‘Leprechaun Origins’ is not what you’re expecting

The original Leprechaun film franchise was infamous for what it ended up becoming: a parody unto itself, culminating in C-movie fare like Leprechaun 4: In Space and Leprechaun: In the Hood. The admittedly-thin initial conceit of a murderous, wise-cracking (albeit sinister-looking) leprechaun seeking revenge upon those who had plundered his gold turned, over the course of a few films, into nothing more than an excuse for Warwick Davis to chew a lot of scenery. Leprechaun was born at the tail-end of the Freddy Krueger era, of course, so a smug, sarcastic monster can go a long way if you have a low enough budget, a willing distributor, plenty of blood and women taking off their clothes.

So when WWE Studios announced they were rebooting the franchise as a vehicle for actual WWE Superstar/leprechaun Hornswoggle, many fans assumed he would be picking up the mantle and buckled shoes vacated by Davis and ushering in a new era of wise-acre ghoul, perhaps one with the sensibilities of the WWE creative staff (which tends to prefer fart jokes to weed jokes). The match seems like a perfect fit on paper. The reality of Leprechaun Origins, however, is not the same beast as the Davis films. It hardly has anything in common with the franchise at all.

This is far from the first horror film produced by WWE Studios. One of the first movies they ever produced was See No Evil, a slasher film starring Kane that was heavy on the gore and a perfectly serviceable genre film. This year, they had a bona fide success with horror film Oculus, which had a budget of $5 million and grossed over $40 million theatrically. So they know how to make a horror film and it definitely shows with Leprechaun Origins, directed by Vancouver native Zach Lipovsky.

The first notable thing about Leprechaun Origins is that it looks fantastic. After the requisite in media res opening sequence where 20-somethings are chased down by an unseen menace, the film sets the scene with gorgeous aerial and crane shots of the lush Irish countryside (or a reasonable facsimile, as the film was largely shot in Vancouver). Given that the entire film was shot in 15 days, it is really unexpected that Origins would look half as good as it does. Lipovsky and scriptwriter Harris Wilkinson know what they’re doing. Namely, they’re making a paint-by-numbers horror film that is, in essence, a “gritty reboot” of the Leprechaun franchise ... when all is said and done, this is a reboot in name only.

The film quickly introduces four young adults traveling through Ireland. They stop in a small town well off the beaten path, and if their body language and wardrobe didn’t already signal as much, some hasty exposition makes the audience aware that, yes, these are four slasher film stock characters pulled directly off the assembly line. The film eventually does shift some of the dynamic that genre fans are all-too-familiar with, but largely these are the characters the horror film generator spat out, so the audience had better learn to live with them.

Soon enough, the leads are convinced by the locals to board in a cabin overnight. It’s the old “you have to survive a night in the haunted mansion” gag, but it’s set in motion by a burly Irish townie pushing his flatcap back on his head and saying, “I couldn’t help but overhear that you’re a bit of a history buff. We’ve got some rocks you should see!” Of course, it’s impossible to complain too loudly about the wheels that set the horror in motion, since that’s not what anyone is there to see.

Soon enough, the heroes are terrorized by the titular Leprechaun, played by Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl. If anyone was hoping for a grinning, pun-laden little man in a hat, they’re going to be sorely disappointed. Postl is completely unrecognizable, sporting a full body suit and prosthetic head. The character of the Leprechaun in Origins is inspired by subterranean mole rats, not by Darby O’Gill’s little people (although that doesn’t stop the characters from making at least one “Lucky Charms” quip in the film). “This isn’t your older brother’s Leprechaun,” one can imagine the producers saying. This leprechaun looks like a Guillermo Del Toro creation ... and is entirely mute, save for guttural roars and shrieks.

There’s surprisingly little gore, although the one moment of extreme gore in the film completely tore the house down at a test screening and is one of the best bait-and-switches in a horror film in recent years. But for all its contrivances and problems with editing (for a film which is shot as well as this is, there are issues with assembly that occasionally lead to missing action and more than a few instances where a jump-cut likely resulted from a shot the crew simply didn’t get), Leprechaun Origins absolutely works as a horror film. Teens and younger in the test screening audience were squirming, jumping, flapping their arms as they could sense dread was approaching. This is why the genre perseveres and remains ubiquitous: Horror doesn’t work because it’s clever or well-written or unique; horror works because it’s simple. It’s dark and there’s something out there and it’s going to jump out at you and tear your face off.

Leprechaun Origins isn’t a continuation of the Leprechaun series. It’s just a movie with a murderous leprechaun. As it turns out, sometimes that’s all you need.