LEPRECHAUN (1993)

I had a very tough decision on what to write about for this first column. I went back and forth on many different topics and movies, but when I was listening to the FE Talk Radio show for September 9th and I heard these guys bashing this particular movie I thought to myself, I shall write about LEPRECHAUN. Yes folks, LEPRECHAUN! Now, before you bash my opinion of this movie or start sending the hate mail my way let me say that I have no delusions that this is a great film, because it’s not and I know that but I personally enjoy LEPRECHAUN and since most people that I know and pretty much everybody from this site hates it, I thought it would be a great example of what you may find in future columns.

It all started on one hot day in the summer of 1993 when my parents and me would make the journey to the nearest town 15 miles away to the closest place to rent videos, a little mom and pop store called J. R. Video. Remember that name, cause I’m sure this store will come up in many more of these columns. Anyways, when we got there I did what I almost always did and went straight to the back corner of the store where they hid their small Horror collection. By this time I had already seen most of the videos that were placed along the wall, some numerous times. So, as I scanned the titles saying no the various FRIDAY THE 13TH, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and HALLOWEEN movies, all of which I’ve already seen, my eyes came across the box cover to LEPRECHAUN. I picked it up and started reading the description on the back and I was instantly hooked. Sure it may sound a little stupid now, but when I was 14 I thought it was pure err…Gold! I noticed that the Leprechaun was played by Warwick Davis who was the star of one of my favorite movies at that time, WILLOW, so that also had me interested. So I picked it out and just couldn’t wait till we got back home so I could watch this sucker.

Later that night after making the trip back home and messing around a bit I finally decided to put movie into my VCR and give it a watch. And I can honestly say that I loved it! I believe that I love it for many of the reasons that other people hate it. I loved the cheesy acting and dialog from the Lep and that death by pogostick was crazy funny. Of course I have to admit that I was turned on by Jennifer Aniston even before her nose job. And I also enjoyed seeing some actors that I knew from other movies, such as Ken Olandt who I knew from another one of my favorite movies at that time, the 1987 flick SUMMER SCHOOL, which crazy enough also introduced me to a little film known as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. If you’ve ever seen SUMMER SCHOOL you’ll know what I’m talking about. Mark Holton also had a part in this playing the dimwitted Ozzie, who was, again from another one of my favorite movies at the time, 1985’s PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE where he played the hated Francis. Seems like I had a lot of favorite movies at this time, huh?

Later on I found out a good use for this movie, scarring the girlfriends. I don’t know why but this movie seem to scare the shit out of every girlfriend that I had in the mid to late 90’s. Was the movie really that scary or were the girls really that lame? I’m sure it was probably the latter but I didn’t care I just had fun making them watch this movie and watching them jump or bury their heads when the lame scares happened. Plus it was fun having the girls jump all over me and holding onto me for protection. Hey I was a horny kid growing up, so shuddup! Then in the late 90’s I would marry a girl that was deathly afraid of LEPRECHAUN, I’m not joking either. We sat down to watch it one night and it totally freaked the shit out of her, so much so that she turned it off. Some might say that she just turned it off because she found it fucking stupid and whatever but this was not the case, she was freaked and crying her eyes out. She flat out refused to ever watch LEPRECHAUN again and banned me from watching it while she was in the house! She would even freak out whenever I would do the imitation of Mike Myers in WAYNE’S WORLD when he would try to scare Garth by holding a flashlight under his face and say “I’m a Leprechaun” and would usually end up with me being punched more often than not in the face.

It just goes to show how different people can see the same movie in totally different lights. You may hate the movie and think it’s the stupidest thing ever. I love the movie and find it highly enjoyable in a cheesy kind of way. And my ex-wife is scared shitless by it. Go figure.

NOTE: The site that I mention above is Fight-Evil.com which I also write this column for.