Dir. Rodman Flender (1994)
An evil leprechaun is determined to make the descendent of one of his slaves his bride on his thousandth birthday.
Slasher franchises don't particularly need a good beginning to spawn a litany of sequels, and often the first film in a series is deeply flawed. These flaws are also sometimes hard to recover from, as we see in the first Leprechaun film, a movie that is only really worth watching to appreciate Jennifer Aniston's inexplicable rise to stardom. And yet, because of the influx of rentals after she hit it big, Leprechaun 2 got greenlit. In fact, the original draft of the film dealt with her character Tory Redding, but Aniston turned down the $25,000 offered to her because she was focused on friends. Probably a good call, J-An. Nevertheless, the makers of this film managed to trick Tristar and Lionsgate into bringing the film to theaters, where it bombed spectacularly and sent the rest of the films in the franchise straight to video.
The only film in the series to take place on Saint Patrick's Day (which seems like a massive oversight by the writers of the other movies), Leprechaun 2 features the story of Bridget (Shevonne Durkin), a long distant relative of one of the Leprechaun's (Warwick Davis) slaves who he has determined to make his bride. Her boyfriend Cody (Charlie Heath) is tasked with saving her from her fate, despite not being a particularly good boyfriend (and an even worse hearse driver). After
The original film seemed to take itself too seriously, torn in between trying to be a comedy and a slasher movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sequel knew exactly what it was, giving Warwick Davis a ton of genuinely funny one-liners and leaning more heavily into the gore and the violence. A sequel doesn't need to be good, per se, as much as it needs to fulfill the promise delivered by the original film, and Leprechaun 2 does that far better than its predecessor. It's silly, ridiculous, and hammingly overacted, but that's exactly what you should expect when watching a slasher movie starring a little person as a leprechaun. If you came into this expecting a film like Hereditary, I don't even know what to tell you.
One of the reasons horror fans love slasher films are because they never fail to up the ante and the body count, and Leprechaun 2 does that. Granted, there's still only five kills, but they're definitely creatively pulled off and well done. Davis has said in the past that he wanted to keep the films relatively tame, and so far the franchise definitely is. Still, there are some interesting shots and some funny distasteful jokes throughout, and I have no hesitation in saying that the sequel, in this case, is far better than the original. There's even a cameo from Mad TV's Michael McDonald that's hilarious, gruesome, and a treat for 90's comedy fans.
When I decided to take on this franchise for St. Patrick's Day, I was excited to dig into the films of my people (I'm Irish, allegedly). After I finished Leprechaun, I was decidedly less so. This one gives me a little more hope for the series, and while I knew I wasn't going to be getting the cream of the horror crop, I was at least hoping for some entertaining movies. Leprechaun 2 is wildly entertaining, genuinely funny, and has just enough blood to make the horror faithful happy. I certainly wouldn't call it a great movie, but it is wildly entertaining and self-aware enough to deliver on what it promises. If you haven't seen this one already, it's definitely a good watch.
Who this movie is for: Slasher franchise aficionados, Holiday horror fans, Ewoks
Bottom line: Leprechaun 2 is everything Leprechaun should've been and wasn't. It's funny, extremely entertaining, and a lot gorier than I would've expected going in. With some creative kills and some fantastic one-liners from the incomparable Warwick Davis, this is one that is worth a watch even if you hated the original. All of the films in the series are streaming on Peacock, so you can binge watch them with me today!
