A new sorority fixes up an old farmhouse only to discover too late that it was the site of a leprechaun attack 25 years ago and the creature is awake and wants it’s gold by any means necessary.

Judging a Book by its Cover

I don’t see Warwick Davis’ name anywhere on this poster, what the hell…

Do leprechauns generally live in wells in the middle of forests?

Who knew over two decades ago that there would still be Leprechaun movies being made!

Be careful what you wish for!

Directed by Steven Kostanski

Starring Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga and Linden Porco

Click here to get caught up on the original Leprechaun first.

Lila (Spreitler) arrives in the small town of Devil’s Lake where she’s joined a group of university girls who are fixing up an old house several miles away from the school and turn it into the school’s first sorority.  In an amazing coincidence, Lila’s mother had lived in the home twenty-five years ago and was a bit whacko talking about monsters until her death a year ago.  Lila gets a drive from the town’s sole taxi driver, Ozzie (played by Mark Holton reprising his role from the original.)  He doesn’t let on about the leprechaun shenanigans that happened all those years ago but as soon as he looks down the well the creature supposedly died in so long ago, it erupts in green water which gets in his mouth.  Soon a leprechaun bursts out of Ozzie’s stomach, which isn’t quite as bad as coming out of someone’s dick like in Part 4.

This is what happened to all those Chicken McNuggets you ate.

As the college girls party the night away, Lila is visited by the leprechaun.  After a taste test, the creature determines Lila to be the daughter of Jennifer Aniston’s character from the original and figures she knows where his gold — the source of his power — is after all this time.  Coming to realize that her mother wasn’t talking crazy all this time, she remembers her mother saying she killed the creature so he explains that if you don’t destroy the entire body of a leprechaun, it truly isn’t dead.  How convenient!  Until he gets his gold though, the leprechaun is more than willing to kill everyone until every last coin is back.

sigh

While the leprechaun obviously looks very different in this sequel, the new actor (Porco) does what he can to emulate Warwick Davis’ reading and mannerisms but if you don’t have Warwick Davis as the Leprechaun, why bother?  While I do like the new look, there’s far too much high pitched cackling in between mumbling line reads which came off more irritating than humorous.  You’re annoying me, leprechaun!

The girls are your standard tropes, like the party girl, the super serious girl and the token race girl.  Throw in a couple of the dumber male students just looking to laid and we have our collection of future leprechaun victims.  Keeping in mind this film franchise is very much a horror/comedy, the kills are quite over the top and the most enjoyable part of the film, for example, one girl running through a sprinkler system gets one shoved into her mouth and shoots blood everywhere.  Maybe my favorite was one of the guys getting split in two by a solar panel falling off the roof.

Leprechaun Returns is a direct sequel to the original 1993 film and pretends the sequels never happened, much like the latest Halloween, and the less said about the reboot, Origins, the better.  Returns does just that and brings the series back to its horror/comedy roots which, to me, was always pretty hit or miss in both categories.  There are moments that will make you laugh and the gore is entertaining but there are just as many if not more moments where you’ll roll your eyes as you realize this is the eighth (!) Leprechaun movie.  If you’re not a fan, then this won’t covert you at all, but in the pantheon of Leprechaun films, this is actually one of the better ones!  Take that as you will.

TL;DR

Story: 3 – A group of university girls cleans up an old farmhouse to be their new sorority but they don’t know it’s the same place that Jennifer Aniston killed a leprechaun twenty-five years ago.  And it’s not dead!

Blood: 7 – Another Leprechaun movie delivers the gory goods with tongue in cheek moments like a decapitation via drone, a woman getting facially impaled with a trowel and more.

Nudity: 0 – C’mon, just because it’s a TV movie there aren’t any boobs?  😦

Overall: 5 – I mean, if you’ve watched the others, why not this one?

Trivia

Warwick Davis was offered the chance to reprise his role but declined. He said his view of the genre has changed significantly since becoming a father and he doesn’t think he’ll appear in any more horror films.

The sorority house is Alpha Upsilon, abbreviated as AU. Gold is AU on the periodic table of elements.

Alternate titles considered were “Leprechaun Lives!” and “Leprechaun: Renewable Enemy” which is pretty stupid.