Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996) Someone obviously saw 'Aliens'

Yes, it's the time when a franchise 'jumps the shark' and does something totally against the rules of the story, just to squeeze another few quid out of the fanbase.  I may have watched - and admittedly enjoyed - the first three 'Leprechaun' films, but that doesn't mean I can recall much about them.  They were daft, cheesy fun and I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching them, but I certainly can't remember how the third entry ended.

I guess it must have ended with the evil little sprite getting into a rocket and soring into the future.  Or something.  Either way, who cares?  This time he's aboard a spaceship killing the crew.  That's pretty much all you need to know about the plot.

At least the film-makers knew that were generally stretching the premise a little too far this time round and had fun with the project.  As with so many films post 1979 (if they're ripping off 'Alien') or 1986 (if they've chosen 'Aliens' to mimic) it's like both classic screenplays have been squashed together in a kind of 'knowing' way.  We have a team of - effectively - Colonial Marines who have to take on the titular little nasty while he tries his best to wed some random space princess who's being experimented on in the ship's science labs.

Once again, Warwick Davis is he true star and, if you're a fan of the previous films, you'll enjoy watching his murderously insane antic aboard a spaceship.  The marines are pretty generic and you won't really remember many of their names once they're slowly picked off one by one. However, I feel the 'damsel' (/princess) who needs saving is worth a special mention, simply because she's just as nasty as the leprechaun himself and having the two of them teaming up side to side is a joy to watch.  Also, for those of us of a certain age, we may remember the classic British sit-com 'Allo Allo.' If you, like me, can remember the slightly camp German Second World War officer, Lieutenant Gruber, then it's certainly weird seeing him as some sort of eccentric half cyborg scientist (but fun!).

Which is more than can be said for the special effects.  I've seen some poor CGI in my time, but the spaceships and in-genre effects like forcefields are really poor.  I read online that even the film-makers were not happy with the overall results and claimed they were worse than a Playstation 1's cutscenes.

Anyway, yes, 'Leprechaun 4: In Space' is definitely a shameless cash grab and offers little new.  But, if - like me - you're a fan of the series and don't mind the major cheese-factor then you'll get some fun out of this one.  Even if it's just for the 'plate scene death' where a character gets his face flattened in something akin to a Loonie Toons cartoon - still makes me smile just thinking about it.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights