Leprechaun: Origins

Hiking through the Irish countryside, a group of tourists encounter a group of demented locals living in a remote village offering sacrifices to a deadly leprechaun intending them to be next and must find a way to fight off the villagers as well as the deadly creature. This one isn't nearly as bad as it's reputation. One of the strongest aspects of this one is the fact that there's a lot of work done here to enhance the historical connection of their trip with the folklore of the area. The film features some rather enjoyable work about the story of the Celtic origins of the area, from their stories about the past settlers and it's connection to the different monuments around the woods to the different measures of protecting them from the creature as it sets out to hunt them one-by-one all manage to readily make this one quite nice in that regard. As well, there's plenty of incredibly fun action to be had throughout here which carries this one along quite fast and frantic, with the opening stalking of the couple lost in the woods, the later scene of the group getting chased through the woods into the secondary cabin where not only do they come face-to-face with the true intentions behind the arrival there and a pretty enjoyable brawl in the woods where they're captured and prepared for the sacrifice. The ensuing fight with the creature when it appears is rather decent as well, and the final lead-up to the brawl in the cabin where it tracks them down for it's final big fight is a big highlight, yet none of this is possible without the glorious high-impact action with them trapped in the cabin unaware of the creature stalking them outside. Discovering their trapped inside, the first hints that something is inside with them and the different means of barricading themselves away and it breaking through which really enhances the suspense of the situation and gives this one a ton of action along the way. The finale does come close to the impact of this one, with the scenes of them inside the truck and escaping into the woods with the creature right on them and leading into the house ambush which is rather tense and gives this some solid action to finish this off on a high-note. Along with the fine gory kills, these here hold this one up over it's few flaws as it did have a few troubling issues. The film's biggest problem is the fact that the creature never really seems consistent in it's motivations. Initially it seems to be after them for encroaching on it's territory, then it goes after the franchises' storyline of the desire for gold and then it becomes apart of the sacrificial storyline which doesn't make any sense and contradicts most of the other issues here as it never relly seems to be consistent within itself. Neither of these really make it play that well into the franchise as well which gives it a rather odd feeling of being just an ordinary creature on the loose and has nothing in common with the others so it does feel somewhat out-of-place in that regard. The other problematic area is the rather lousy special effects on the creature itself, which is usually so blurry and distorted by the rapid-fire quick-cut editing that you never get any kind of view of it and can tell what it looks like until the end despite it being present most of the movie. These here really drag it out. Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.