Guilty Pleasures: Leprechaun 2
This week we will be celebrating Saint Paddy’s day. So it’s not like I had a choice to NOT do a Leprechaun film this year. It’d be like not doing a Silent Night, Deadly Night film come Christmas Time. However the question is each film should I pick?
Let’s go back to how I define a guilty pleasure. For me the best definition was in Chuck Klosterman’s book Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs when it was defined as ‘something you say you like ironically when you legitimately enjoy it’. Furthermore we have to remember that everything I cover comes from my massive collection of DVDs and CDs (most of which would embarrass the average person). So right off the bat I must remove Leprechaun, Leprechaun in the Hood and Leprechaun Back 2 the Hood as they managed to get 28% and higher freshness on rottentomatoes. No I must dig deeper to Leprechaun in Space or Leprechaun 2… both with a 0% rating. Most people enjoy Leprechaun in Space since it’s just ridiculous enough to be entertaining, so that leaves Leprechaun 2 which is personally my favorite of the entire film series.
Leprechaun 2 (also known as One Wedding and Lots of Funerals… I can’t make this shit up) begins on St. Patrick’s day 1094, on our titular character’s one thousandth birthday. On this day he can pick any woman to be his bride, he chooses the daughter of his slave. In an act of fatherly love he stops the Leprechaun from completing his spell. The Leprechaun declares that in 1000 more years he will enslave the next child in the blood line before killing his slave.
Well it seems the Leprechaun was one hundred years early in this declaration as the film takes to 1994. The Leprechaun immediately finds the youngest in his old slaves bloodline Bridget Callum and kidnaps her. It’s up to her boyfriend Cody and his alcoholic uncle Morty to rescue her.
The movie is packed with plot holes, bad acting and stupid twists. So why is it my favorite Leprechaun movie? Two Words. Death Scenes. When it comes to horror the more interesting, innovative and sometimes funny the death scenes are, the better the movie.
Two of my favorite death scenes in any film appear in this b-level sequel. The first one involves a boy coming to seduce Bridget. Using his magical powers the Leprechaun creates the illusion of Bridget naked begging the boy to kiss her breasts (and what lovely breasts they are, kudos to the stand-in). As he leans in to kiss them the breasts turn into a pair of lawnmower blades that promptly tear his face to shreds.
Later in the film drunk uncle Morty makes a deal with Leprechaun where he’ll set him free if he grants him a wish. For his wish he asks for the Leprechaun’s Pot of Gold, and he gets it. The pot of gold begins to grow inside of his stomach. It’s a pretty interesting special effect where you see his stomach grow like the Octomom. He begs the Leprechaun to take the Gold out of him, so he slices open his chest and removes it.
The Leprechaun films should always be taken with a grain of salt. It’s hard to sit down and watch one of these films with high expectations, you pretty much either get what you expected and enjoy yourself, or you find yourself extremely bored.
Leprechaun 2 hits the right horror notes (which is rare for a Leprechaun film) and hits the right comedy notes (which is rare for early 90’s horror movies). Unlike the previous film it plays up the gore and the comedy, however the future films focused too much both of these elements that the films lose some of it’s appeal. Due to the the fact that film just barely broke even box office wise, this was the last of the Leprechaun films to get a theatric release.
With cameo’s from Tony Curtis and Clint Howard and a sequence involving a bar full of midgets dressed like Leprechauns you know this is a worth at least one viewing.
Tell us about your favorite Guilty Pleasure in the official Guilty Pleasures Thread.
When he’s not watching some of the worst sequels of all time Matt Kelly can be found tweeting, hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show and writing in his blog Pure Mattitude.
