If the 1980s was a golden decade for horror movies, seeing the blooming of enjoyable sagas like Friday the 13th, Child’s Play or A Nightmare on Elm Street, the 1990s was its ugly bastard brother. Because besides being a road to the decadence of the previously mentioned sagas (a decadence that still runs to date), new ones with a doubtfully quality saw the light. One of those new started sagas with Leprechaun (1993), a movie about an evil, sadistic Leprechaun who goes on a killing rampage in search of his beloved pot of gold. The first movie wasn’t that bad, it was starred by a debutant Jennifer Aniston and the always enjoyable Warwick Davis, the immortal Willow Ufgood from Willow (1988), who also starred in the awful sequels, being Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (2003) his last portrait of the role. The character was burnt out, and the collection of bad sequels killed all the possible interest by the fans.
But recently there’s a fever of revival of any horror saga existed and in Syfy they decided to bring back to life the character with the best of intentions. They hired director Steven Kostanski, responsible of the fantastic The Void (2016), and co-director of one of the best Troma movies of this decade, Father’s Day (2011), to carry on with this new project. Suzanne Keilly, who has been one of the writers of wonderful TV series Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-2016), was in charge of the screenplay. And that is how Leprechaun Returns (2018) spawned, a production between Blue Ice Pictures and Syfy.
Twenty-five years ago, a young woman and her friends stopped an evil Leprechaun by shoving a four-leaf clover in its mouth and watching its melting body fall into a well in North Dakota. What happened to his pot of gold is anyone’s guess. Today, the property is run by the AU Sorority House of a premiere Eco-science college. A group of students decide to spend their summer vacation turning the house into a perfect “green” living abode. And it would be challenging enough, without the depraved Leprechaun they unwittingly revive. Now he’s back and determined to get his gold by teaching these ladies a lesson in murder. Except, they aren’t having it. The women band together to find his gold and add, taking down a misogynistic Leprechaun to their course load. So, it is a direct sequel of the first movie Leprechaun (1993), ignoring all the rest of sequels done along this quarter of a century.
Linden Porco incarnates the evil Leprechaun for the first time. Together with him, Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, Sai Bennett and Mark Holton complete the main cast. It has been Rated R for horror violence/gore and some sexual references. Syfy has announced the 11th of December as the official date where the movie will be part of their catalog of Video on Demand. Here you can find the official trailer of Leprechaun Returns (2018):
