Leprechaun’s Revenge, debuting at 9pm on March 17, has no connection to the Warwick Davis horror flicks, but it obviously aims to become part of the same cult classic oeuvre (while managing to be reminiscent of Gremlins at times, as well). Unfortunately, it misses that pot of gold. The film does get credit for opening with a limerick, and for offering a different take on the concept of the leprechaun. Instead of the little man dressed in green we are used to seeing, we get a taller, more monstrous, “earth spirit” type of being out of prehistoric Celtic mythology. This creature rises out of the ground to torment and kill the ancestors of the Massachusetts settlers who originally imprisoned it, and, of course, to steal (and eat) whatever gold they have on them. Courtney Halverson plays Karen O’Hara, whose ancestor originally captured the leprechaun, and who now suffers most from its curse after picking a mysterious red clover. Good old William Devane plays her grandfather, who knows the family history and “fairy folk” legends of the area. Devane is a lot better than he needs to be in a film like this, and is fun to watch, but Billy Zane, who plays Karen’s father and the town’s sheriff, tends to phone in his performance — sometimes to the point of sounding like he’s calling in long-distance from another movie. Overall, the film is a bit of blarney that you’ll probably have trouble remembering even if you don’t wake up with a post-St. Paddy’s Day hangover.
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Photo credit: © NBC Universal, Inc. Credit: Syfy