There are a lot of things wrong with the first Leprechaun movie. Aside from a memorable performance by Warwick Davis as the titular menace, the film suffers from an over-reliance on influences, so much so that it doesn’t know how to have an original idea itself. Charm can only take you so far. Unfortunately, a lot of pastiche projects feel like passion-fueled dreams than actual inspired works of art, and 1993’s Leprechaun epitomizes that.

Fortunately, creator and writer-director Mark Jones gave up the reins to a more capable team in director Rodman Flender and screenwriters Turi Meyer and Al Septien. The result is a drastic improvement. The filmmaking is much wiser and the script is much smarter, utilizing Chekhov’s Guns and subtle, rewarding callbacks that we didn’t see coming.

Retconning the entirety of the first film, Leprechaun 2 is more of a reboot than a sequel. Meyer and Septien bring depth to the villain — played again by Davis — and implement a good deal of backstory and lore that instantly garners the audience’s intrigue. While, in the previous film, the Leprechaun is shown as some distant yet obtrusive entity, the villain is actually humanized here. We see his real desires, aside from his obsession with retaining his gold. Much more realized this time around, his personality is actually fleshed out and we see him worry, hope, fear, etc., which makes our repulsion of him that much stronger.

There are also small, seemingly insignificant details that bring a great deal of charm to the movie and expand its world, such as the inclusion of the go-kart facility, the local Irish pub, and various locations around Los Angeles, which almost plays a character itself here. Also, the protagonist Cody (Charlie Heath) and his Uncle Morty (Sandy Baron) own a fledgling company that specializes in giving “dark side” tours of the city, taking wide-eyed tourists around town in a velvet-upholstered hearse and showing them the site where Jayne Mansfield got decapitated and the last remaining home of Bela Lugosi and Harry Houdini. This is only tangentially related to the main plot but provides garnish that makes the film feel richer and lived-in.

The movie begins 1,000 years ago, where the Leprechaun is unable to take his desired bride after his slave — the bride’s father — frees her from her engagement. The diminutive villain then vows to get his revenge in another thousand years by enslaving the slave’s descendant. This takes him to modern-day 1994, where he discovers Bridget Callum (Shevonne Durkin), who happens to be Cody’s girlfriend. Now Cody has to find where the Leprechaun has hidden Bridget so he can free her from her fate.

Aside from Davis and Baron, the performances here are pretty atrocious, which actually makes the viewing experience all the more entertaining. Since there are no real emotional stakes here, the fun plot doesn’t suffer much from the bad acting and we’re still able to like Cody and root for him despite Heath’s marginal effort.

By 1994, the horror genre was in a state of disarray. It would be another couple of years before Scream would come along and shake things up. Goofy, strange, and easy to watch, Leprechaun 2 feels like it takes the best conventions from ‘80s horror and merely shifts things to the next decade with fresh eyes, yet familiar tendencies. Early-‘90s horror is hit-or-miss, and while this underrated sequel isn’t terribly scary, it will offer a nostalgic-filled ride for those who like a bit more adventure in their spookiness.

Twizard Rating: 83