Faith and Begorrah: Leprechaun 2

Damn you for interrupting my week of Fulci appreciation (sort of), St. Patrick's Day!  It's a good thing that you only come up with once a year!  There's got to be an up-side to this.  So what is on the agenda for today?  Oh, it's that movie.  Well, I guess it's been a long time since I talked about this series, so let's just jump right into...

The film begins- appropriately enough- in Ireland 1,000 years ago...and about fifteen years.  A man runs away, but is captured by the titular villain via a metal collar placed around his neck.  Apparently, this being the 1,000th birthday of the Leprechaun, he gets to pick a bride.  Man, you thought it was bad that Pon Farr was every seven years!  As it turns out, the woman our villain picks to marry is the young daughter of the man and will be his if he can make her sneeze three times without someone saying 'god bless you.'  As the third one approaches, the man says the magic words and she is spared.  Of course, he is killed and the Leprechaun vows to wait another 1,000 years, looking through his magic scroll of the man's future lineage as the opening credits roll.  In the present day, a young man is conning some people into taking a cheap tour around Los Angeles to see the homes of dead celebrities.  By the way, random cameos by Clint Howard and character actress Kimmy Robertson as tourists.  The young man wants to ditch the tour to go on a date, but the owner is drunk.  Time for Plan B!

So the Leprechaun wakes up in the present day, emerges from his home in a tree (just go with it) and steals a bum's gold tooth.  The girl ditches our hero when the car stops and he gets so upset that he runs a light.  At the police station, the toothless bum is brought in and nobody believes his story.  I get that, but what do you think happened to his tooth?!?  While this is going on, a friend of the girl's hits on her and she lets him, trying to make her boyfriend realize what he might lose.  The guy makes a move on her, but, after being shot down, seems to get a second shot.  The actress...'s body double flashes her breasts at him, although this is actually a plot by the Leprechaun.  The breasts are actually fans and he dies...off-camera.  Back at his home, the young man sulks in front of his random shots of Chamber of Horrors before running off to see her.  At her house, the Leprechaun reveals himself and tells her his plans.  He dispatches the boy by dropping some pots next to him and steals the girl away to his...tree.  With the collar on, she can't get away.  Meanwhile, the man talks to his boss and learns that there are ways to stop a Leprechaun...but they may not work here.

At a bar (re-use the sets much?), the Leprechaun shows up with some hostile intent.  The boss challenges him to a drinking game, which is cheered on by a group of midgets.  Random cameo by Tony Cox as well!  Incidentally, nobody sees that this yellow, pock-marked thing is anything but human!  When this fails, they lead the Leprechaun to the go-cart track from earlier (again?).  Of course, he stops by a coffee bar and kills off future Mad TV star Michael McDonald...for no reason.  Since iron can't be hurt by him, they trap him in the large, iron safe.  The boss tries to get the creature's pot of gold as a reward, so it teleports the object into his stomach and kills him!  The young man runs onto the track- always a good idea- and is confronted by the Leprechaun in a custom-made go-kart.  The guard with him is killed, but the boy cannot be, since he has one of the Leprechaun's gold coins.  Eventually, he gets to the tree and tries to free his girlfriend, whose own plan to kill the creature failed earlier.  They run around and can't get free, since the place is magic or something.  Eventually, they get tricked and lose the coin...only to trick the Leprechaun and kill him with a magic stick...or something.  We get a sequel teaser ending set-up, but no follow-up.  Okay then.

This movie is bad, but does at least try to differ itself from the first one.  The set-up is a bit weird and never quite elaborated on.  Why does he have to wait 1,000 years?  Why does he only get one shot at it?  Why does he string the guy along with no way to stop him from interfering?  Evidently, this 1,000 year old creature is a really, really dumb guy.  Is there a point where you just lose all of your gained intellect?  The special effects are silly & not all that impressive.  Like the Subspecies films, most of the budget clearly went into the Leprechaun make-up and whatever was left over got used for the digital stuff.  The directors' rant in the audio commentary for Max Magician & The Legend of the Rings may have a point.  In it, they talk about how people are 'cave-racists' and use fake caves.  In this film, the tree interior would look bad in a cereal commercial!  Do yourself a favor and skip the first three films of the series.  Leprechaun 4 In Space and Leprechaun in the Hood- those are gold!

Up next, Lucio Fulci's second-to-last film gets some attention.  What's it about?  Driving and...well, driving.  Stay tuned...