When most people think “long running horror series”, they usually think of Halloween, Saw and The Conjuring. More die hard horror hounds have Hellraiser, Puppet Master, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Children of the Corn spring to mind. The one that doesn’t readily get thought of, is the Leprechaun series. Spawning 5 sequels and one remake, it deserves to alongside some of those lesser titles. Well, the franchise is about to be be firmly on your mind again, thanks to this trailer for Leprechaun Returns.
He’s already been to space. He’s already been 2 Da Hood (twice). So it makes sense to take Leprechaun back to his roots. Which is to say that Leprechaun Returns takes the popular route, jettisoning all previous canon, making this a direct sequel to the original. Unfortunately Warick David didn’t return to take on the titular role. That honor now belongs to Linden Porco (Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block). The make-up looks a tad wonky, though that would be forgivable, since in this timeline he was last seen melting, falling down a well. From the original Mark Holton is back as Ozzie, his face having healed nicely over the years. Surprising no one, Jennifer Aniston doesn’t appear involved here at all.
As we like to cover all bases, here’s wonderfully through official synopsis:
“The deadly, wisecracking Leprechaun is back in all his gory glory. When the sorority sisters of the Alpha Upsilon house decide to go green and use an old well as their water source, they unwittingly awaken a pint-sized, green-clad monster. The Leprechaun wants a pot of gold buried near the sorority house, but first, he must recover his powers with a killing spree—and only the girls of AU can stop him.”
The trailer has a cheapness to it, that doesn’t seem to lessen the fun at all. Part of that night be director Steven Kostanski. As one of the main members of Astro-6 he’s directed Manborg, along with co-directing Father’s Day and The Void. It’s easy to see the cross section between those in the footage. Goofy would be the operative word, yet that feels perfectly in-line with a movie wanting to capture the feel of a 90’s DTV title. Hopefully He pulls it off.
Release-wise Leprechaun Returns is taking an interesting path. It will land on both digital and VOD on December 11th. Accompanied by a few special featurettes. SyFy, which is a co-producer here, is planning a special airing on TV, next March. Likely as part of a St. Patrick’s Day marathon. It’s just hard to think of another time when a TV movie was released for sale, before it made it’s premiere. Since this is the Leprechaun series, it’s better not to think of these things for too long. Rest assured, we plan on doing some further investigating and will run a review of the film when it comes out. In the mean time, enjoy these two posters for the film.
