Leprechaun 2 – Warwick nails it

I don’t know why the ‘Leprechaun’ films don’t seem to be held in such high regard with horror fans as others like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and the ‘Friday 13^th’ series.  It’s definitely up there with the latter ‘Freddy movies’ as from part 2 of the ‘Leprechaun’ franchise the ‘horror’ is definitely tuned down and the humour is cranked up.

That’s not to say there isn’t a fair amount of gory deaths, it’s just they’re now played for laughs with a witty one-liner from the titular supernatural killer.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen the first film.  You don’t need to.  All you need to know is that there’s a psychotic leprechaun lose in an American city on St Patrick’s Day and that he doesn’t take kindly to people trying to steal his gold.

I can’t help but liken ‘Leprechaun’ to the ‘Elm St’ films as you don’t really watch one of them because of the human characters.  They’re just fleshbags who you know are destined to be clawed to death by Freddy in all sorts of hellish fashions.  It’s the same here.  The humans who we’re supposed to (begrudgingly) root for are all pretty bland and one dimensional.  It’s Warwick Davis who we come to see.  He makes the movie what it is and steals every scene.

In this outing, he’s trying to marry a local American girl – much to her and her boyfriend’s disapproval.  In terms of ‘heroes’ the film-makers really scraped the bottom of the barrel with these two.  They are the definition of bland and forgettable.  I doubt you’ll remember either of the characters’ names by the time the credits roll.  However, I should at least give a nod to Sandy Baron who actually puts some effort into his performance and is a likable addition to the human cast, trying to thwart the Leprechaun’s plans.

If you don’t take your horror too seriously then you definitely need to give this – and all the ‘Leprechaun’ franchise – a watch. 

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that