173) Leprechaun: Origins (2014)

Halloween 2023's Somehow Leprechauns are Scary... Extravaganza!  (Part 7)   

"Cabin in the woods! What's not to like?"

Director
Zach Lipovsky

Cast
Stephanie Bennett - Sophie
Andrew Dunbar - Ben
Melissa Roxburgh - Jeni
Brendan Fletcher - David
Dylan "Hornswoggle" Postl - The Leprechaun
Garry Chalk - Hamish McConville
Teach Grant - Sean McConville

Mary Black - Mary


The powers that be in pretend evil leprechaun land decided to reinvent the wheel when it comes to these "Leprechaun" movies. This, I think, is a rare instance where a reboot isn't such a bad idea. 

"Leprechaun: Origins" came out 11 years after the previous "Leprechaun: Back to tha Hood." And this movie marks the first in the series not starring Warwick Davis in the titular role. 

"Leprechaun: Origins" could easily be its own film completely separated from ye olde campy horror comedy leprechaun movies. 

This seventh movie is all horror and no comedy. 

Nothing from the previous films is present. Even Lubdan the Leprechaun is gone. 

This leprechaun doesn't resemble the snarky, sarcastic, ugly but stereotypical leprechaun of yore.

This thing looks like something out of Mordor on a mission to do the will of Sauron. 

The movie starts with a young couple (as most horror movies do), Catherine and Francois, running from something out in a forest someplace in Ireland. Of course, it catches up and drags Francois away where it starts eating him.

Catherine tries running for her life towards a huge stone monolith in the middle of a field. But she doesn't quite make it. This mysterious creature grabs her, too, and that's the last we see of them. 

The story shifts to four American college students, David, Ben, Sophie and Jenni, who are travelling through Ireland. 

Sophie (Stephanie Bennett) is a history major interested in the monoliths out in the rural countryside. They have ancient markings carved on them which grabs her attention. 

The four of them make their way into a very small town that has a pub, as most Irish towns do.

They order a round of pints and talk history talk. 

A local old guy named Hamish McConville (Garry Chalk) overhears them speaking about history and barges in on their conversation to ramble about the history of the village. 

It used to be a gold mining town until the gold supply diminished. And when it did, the village population diminished, too. 

It's a leprechaun, not an Orc.

Hamish offers to take them to a cabin nearby so they can get an early start in the morning and hike to the old caverns where the gold mining took place. 

Hamish's son, Sean (Teach Grant), drives them out to a cabin where they spend the night. Little do they know that Hamish locked them in from the outside. 

That night, Jenni (Melissa Roxburgh), investigates strange noises outside. She sees some kind of creature out there, screams, and wakes everyone up. 

The four of them quickly figure out what Hamish has done. They're stuck inside! 

This mysterious creature sneaks in through the fireplace, and grabs Jenni's gold earring, ripping it out of her earlobe. 

It then chases them around the cabin until they manage to escape through a door in the fireplace. At that moment the creature grabs David's (Brendan Fletcher) leg and takes a nice bite out of it. 

They run to an empty house down the road and hide in the basement. 

Sophie finds an old book on mythical beings down there that has information about creatures called tuatha dé danann, or leprechauns. The picture in the book looks exactly like what was chasing them.

Evidently, the leprechaun chasing them had a claim over the gold that the local villagers had mined. So, the locals owe a debt to the leprechaun. 

They offer tourists to the leprechauns, along with their gold, in compensation for what they took out of the mine. 

And these four are the next offering to the leprechaun who wants every last piece of gold compensated for.

Kudos to the producers for taking the franchise out of L.A., and space, and "tha hood," and putting it back over to Ireland. It put this type of horror where it fits best - at the root. 

The story is a brutal and bloody reimagining of "Leprechaun." And the writers-that-be really went all in on the reimagining part. They definitely sat down and did some full-on reimagining. This barely resembles the original other than they both have an angry leprechaun wanting its gold, along with some young kids trapped in an old house fighting to save their lives. 

Unlike the other movies, this one has a major horror feel to it. That's primarily thanks to its cabin-in-the-woods story. But, like the previous "Leprechaun: Back to tha Hood," the characters are uninteresting and easily forgettable. The story tries to make them likeable so the audience will sympathize with them in their nightmarish plight, but it doesn't work. They're just there to be picked off one by one. 

Melissa Roxburgh in "Leprechaun: Origins."

What's even more annoying is the way the leprechaun is constantly obscured by shadows, blur, cutaways, and shaky camera work. It's effective, maybe, in the first act. By the third act, it's pointless and frustrating. 

"Leprechaun: Origins" strives to be dark, gritty, gory and horrific. For the most part, it succeeds in that regard. When I say, "somehow leprechauns are scary," this movie tries to make that true. This makes sense as director Zach Lipovsky is also a visual effects specialist. 

The leprechaun, played by WWE wrestler Dylan 'Hornswoggle' Postl, doesn't spook his victims with silly Irish styled Halloween limericks, and stating such things like "I want me gold." It snarls and chases with no mercy nor compassion. It's vicious and grotesque. It's more cryptid than mythical. 

This strange reimagining makes the movie a modern creature feature with the title "Leprechaun" slapped on it to give the film some significance and distinction among all the other cabin in the wood's horror creature features. 

It's the same story but a different style and approach. As for the title "origins," we don't get any deep insight into the "origin" of the leprechaun. "Leprechaun: Back to tha Hood" has more origin story than this movie. A more accurate title for this seventh installment might be "Leprechaun: Motives." 

Anyways, the visuals in themselves are affective and truly horrific. The same is true about the film's atmosphere.

All the typical horror tropes are there. There are the lone vulnerable college students completely out of their element, the spooky rural cabin, creepy small-towners, a working vehicle without keys, and an antiquated book with all the answers!

The writers obviously wanted to make this distinct. And, yes, it is distinct. I can't bash "Leprechaun: Origins" too much for accomplishing something different, but it's different in appearance only. The general storyline is the same as the rest of the movies, but with heavier blood and gore. There's plenty of it. Though it's a major turnaround from the previous movies, it is predictable, cliche, and really still the same old thing but with a much darker and serious tone. "Leprechaun: Origins" is a nice try at best. In the least, it deserves a participation award.