March 17th, 2008Holy Monday: Leprechauns in Space
Today should be St. Patrick’s Day, but they moved it so it wouldn’t fall on Holy Monday.
(I’m not sure what Holy Monday means, but you’re in it right now.)
Apparently, no one told the Sci Fi Channel, since this afternoon they’re showing Leprechaun 4: In Space, followed by Leprechaun 1 (with pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston), 2 (with, um, well…), and 3. Conspicuously absent are the later sequels Leprechaun: In the Hood and Back 2 tha Hood. I’m not kidding.
Before I saw the first movie in 1992, I thought it was a simple, but interesting concept: take something completely innocent, show its dark origins and creep everyone out. As with those awful, awful mermaids who have somehow become sweet in our pop culture, surely research into the original tales would reveal the leprechauns’ sinister side.
If so, you wouldn’t know it from these movies which veer toward, no, crash into cheesiness. Think: Freddy Krueger from the Dream Child as opposed to Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.
I had never seen Leprechaun 4: In Space until this morning. Now that I’ve seen it, I am almost positive they wrote or bought an altogether different script, then replaced the alien/monster/creature with the Leprechaun as an afterthought. This matters, since the best part of campy horror movies is watching the increasingly nonsensical murder scenes, especially those with comic justice. Apart from a few wacky killings, this version of the leprechaun mostly pushes people over rails and drops heavy stuff on them.
There is one compelling reason to watch In Space. If you’re a busy person, you can multi-task by watching this instead of:
- Jason X: Have an aging franchise and no fresh ideas? Set it in the future - in space!
- Austin Powers: Bald, mad-scientist Euro-villains practically write their own lines.
- Saturday Night Fever: Disco balls aplenty.
- Spaceballs: Bitchy, kidnapped princess who’s overly concerned about her appearance? Check.
- To Wong Foo: Man in dress pretends to be drag queen.
- Moonraker: It’s got space marines.
- It’s Alive: Someone actually uses the line “It’s alive!”
- Robocop: Cyborg seeks revenge.
- Honey, I Blew Up the Kid: Because big leprechauns are scarier than small leprechauns.
- {Insert Sci Fi Original movie here}: Sexy female scientist helps go-get-em action stud defeat {insert monster here}
Though I honestly couldn’t tell you where they got the idea to have a leprechaun jump out of a marine’s penis. Anyone?
