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Quote:

Zombies are the middle children of the otherworldly family. Vampires are the oldest brother who gets to have a room in the attic, all tripped out with a disco ball and shag carpet. Werewolves are the youngest, the babies, always getting pinched and told they're cute. With all that attention stolen away from the middle child zombie, no wonder she shuffles off grumbling, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha."

- Kevin James Breaux

Monday, March 16, 2015

Film Review: LEPRECHAUN: ORIGINS (2014)



Leprechauns are to be feared.  This is the mindset behind Leprechaun: Origins (2014), the reboot of the long running franchise of evil Leprechaun films that starred Warwick Davis as the menacing Irish creature.  WWE has decided to revive the franchise with a more realistic and gritty take (i.e. See No Evil – 2006) and have brought along wrestling superstar Dylan ‘Hornswoggle’ Posti as the new and redesigned creature. 

Sophie (Stephanie Bennett) and her friends (Andre Dunbar, Melissa Roxburgh, and Brendan Fletcher) are backpacking in the Ireland countryside when a local by the name of Hamish (Garry Chalk) leads them to an out of the way area not traveled by tourist.  Sophie is taken in by Hamish’s stories and believes this detour will be good for her studies in Ireland history.  Unbeknownst to them Hamish has more nefarious plans as Sophie and her friends soon realize that they are the latest sacrifices to the fabled leprechaun who haunts all the nearby lands.  Now they must escape not only the claws of the leprechaun but the clutches of Hamish and his people who will not allow anyone to disrupt the sacrificial slaughter.

Written by Harris Wilkinson and directed by Zach Lipovsky there is a lot to like about the film in regards to the smarter than expected characters and the grittier look and fill to the film.  There are even several really good suspenseful moments in the film but what really brings the film down is the repetitive nature of the story which is there just to pad the running time of the film (since they need to stretch the kills out instead of having just one big slaughter).  This being said, there little else to deter this film and it is a good way to kick start a new franchise for those bored with the campy original series.  There is a lot of territory left to be explored in subsequent films and I hope they decide to dig deeper because there just aren’t enough good killer leprechaun films out there.

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