Leprechaun 2 was the first entry in the fairly long Leprechaun franchise that I ever saw. I had purchased a Vidmark Entertainment VHS tape from a Venus Video Superstore that was selling out every last tape it had. For one buck, it was a steal, no matter how bad it might be. I took it home and called up a friend of mine, and when I told him about my new addition, he exclaimed “Awesome”. So I went over to his place, and we watched it with his girlfriend. It wasn’t good. But then again, we didn’t have our sole attention on the story. We thought of the Leprechaun movies as cheap, silly, and laughable, even before we ever watched one. I now own a Lionsgate DVD of the film, and critiquing can be measured correctly. Still, maybe we were onto something. Is Leprechaun 2 still shit?
Once upon a time ago in Ireland, a leprechaun’s plan to have a beautiful young lady as his bride by making her sneeze thrice is foiled by his slave William O’Day (James Lancaster). The leprechaun (Warwick Davis) promises that the fairest offspring of the man in one thousand years will be his wife. Cut to 1994, where Bridget (Shevonne Durkin), the most worthy descendant of O’Day, is dating Cody (Charlie Heath), the grandson of a drunk named Morty (Sandy Baron). However, the leprechaun has made his way to the US, and the time to marry has come. Through trickery and death, the little man will try everything in his power to capture poor Bridget. Will there be anything left of these townspeople once Leprechaun 2 has finished?
If there’s anything that Leprechaun 2 has going against it, it’s the fact that Bridget is the furthest away from charismatic as possible. She blows off Cody to hang out with Ian (Adam Biesk), who she gives false hope to with her semi-date. Her voice is rough, and she always seems to be fed up with something. I like how this sequel tweaks the formula by having a lead woman whose not so pure, but for the majority of the film, Bridget is almost at disposable as the random hobo. Clint Howard makes an appearance as a tourist with his wife (Kimmy Robertson), who is suckered in to take a ride on the Darkside Tour, which is the business Cody and his grandfather own. All of the characters are weak, averagely acted, and kind of boring. On the bright side, it goes by faster than Part One.
This movie is definitely an odd one in terms of continuity. The demise of the leprechaun at the end of the original is not mentioned here, so perhaps Part Two takes place before One. But there’s certainly no excuse for the new mythology introduced. What happened to four-leaved clovers? They’ve been replaced by raw iron. This is sort of contradictory considering safes are made out of iron. A safe is used to capture the green fellow in this entry, but in the previous film, the leprechaun purposely put itself into an iron safe. How silly. At least some things remained. Like in the original, this leprechaun is very greedy for gold, and he’ll snatch the gold tooth out of an old man any day, no matter how small it is. But I still can’t get over the fact that Warwick Davis lives in a tree. Creativity is good, but how far should the mind wander from reality?
The body count is more like a harm count. At first, this frisky being only wants two things, and that’s his bride and gold. In search for new shiny valuables, he’ll make homeless men bleed and business men lose their ring fingers. It’s not until he comes close to Bridget that people start dropping like flies. He tricks Ian with a nude illusion of Bridget, in order to plunge his mouth into a whirring blade, seemingly something you might find underneath a lawnmower. You’d think it would be the gory highlight of the movie, but it’s not. Hell, none of the effects are very gruesome with quick cuts and spurts of blood on the walls. A finger rip isn’t gooey, a boiling face isn’t lingered on long enough, and a stomach’s contents being ripped out is...bloodless. It seems like borderline bloody, but overall, it’s hardly anything. How disappointing.
The original leprechaun was never deeply dark, but this one is just giddy. He has more rhymes and laughs than before, but his presence isn’t nearly as interesting. Leprechaun 2 dives into tongue in cheek horror, and though it’s better made than the first Leprechaun, it’s only on the same entertainment level. You can find Leprechaun 2 on a widescreen DVD with its trailer in a triple feature release by Lionsgate. The other films included are Leprechaun and Leprechaun 3. The disc for Part Two also has trailers for these films. The picture is clean and the sound is fair. Remember, it’s not Child’s Play, and it’s a bad film, but if you can find it in your heart to make a date with it, you may not regret. Generosity is the key. Rent it!
