LEPRECHAUN 3
USA. 1995. Director - Brian Trenchard-Smith, Screenplay - David Dubos, Producers - Jeff Geoffray, Walter Josten & Henry Seggerman, Photography - David Lewis, Music - Dennis Michael Tenney, Visual Effects - Kim Bailey, Mechanical Effects - Frank Ceglia, Makeup Effects - Atlantic West Effects (Supervisor - Gabe Bartalos), Production Design - Ken Archele. Production Company - Trimark. Warwick Davis (The Leprechaun), John Gatins (Scott), Lee Armstrong (Tammy Larson), Caroline Williams (Loretta), John De Mita (Fazio the Great), Michael Callan (Mitch), Marcelo Tubert (Gupta), Tom Drugan (Art), Roger Hewlett (Tony)
Plot: The remains of the leprechaun are sold to a Vegas pawnbroker and accidentally revived. A shilling from its pot of gold passes through the hands of various people in one of the casinos. Its' ability to grant the possessor's wish is discovered by accident whereupon it immediately becomes sought the greedy and ruthless. But to each the leprechaun gives a sadistic death as it fights to get its shilling back.
Brian Trenchard-Smith is an Australian director, the greater part of whose output could be best described as hackwork. In between churning out episodes for Australian-shot US tv series like `Time Trax' (1993) and `Mission: Impossible' (1988), he made a variety of undistinguished films such as `Turkey Shoot' aka `Escape 2000' (1983) and `BMX Bandits' (1983). However tucked in between this are a couple of quite decent small films that show Trenchard-Smith capable of promise - the subtly effective children's film `Frog Dreaming' aka `The Quest' (1986) and the near-future satire `Dead-End Drive-In' (1986). Following Trenchard-Smith's migration to the US in the 1990s, his output has consisted mostly of production-line tv movies. But with 1994's amazingly silly `Night of the Demons 2', Trenchard-Smith jumped on the post-`Elm Street' camp horror bandwagon. This approach was clearly enough to net Trenchard-Smith directorship of not only `Leprechaun 3' but also its immediate sequel `Leprechaun 4' (1996).
As with the other films in the series, `Leprechaun 3' is a lame attempt to spin out another `Elm Street'-styled horror franchise with a boogey man despatching an array of victims amid bad puns and cartoonish gore set-pieces. The typically gimmicky showcase despatches get pretty silly - one victim turned into a human one-arm bandit uncontrollably spilling coins out of his mouth; a killer android/mannequin torso electrocuting a victim during sex. And in the most amazingly silly effect that one has quite seen on screen in some time, Caroline Williams gets her wish for a perfect figure which, before being blown up, is transformed into a butt and set of breasts so big she is unable to turn around.
Copyright 1998 Richard Scheib
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