instead he does even better. He tosses the kid aside, takes off running, Nathan hobbles over and readies to shoot the Lep, who quickly ask Nathan “hows the leg?” As he punches his bloody leg sending Nathan screaming to the floor, Troy stops to help Nathan and Lep is left to his task without obstruction.

He catches Ozzie and begins using his gold belt buckle, which apparently is razor sharp. To begin slashing at ozzie’s face and belly.

Alex can’t stand to see his friend and new found savior being sliced up. So he takes some chewing gum and wraps the fabled four leaf clover around it. Taking his new found ammunition and. Wait for it. I mentioned this earlier in the review. I said it would come back into play. Alex pulls out his Red Rider sling shot, loads up the clover round and delivers the klling line, “Hey! Fuck you lucky charms” and whamo blamo. He shoots off the Clover bomb and the Lep swallows it. He immediately begins going full Gremlin mode and melts into bubbling green gooey flesh and bone.

Nathan feeling upstaged by Alex and wanting to win points with Tory decides he needs to make sure Lep is dead. So he grabs a huge ass can of gasoline and pours it straight down the family’s well. Igniting it and exploding the well, The Leprechaun, and destroying the property value. This raising the cost of fixing the place. Both securing Tory’s affections, saving his coworkers, And securing his job in rebuilding the house.

Just in time for the sun to rise. The group to laugh about their horrific night fighting a talking scrotum in green fancy clothes, ignoring the fact Tory’s home is destroyed leaving them homeless, and her father is in the hospital still. Completely unaware of the fact a mythical creature bit him and tried killing his daughter and hired help.

The end!

I love this movie. It’s perfect early 90’s cheese and one of the few horror titles to survive the transition from the slasher craze and get itself a theatrical release. Because honestly today it would’ve been like its many sequels and remakes, a straight to dvd/streaming film. Which is unfortunate.

Big budget horror dominates the cinema and while I’m happy for Horror to still be in theaters, there was a time when a LOT of horror got released theatrically because it was good business. Drive-In’s used to be a place you could find them, but not so much now.

So this is one I will always cherish having seen in theaters and was glad to watch multiple times with my family. For my dad to find a horror film of mine he could actually stomach was saying something. And for him to laugh through it even more so.

Warwick is great in the movie and continued to be fun through most of the series. However he retired the role once he had kids and began focusing more on roles like in the Harry Potter franchise, and again with Star Wars.  Good for him, but also sad for us because once they replaced Warwick and the film series turned where it did. It’s been a trial of hit and miss, with mostly misses and one near hit. People just can’t really grasp what made Leprechaun so fun. So they try going straight up horror, which he isn’t. Then they almost got it right with the latest film. But it seemed too setup. I hope eventually they’ll get it right and stop trying to reinvent the Leprechaun wheel.

Until then though. We have a good number of fun films to go through in the series and I hope to cover those one day.

As for now, lets get to the music.

The Music

Once again we have a magical score that sounds exactly how it needed. Charmingly melodic, Irish and whimsical.

While being horrific and appropriately cheesy.

Seriously the main theme is a lot of fun. The flute carries the fun tone the movie is absolutely full of, and the serios violin notes that come in are just the tiniest touch of terror. It’s almost like telling you “Come along, it’s gonna be fun. You might lose an arm or a foot. But it’s all in good fun”

It just really has that feeling. I like music like that because it just hits a certain gleeful chord with me.

If you compare. Taking a nursery rhyme played out on a kids toy and playing it slowly. Even the ever popular taking a happy song and playing it dreadfully slowly. It can sound creepy, yes. Because its forced. Coming from a generation that would listen to tape cassettes in battery sucking Walkman players, you grow used to hearing your favorite song suddenly slow down and turn into something horrible. So of course that’ll sound a bit spoopy.

But if you actually take a cheerful melody, and add in touches of mischief to it, a rotten playfulness. You create something infinitely scarier and more memorable.

Originality goes farther than photoshopping someone elses work, by a country mile. It will always win. Always.

Kevin Kiner the composer got the feel of this film just right. Honestly when you hear the music, especially the beginning of the Main title theme, you almost get sort of a Tim Burton, Danny Elfman type vibe from it. Of course listening to the score now, you might also immediately picture the video game series FABLE, as the music has some similar notes to that in the game.

Each track in the film has an almost dream like essence to it and it captures that horror vibe well. Tracks like Rainbow, Ozzie and Alex. They play off cheerful and sincere. Sunshine before the storm. A lot of music in horror during the 90’s was hit and miss and some scores just got lost in the background. Until they were changed into something horrific and terrible later on. Thankfully this one came before those dark times. The flute in all of these is beautiful throughout and was something I wasn’t too familiar with at the time. At least nothing had ever really stood out for me back then. But it was an instrument that carried the main themes notes through the score and helped it worn its way into your brain. To the point any time someone talks about Leprechauns, you can just click the radio in your head and boom, there it is.

Really there’s something else to be appreciated too, and its sort of a funny compliment to the music here.

It does carry a very fairytale like, Fable vibe which works for the subject matter, and introduces that note of horror pretty nicely. But it also manages that beautiful straight to video goodness low budget sound.

Like I said it’s a funny and albeit odd compliment. But it really is a compliment! Movies have a certain tone to their music, and feel. When you rent or stream a ton of low budget movies. Your ear begins to pickup on it. Or should at least. Eventually your ear becomes trained to it and you can kind of pick it up and recognize that this was not a film made on a healthy budget. But this movie was! So having a film in theaters, with both a fun score that also captures that feel of cheese. It’s perfect. Kevin kiner knew what he was doing and bless the man for his work.

No really. Bless this mans hard working ass and beautiful music.

If you are a geek of any kind. You’ve heard his stuff, believe me.

Freaked by Alex Winters? He did that,

The Wind Commander movie? Yeah that too

Walker Texas Ranger?

The Clone Wars movie, The Clone Wars cartoon series, Star Wars Rebels,

Not your thing? How about some high brow stuff like Peacemaker, Narcos:Mexico

The man has done a lot and seeing his name pop up always makes me happy. He doesn’t get as much noticeable praise perhaps as others, but he should. He really has a great body of work and his music does stand out.

This is a fun score to get a hold of and listen through. Even funner honestly during Halloween. I’d actually go as far as to suggest it plays a hell of a lot better and WOULD get you more of a reception if you played it versus the HALLOWEEN theme. Which really, really, really has been played from there and back again.

Compared to the other Leprechaun films, it stands head and shoulders in quality above the others. But the other film scores are all held closely by Leprechaun hands in their own right for being fun listens. Just those film scores actually do sound more B movie like and not so whimsical. But they do carry that fun with them.

Give the movie a watch and this score a listen. You wont be disappointed and it’s well worth your time. Believe that.

Until tomorrow and our next film on the list. If you ever find a sack of gold coins in a tarantula infested car. Leave it the fuck alone. Don’t swallow it, and return it to its rightful owner, Especially. ESPECIALLY if it’s a cartel. You do not want to end up in a barrel of oil set on fire. Trust me on that.