| |
Leprechaun 2
|
|
| Year: |
1994
|
|
Director: |
Rodman Flender
|
| Stars: |
Warwick Davis, Charlie Heath, Shevonne Durkin, Sandy Baron, Adam Biesk, James Lancaster, Linda Hopkins, Arturo Gil, Kimmy Robertson, Clint Howard, Andrew Craig, David Powledge, Billy Beck, Al White, Martha Hackett, Jonathan R. Perkins, Tony Cox
|
| Genre: |
Horror, Comedy |
| Rating: |
  5 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
A thousand years ago in Ireland, William O'Day (James Lancaster) was trying to flee his master through the forest in the dead of night but the collar that had been attached to him had supernatural properties and stopped him in his tracks. Then his master appeared: the Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) who has him in his magic thrall, but promises his freedom if he allows him to get married. It's who the little creature is being married to which proves the problem: he takes William to spy on the woman he has his eye on and she turns out to be his own daughter (Shevonne Durkin), much to the man's horror. But he gives in for the gift of being set free and runs off, though the Leprechaun won't allow him to get away that easily...
That's the thing about the Leprechaun, there's always a catch, always a clause in the contract to see that he has the upper hand eventually, which was clear when this sequel was the first of five to grace the video stores of the world, though this second instalment actually saw the inside of cinemas as its original had. That said, there was more chance to rent this of an evening to appreciate over the beer and pizza than there was to enjoy it over a bucket of popcorn, and perhaps of all the horror franchises of the nineties this was best suited to home video when expectations were far from high. In effect, this series was the horror movie equivalent of an Irish theme pub.
If that makes you cringe, then that was all to the good as far as Warwick Davis was concerned, because from the outset this had leaned on the humour of its premise, recognising it was really rather silly instead of very scary. Was there anyone who had been scared by a Leprechaun film apart from Garth from Wayne's World? We're not counting the genuinely freaky Disney favourite Darby O'Gill and the Little People, since that did frighten whole generations of young movie fans, an effect a million miles away from what was dreamed up by the creation here which was more groaning at the jokes and laughing at how shamelessly idiotic it was willing to get for its goals of cheesy entertainment.
In this case, imagine if Freddy Kreuger had shrunk three feet but could still conjure up the magic powers and you had some idea of the nonsense played out before you in Leprechaun 2. While Davis was patently relishing his role with its corny jokes and daft rhymes, his Irish accent hadn't improved from the first instalment, which funnily enough was very fitting for an American production showing its typically tone deaf treatment of all things hailing from the Emerald Isle; most Irish would be used to the idea of what their nation brought out in those across the Atlantic, with this the equivalent of getting hammered on St. Patrick's Day and trying to invent some kind of amusement in the process. Here the little guy was still planning to get wed some thousand years later in the present of the nineties, to the same girl, too (what a weird way to spell Siobhan).
Well, the same actress anyway, as Bridget is the looky-likey descendant of the woman in the prologue, but the Leprechaun has reckoned without the plucky presence of her boyfriend Cody (Charlie Heath), who like her is finishing school and creating an income by drumming up custom for the death tour of Los Angeles his uncle Morty (Sandy Baron) runs, or would if he was not falling over drunk most of the time. That one couple Cody persuades into the customised hearse is Clint Howard and Kimmy Robertson (of Twin Peaks) should give you some idea of the calibre of material in store, but by that point we had already had an earful of Davis's creaky quips so were well prepared. That this was relentlessly foolish was no impediment to the chuckle factor, and watching the villain contrive both gory deaths in his Irish theme movie (death by pot o' gold, er, lawnmower, um coffee urn... OK, inspiration was thin on the ground) and his machination towards his wedding was stupidly diverting. On video in the UK it was known as One Wedding and Lots of Funerals, that's the level of it. Music by Jonathan Elias.
|
| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
|
| |
|
| Rodman Flender (1964 - )
American director and horror fan who got his break from Roger Corman. Mostly works in television, but has helmed the first Leprechaun sequel and gruesome comedy Idle Hands. |
|
|
