Leprechaun Origins (2014)

After my previous disappointment with Leprechaun 4: In Space, I decided to forego the last three of the original six Leprechaun films for the sake of checking out the new one, Leprechaun Origins.

What the hell...

Where do I even begin.

I'm disappointed in a film I expected to be no good. The film is supposed to be a reimagining of the Leprechaun lore,  but this is really giving it too much credit. This movie is a painful reminder that this series in indeed dead, as if Leprechaun 4, 5, and 6 weren't testament to this enough.

This movie suffers from all the bad stuff, poor acting, poor writing, and poor character direction and development. The creature in this movie (and yes I mean the "Leprechaun" if you can call it that) is uninspired. I really felt like I was watching Feast or some other monster movie and I found myself really missing Warwick Davis' portrayal. The concept of the plot works. A group of American backpackers find themselves trapped in a cabin where the people of an Irish village intend to feed them to a Leprechaun to keep it from wreaking havoc on (or eating) the village people. But the characters make no sense. I didn't know which characters I was supposed to like. There are two couples. The first couple is of the girl that will obviously live in the end and her boyfriend. And the second I think is supposed to be the jackass character and his bitch girlfriend. These characters are confused though as I found myself liking the jackass and bitch more than the too seemingly main characters. I would even go as far to say that the main girl's boyfriend was a prick. And no. He isn't supposed to be. Or at least you'd think he isn't supposed to be because he and she both live in the end.

On top of all this too is this terrible blurring effect that ruins the terror. It is similar to the burred vision from the game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent when Daniel looks at the monsters straight on. It is always done in moderate light to hide the creatures face for some misguided attempt at suspense but it fails. Because it is a staggered effect, you get a good idea at what the monster looks like before what I assume the movie thought was going to be a "big reveal". It's frustrating. On one shot they didn't use this stupid effect but instead showed the creature in darkness so its looks are shrouded. This is unforgivable because it more or less tells me that they were able and competent enough to do the right thing. They just chose to do the stupid thing for reasons.

All these technical problems aside, I have to say I hated the demotion of the Leprechaun from villain to creature. Essentially your taking someone with as much personality as Freddy Krueger and redesigning him with the character of a sponge. Not a fun sponge either. All we still have that's true to the lore is the fact that the creature likes gold and is short. But we don't have that amazing make-up anymore that so brilliantly allowed Warwick Davis his iconic facial expressions. We don't really need it anymore. The creature says nothing in the whole film. I kept waiting for it too. Till the last moments of the film, I was waiting to see where this creature becomes the Warwick Davis Leprechaun. It never happens. I was hoping to something akin to the creature going back to its lair to see some green rags soon to be a little outfit. But no. Nothing. The creature is killed, the last couple gets away and the film makes some weak implication that there are more.

More?

More?!

This film is nonsense that is cashing in on the cult success of a dead franchise. Also, this film did not do the honest thing by just dropping the Origins title. This is in no way an origin film.

This film was a waste of my time and it was my mistake to allow myself to think that it would be anything more than nonsense. Do not watch this film. It in no way appeals to anyone. Not horror fans and definitely not Leprechaun fans.