Title: Leprechaun: Origins (2014)
Director: Zach Lipovsky
Runtime: 90 minutes

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For some reason, on St. Patrick’s Day this year, I thought it would be a great idea to watch the entire Leprechaun series, back-to-back, while getting trashed. Ah, the things I do for Cinefessions. Now, we get a prequel to the series, Leprechaun: Origins, brought to us by the fine folks at WWE. Yep, you can only imagine how this is going to play out.

Four American tourists arrive in Ireland on vacation. Soon they come face to face with a local legend: the Leprechaun. Seriously, that’s the plot. No one has stolen the Leprechaun’s gold, nor is he a wisecracking, creepy, little person. The cast is entirely unlikable, painfully white, and I really couldn’t wait for them to die. Trust me, it takes way to long for our tiny cast to start dropping.

So much is wrong with Leprechaun: Origins that I just don’t now where to start. I’m trying to think of one nice thing to say, but really I can’t. The setting is a bland cabin in the woods, there’s a phallic rock, cookie cutter characters, terrible editing and design choices, and this debacle was still, somehow, released.

Lets get one thing straight: Leprechaun: Origins has absolutely nothing to do with the original series. It’s not a reboot, but rather a completely different type of film. The biggest change is the Leprechaun himself, who roams around for the first 45-minutes, panting and growling like a werewolf. He has Predator-like night vision, and crawls everywhere. Once we see the creature – because let’s be honest, that is exactly what it is – it’s just laughable. I’ve seen make-up effects on episodes of Face-Off that look better than this weird mummy/werewolf hybrid “Leprechaun”.

At one point our not-so-attractive cast ends up tied to trees while the leprechaun sniffs around for gold on their bodies. I’m sorry but I seriously doubt this chick would have a gold tongue ring, and the guy would have big, gold necklaces around his neck. Of course, I’m watching a film about a killer Leprechaun, so I guess I should suspend some of my disbelief. Anyway, people get hurt, and we see some really piss poor gore effects. The sheer fact that these effects made it into the film like this is amazing because it’s perfectly laughable, and this is coming from the guy who gets low-end, B-horror films thrown at him like candy.

I wish I could say Leprechaun: Origins is good, or even entertaining. Instead, it’s so awful that I wish I had passed it by. The sheer fact that the WWE was promoting the film, and even thought of a full theatrical release, is scary. This is SyFy quality, and not even on par with The Asylum’s work. Yes, it’s that bad, and if you’re a fan of the series, just skip it because you’ll find no entertainment value here.

Chris Ranson

Chris was raised on horror films, which gave him a deep love for the genre, especially its most quirky and offbeat titles (like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2). This love quickly turned into an obsession for cinema in 1997, when he decided he needed to see every major theatrical release. Video games (JRPGs), reading (anything but fantasy), and reality television (Survivor) are just some of his other passions. He’s been with Cinefessions since 2013, and has been writing reviews all over the internet for the past twelve years.