Leprechaun 3 – Warwick nails it again

I’m pretty sure the ‘Leprechaun 2’ and ‘Leprechaun 3’ weren’t shot back to back, but they certainly feel like they could have been.  This isn’t really a spoiler for ‘part 3’ but let’s just say that the ending to ‘part 2’ isn’t really addressed and you just have to go with it.

This time, the titular antagonist has found himself in Las Vegas – and begins to cause lethal havoc in a city that’s got enough gold for every leprechaun in Ireland.

‘Part 3’ does feel like it takes a little while longer to get going than the previous two films.  This could be because the leprechaun seems to spend about the first half hour of the story in a single location – engaged in a cat and mouse game with a local pawn broker, who doesn’t really feel like he deserves the amount of screen time he’s afforded when the whole film is looked at.

This stad-off is intercut with scenes of our two ‘heroes’ meeting and going about their own lives in Vegas.  Now, I pointed out that the two leads in part 2 were hardly going to win any Oscars with their performances, but they’re due for their own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when compared to the two we have here.  Not only are they even blander than their predecessors (if that’s even possible!), but they just don’t seem the types to every really hang out in real life, let alone be a possible romantic couple.

So, again, the main – and only – reason to watch the film is Warwick Davis, who seems to find it easy to slide into manic delight with every passing kill he carries out.

If you’re a fan of parts 1 and 2 then you can’t go far wrong with part 3, but if you’re new to the franchise, then you’re not going to get much ‘outright horror’ here – more gruesome supernatural black comedy/horror.  And, if that’s your thing, you’ll get it in big red bucketloads here, but you’re probably better off starting with the first film, as it is technically superior.

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