381: Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996)

SPEAKER_03 0:04

I will catch a grenade for ya.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Greetings and salutations and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Your streaks, my dear, provide a perfect accompaniment to this romantic evening. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

I'd give you a round of applause, but I see you already got the clap.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

And the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

When a woman shows you her breasts, it's a death sentence.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

This week we're continuing our March tradition of covering a franchise featuring a malevolent fairy.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

And if you support the show, you can also check out our B-side at the end of this episode where we look into some hilarious horror franchise ideas for some of the lesser-known holidays.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Before we get down to business, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Let's follow up on some madness, specifically Monster Madness 2025. So we tipped off Monster Madness on March 5th. Now, Brackets, comprised of 64 of horror's greatest monsters and villains, are battling it out for the ultimate title. So each week you're gonna have the power to decide who moves forward. You've got to cast your votes on our website. Trust us, there's gonna be some brutal matchups, shocking upsets, and plenty of horror-fueled chaos along the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Listen, the real question is how can one really choose between Jack Torrens or Godzilla? Ghostface or Jaws? And honestly, there's some other really great ones in here. Like let's look at The Collector and The Barbarian Mother.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

That is a good one.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Some of these are tough matchups. Get your votes in there because we're gonna crown the winner on March 31st. So if you haven't voted yet, visit Hackerslash.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

One of the creatures contending for the title in our 2025 Monster Madness is a mythical creature played by Warwick Davis. When we visited this franchise last year, we were taken on a wild ride in Vegas as a young man fell into a hot streak with Lady Luck without realizing his wishes came true thanks to the magic of a gold coin. Despite being seemingly thwarted at the end of the film, this week's movie not only sees him resurrected, but finds him traveling among the stars, exploring the final frontier on a quest to become a king. His search is interrupted, though, when he falls under attack by a platoon of space marines. This week, yet's right, we're talking about Leprechaun 4 in space. Who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_04 2:59

I actually feel like this one has escaped me until now. I've definitely seen almost all of this franchise outside of this one somehow. This one was the elusive installment that I, for one reason or another, never got around to watching. I remember loving Back to the Hood for that awesome moment where someone gets stabbed with a bong, but this one just never came around. I just never watched it. It's crazy. When we put this in the lineup, I was like, holy shit, I have not seen this one.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

You would imagine that the person most interested in space movies might be really a big fan of this, but I had also never seen it. This is now the furthest I've made it in the Leprechaun franchise.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Wow. Look at these two newbies here. We love to see it. I say that as if I've seen it in its entirety. Here's the thing I've watched Leprechaun all over the fucking place. In the hood, out of the hood, in Vegas, took him to fucking around the block in Los Angeles. This guy has been places, and I've absolutely seen this movie before. However, the last time I saw it, I was probably around 10 or 11 years old. So it's been a fucking minute. This movie hit home video in the US in 1997, but it released in Russia in 1996. So I really want you to think about when this movie falls in line. We had a lot of great sci-fi and space movies in the 90s. We had a lot of great horror movies in the 90s. There's a reason why this one might be buried in your memory a bit. I was thinking about a couple iconic moments, but I was curious to see how I'd feel watching it front to back as I've gotten deeper and deeper into the leprechaun franchise.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Yeah, I mean I think it it's interesting. Like, what can you really expect from the movie Leprechaun in space? On one end of the spectrum, can you really expect anything short of greatness? It sounds like it could be a really interesting, wild time, but it could also go downhill really fast. I was expecting this one to have a bunch of silly one-liners from obviously our beloved Warwick Davis as the leprechaun, but I was also prepping myself for this one to be a little cheesy because outside of Alien sending these horror villains into space doesn't always work out too well.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Agreed. You know, I like space stuff, but anytime something that's not space related decides to go to space, especially this type of humorous horror, I'm a little bit worried for it that it might just be too cheesy. My expectations are low.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Listen, before watching this for the lineup, I was actually reflecting on how many horror characters in space we've gotten. The biggest one, obviously, for me is Jason. Jason in space later on. Uber Jason was a hell of a design. There's also critters who go to space, but they're also aliens, so that makes sense. But the biggest thing was trying to scratch my brain to remember how the fuck did this leprechaun get into space? And when I actually sat down and watched this movie, wow, this motherfucker had no business there. They really just dropped this in and hit us with a lot of ambition to the year 2096 and said, all right, we'll figure it out sometime between Leprechaun in Vegas and Leprechaun in fucking space in 2096.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah, I feel like when you're watching this, you have suspension of disbelief in a lot of films. This was telling you, look, it doesn't matter while you're watching this. Why did that thing happen in that scene? It doesn't matter. Just be entertained. That's what this movie is telling you from start to finish is shut up, forget about it. Nothing's important. Just soak it in.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

This movie's soaking something in. What the fuck, man?

SPEAKER_04 6:38

Don't think about it too much. Just let the movie play. This movie felt like a lot of things. In some moments, it felt like a typical leprechaun movie. Like there was some of that vibe in there. But in other moments, it felt like I was watching some kind of action movie. Like a cheesy as fuck action movie, but an action movie nonetheless. And it was also giving Power Ranger vibes. I don't know if any of you picked up on the Power Ranger of it all, but I definitely picked up on that shit.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah, there's quite a bit of that shit in here. Not in a good way, though. Power Rangers had its fucking charm, okay? I was fiending to be the Red Ranger and love the Pink Ranger for a lot of time in my youth. Pink Rangers, how I knew I was gay. Power Rangers, fucking great, fucking iconic. This, I don't know, man. Here's the thing. The biggest thing that I felt while watching this was disappointment. Because why the fuck isn't Warwick Davis hitting as hard as he did in the past leprechaun movies? And this isn't about Warwick Davis. This is the direction and the writing of this movie because while there are moments where he's charming as fuck, and this movie starts and he's in a fucking suit and tie, he's in a tux. There's no rhyming. This is a different feeling of fucking leprechaun. It just felt like it was absent of the charm of leprechaun.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

I am 100% with you on that for sure. I thought the exact same thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

I think the thing that I found most both surprising and a little bit disappointing was that whole thing about don't worry about it, just soak it up. It just drops us into a film. It seems like we're in the middle of a story. And I feel like there was a little backstory we missed out on with some of the characters. And again, it doesn't matter. Just soak it up or whatever. Just let it happen. Enjoy the entertainment. But this movie is totally a parody of another great film. And I feel like there's richness there that they left untapped.

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Hmm. Interesting. I don't know if I picked up on the film that you're talking about. So maybe that just went over my head and it's just gonna be like as soon as you say it, it's gonna hit me and I'm gonna be like, oh, I'm so stupid.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

I don't know. Mac, what you're alluding to sounds a suspicious amount like Chris Rojas falling in love with potential.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

This movie is a clear parody of another film. Once I say it, you'll be like a well of course.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

It's a mix of a lot of different films, though. It is, it is super. I'm curious to see which one you found to be super fucking overarching because there's a lot of like alien in here. There's some Space Balls, there's some Star Wars, there is The Fly. There's a but there's a bunch of shit baked into this, and we'll get into that later. But I gotta tell you, man, the Leprechaun films are not about being scary, but they are about having a good fucking time. Let us not forget this motherfucker jumped out of a limo and was doing some dance moves next to an Elvis Impersonator one movie ago. So this shit went from being really, really fun to this place where I was missing a lot of the fun. Granted, I'm a Star Wars nerd. You get a nice little green lightsaber in here, and that feels wonderful. But I found this movie, while it doesn't try to make you scared, it does try to make you laugh, and none of that shit really hit for me.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

For sure, it's not a scary film. I I think visually there's some really good stuff with the practical effects, but the CGI in this movie was super disappointing. On one end of the spectrum, like with the practical effects and kind of the stuff that they give you is kind of fun and it kind of adds into what you would expect from a horror movie like this, but then the CGI kind of takes it away and makes it so that this installment is probably one of the least frightening of all the leprechaun films. Like if you can call any of them truly, truly scary, but there really isn't much for anything in this film tension building, jump scares, anything that's really gonna get you. So unless you legitimately have a leprechaun phobia or maybe arachnophobia, I don't see anybody getting scared in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

You know, I also dare think you know his teeth looked better. Like obviously he has some like black specks on his teeth, but like the rest of it was like pearly white, healthy gums. Healthy gums.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Warwick's got some amazing teeth, and they just can only do so much to try to monster them up. But I think you're both right that this is not a scary film in any way. It's mostly, I think, it's set in the horror genre, of course, because of its history, but it's mostly just like a spoofy comedy sci-fi kind of film.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, spoofy comedy. It's Rambo in space, it's alien, but a leprechaun. This is a lot of stuff, man. And listen, good on the audacity to take a fucking leprechaun from Vegas to space. That's ambition, that's drive. That's don't let your dreams be dreams. But even though there's a lot of movies that follow this with sending their creatures into space, it's an echo of sci-fi before it. And granted, I know it's homage, parody, etc., but it still doesn't feel fun. There's something about sci-fi that packs a punch of fun and whimsy and adventure, and I got almost none of that.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

Yeah, it's a tough one for sure. I agree. I want to give this movie credit for bringing this little guy and his pot of gold into space. You definitely want to do that. Obviously, you were talking about it earlier, Chris. Like, it's not the first horror movie to be set in space, right? We've had films like Alien, Life Force, right? Like I can think of, Event Horizon, all of which came before this one. But the ones you mentioned outside of Critters 4 that went into space, there really there wasn't a really a horror icon like this in space yet. So to your point, there was some stuff that followed, Jason and all that shit that came after this one. I think even Hellraiser Bloodline was thrown in there, right? The fucking Cenabites made it into space the same year as the Leprechaun.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Jason Pleasure doesn't have to stop with those on there, baby.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Yeah. But either way, I mean, when you really think about it, you gotta give it some kind of points for you know making an interstellar voyage like this one. You know what I mean? Like you gotta give them something for that voyage.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Okay, so this is where I get to point out that this movie, not in its entirety, but from start to finish, is parodying aliens from 1986. And it is so clear to me when you think about the colonial marines, when you think about the mining operation, when you think about the synthetic that's involved. It is so perfect. We get a creature, we get stuff that happens with a creature that is very similar to what happens to the big bad xenomorph in aliens. And so it was like, okay, this is very much like that. But like you said, they're also mixing in stuff from everything. You know, the the lightsaber, is it from Star Wars or is it from Space Balls? It's just a reference to the idea, I guess. But there's lots of little references. Nothing was really delivered like 100% well. That part is very obvious to me. But they were like, let's throw in things that we like from other space movies so people kind of get it.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Here's the thing: there's a moment in this movie where Leprechaun is blending some shit, and he grabs a little bit of this, a little bit of that, who the fuck knows what this liquid is, puts it in a blender, then injects that thing into someone. That's what this movie is. It's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Who the fuck knows what this is, but we're gonna try to have fun. You can tell that fun was had. Miguel A. Nunez, who we've seen in a few different films in horror, Warwick Davis. I mean, there's a lot of charm, sure, that's like attempting to be scratched at. I think the best parts of this movie kind of come almost from the beginning of this movie where it's like a there's like a difference in the leprechaun's approach. But undoubtedly one of the worst parts of this movie is the ending. Not even because of how it concludes, because there's a little bit of comedy there that I think tries to redeem it. But by the time the ending comes, I'm just like, fuck, I wish this happened 45 minutes ago.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Okay, but put it in context, compare what happens in the ending, not the quality, but what happens to aliens from 1986, then it starts to kind of add up a little bit more, and it's like, okay, they carried through all the way to the end. I'm gonna give them credit for at least sticking with it. It's not about whether or not they executed 100% perfectly, but you know, they at least stuck to it.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

I'm piecing it together. I see it now. I'm tracking. I think there really isn't anything here that stands out as great in this ending to this movie. I I feel like it kind of ends in a very typical way. I wasn't wowed by anything here. I wasn't particularly upset with the ending, but I think it was just kind of lackluster. To your point, Chris, the little comedy we get at the end is what I really enjoyed in the final moments we get, right? With the certain body part floating out by the window and stuff. We gotta talk about that later. But as a whole, the ending was just very blah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Well, I can't wait to see how that blah turn translates into our ratings. But before we get there, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_04 15:43

While this movie may have lacked in the special effects, it surprisingly didn't necessarily disappoint in the gore. Not saying it's the goriest film, but with all the sci-fi body mutation, face flattening, and severed limbs flying around, it would be only fair to give this one a medium gore score.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah, what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Well, fans of arachnids might be pissed, but otherwise we're okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Let's go ahead and get into our ratings and Leprechaun for In Space. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_02 16:15

I want to start this off because space is cool and that's my thing. But straight up, this is a bad movie, but I love space stuff. Question mark exclamation point. You know, the bits that parody aliens from a decade earlier, I think they were pretty funny, just in concept. Like you've already mentioned, Miguel Nunes' one-liners were the perfect balance of like super cheese and peak 90s humor. However, it also contains a type of humor that smells like men's gym locker rooms, but without the attempt to mask it with axe body spray. Thankfully, that wasn't the primary source of jokes, so I'm willing to look past it considering the age of the film, but you know, it's not a good movie. But it scratched the itch for this is not a good movie, but it did scratch the itch for a sci-fi action comedy flick. So I'm going to allow it a slash.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Nice. Because it's sci-fi. Is an interesting turn of events. Okay. Well, I mean, here's the thing. You know, like sometimes horror franchises take wild and unexpected turns, kind of like sending their villains into space, right? Even a franchise like Leprechaun, which I think is full of absurdity as it is, it manages to crash land into an asteroid field of bad decisions. That sounds like it's all bad, but it wasn't all bad. The practical effects, I think, and the gore were fun and it had its moments. There was a certain grotesque mutation scene, which was delightfully nasty. I think it was allowing for the body horror to really shine through in an otherwise pretty dismal film. Like I feel like when your leading actor is not on his game for whatever reason and not dialed in as he usually is in these films, it doesn't help. And then we get to the special effects. And oh boy, if you've ever wondered what a sci-fi movie would look like if it had the budget of a mid-90s computer screensaver, this is probably your best example. The CGI in this movie is so bad that you just have to laugh sometimes. And at the end of the day, Leprechaun 4 is less of a pot of gold and more of a black hole that's just sucking away the charm that made the early installments in this franchise watchable. So you can call it one small step for horror and one giant step in the wrong direction because this four-leaf failure is a fucking hack.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Wow, I love how poetic Sean is in some of these ratings, and I can't even do that justice. But let's be very clear here. This movie is not really fun. If you squint your eyes just right, and you're the kind of person to be tickled by something that's just shut your brain off, enjoy some bullshit, then this might be that. But the problem is I've seen better leprechaun movies, so it's hard for me to really buy in here. Warwick Davis's performance continues to shine as a leprechaun, but this is also a different directorial approach, so it's not even the same level of limerick and whimsy that we typically see. We get dropped in the middle of a plot and we're expected to just kind of go with it. Even when you just go with it, it's still kind of dumb as fuck. And movies belong in that space. Movies have the right to be just dumb as fuck and you just enjoy the ride. The problem is that it was also so boring that I couldn't enjoy it being dumb as fuck. Like that is the struggle here. Mac, I'm so glad that you got to see a lot of the parody and a lot of the spoof and find this connection to aliens. I've seen aliens couldn't even have these two movies in the same conversation because it was just that vast of a fucking difference. I think the struggle for me again, this movie just isn't fun. While you can find this movie free to stream online, I don't know that it's worth your time. And even in that, I gave you more of a rhyme than this whole fucking movie has. And that's what his character is built on. So, with that, I'm just gonna rate it a hack. And Leprechaun 4 in space has earned one slash and two hacks. I gotta tell you, that's the most shocking part about this. I really thought this was gonna be universal, but that's neither here nor there. We have so much to talk about when we get back from our break. I want to hear more about the aliens parody and the spoof for Mac. We have some Space Balls cross-references here that we need to dive into as well. Now you can join the conversation about this movie in our Discord server. The link is in the show notes. Join us in the second half so we can get into the spoiler zone together. Explain a bit.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Are mutated spider scorpions turning your space station into a creepy crawly nightmare? Tired of waking up to find a venomous exosculte and clad abomination scattering across your control panel? Well, it's those eight-legged horrors get fly with Lucky Charm exterminators. The counts is the only pet control servers that specializes in genetically mutated monstrosities. And Lucky Charm Exterminators will specialize in cosmic pet control. Our patented Shamrock shop technology. We'll have those eight-legged freaks casting the blindstone compliment no time. Using our patented Shell L spray, we neutralize even the most aggressive spider's perfect hybrid, melting their excess content faster than a laser blaster at full charge. Clover cluster bombs, ensure that no egg stack survives, you don't have to worry about the cargo bait coming into a cosmic nursery attack. And for those extra stubborn beasties, we deploy our top-tier emerald extermination unit, through the five heart flamethrower, and the sheer force of our slope to purchase every last creepy crawler from your ship. So whether you're tough to the space columnate or stranded on a distant moon, Lucky Charm Exterminators will help you keep your cords free of freaky skittering harvest. Tell them half a stuff to forget, and we'll throw in a complimentary pollen a pump. Guaranteed to reduce any extra thrust to infestation of space dust. So don't wait until your crew's been picked off one by one. Hello Lucky Charm Exterminators today.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Welcome back, folks. You're not entering the spoiler zone for Leprechaun 4 in space, which has somehow not earned a universal hack. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings and Mac has to defend himself, let's go through the kills.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

Well, we have a solid nine kills in this movie. Eleven, technically, if you want to count the actual deaths of the Leprechaun, even though he was revived later twice. Despite this movie lacking in many areas, there were actually some kills that shined through, and I gotta know which one of these kills filled your pot of gold.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Mac. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

There's a lot to choose from here, and it was actually kind of hard. So I wrote down two. Okay. I'm gonna go with the one that kind of made me chuckle. And I'm gonna say that's Private Kowalski. I think that's the one that made me actually chuckle. This this whole prophylactics conversation, the leprechaun bursting out of someone's crotch. Dude. That's just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Probably the most painful though. Yes, but it's also, again, an alien's reference to the chestburster.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

That whole scene. Loved it.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Okay. We could have gotten better then. Why didn't the leprechaun literally rip out of the dick? Why couldn't we see something prosthetic? Like, listen, if you want to fucking go there, Chris wants the prosthetic dick.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Go there. Let's see it. Commit to the bit.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Commit to the dick. Let's just do it.

SPEAKER_04 23:32

Commit to the dick.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Let's just do it.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

If you're gonna fucking Just the tip, at least, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:38

If you're gonna have the nerve to fucking just have one of your leading ladies flash the camera to say, oh, but it's a death sentence on my planet. Okay, sure. Fucking sure. But this guy's gonna be spared the horrors of a chestburster. Okay, I get it. The real crime though, and this is I guess not even really a crime. How many fucking movies are we gonna get where villain is activated by piss?

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Dude, okay. It's so prevalent. I thought it was like a one-off, and then I'm watching these movies and I'm like, fuck, dude, everyone's just taking a piss and shit's fucking hitting the fan because of it. Yeah. Stop taking pisses, folks. That's a new thing. It's a new rule. If you take a piss, something bad happens in horror movies, okay? So just fucking hold that shit.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

It's always the dudes. It's always the dudes pissing where they shouldn't be. Or dogs.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Well, to be fair, there was there was dog piss, yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

But to be fair, it was a male dog. There you go. Maybe if y'all stop fucking marking territory that doesn't belong to you. Who the fuck's pissing in space this way?

SPEAKER_02 24:43

In the moment, I thought that he was gonna die right as he peed on, right? Because I thought, oh, it's gonna turn green and fall off, like immediately. And then nothing happened. I was like, okay, so something's gonna happen to that dude later. I get it.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Turning green and falling off would have been better than erupting from the crotch area, but hidden. That was a great opportunity for practical effects. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 25:06

You're not wrong.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Listen, do I really want a leprechaun bursting out of a dick? Not literally. Also, it was underwhelming.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

It's not a great kill, but it was kind of humorous in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

So let me tell you what else was humorous. And I don't actually like this kill, but I want to point it out because what in the cartoon network was this shit? Harold? Harold getting fucking pancakes? So ridiculous. This was the silliest shit that did not match anything else in this fucking movie. I would take crotch explosion over pancake face.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

It looked kind of fun, you know what I mean? But it was definitely some Looney Tune shit. Like it was definitely on a cartoon fucking level to be like what kind of force does it take to throw that fucking metal plate hard enough to flatten the dude's head?

SPEAKER_00 25:54

But not combust the head?

SPEAKER_04 25:56

No blood.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

We don't want to rupture the skin, we just want to crush the bone.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

Flattening the entire head, your skull, everything. I mean, that's pretty impressive, but also really wild.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah, and again, I know it's dumb bullshit, it's a silly movie. We're all just having fun. But also the pancake face didn't even look good.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

But again, it's just so silly, you know, and it's not even a kill that you're like, oh wow, because you're watching it and you're just kind of like, all right, that happened, but at the same time, oh, that happened.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah. Can I give my actual favorite kill now that I'm like serious business? Yeah. I just loved the leprechaun jumping onto a live grenade. It's like, okay, little war hero.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

I will catch a grenade for you.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

So fucking the Bruno Mars over here, man, jumping on grenades for motherfuckers, you know?

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Okay, listen, we talked about Smooth Criminal being a great song to cut Candyman 2 Farewell to the flesh. This would be Bruno Mars grenade. Yeah, you're 100% right.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

I think there's a couple of fun kills in this one, I uh all that we haven't talked about. I think one that you kind of mentioned in appearance earlier, Chris, with the lightsaber. I think Private Lucky's kill was great that somehow fucking Lubden the leprechaun got fucking Yoda's lightsaber up in here and fucking chop this dude's fucking legs off. All I really wanted to see in that moment is after the legs got chopped off, I wanted to see this motherfucker like literally just do some backflips into the air and then land in the front and decapitate him or something.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, I want you to know that if we got Lubden doing Yoda, like Attack of the Clones Yoda, holy shit, this would have been a slash, even if the rest of the movie was garbage.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Or give me a supercut of Yoda passing away, and he says, There is another, and you think it's Leia, JK, it's fucking Lubden.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Actually, that would be fucking funny. Oh man. That one was kind of a fun one. One that I liked visually, I thought was also kind of fun from a visual standpoint was Private Mooch's kill because it's not that like it was super exciting, it was just that after shot, you know, like obviously his suit gets slashed, and so like this flesh-eating bacteria gets in, and by the time you see him afterwards, like hit it, it's just his skeleton and the remnants of this flesh hanging off of it, which I thought was kind of an awesome little moment to cut to.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Yeah, one of the cooler parts of the movie was that skeleton. Yeah, it's great. Too bad it was just in a hazmat suit.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

I do love a good melted hazmat suit corpse.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

And then I think, man, it would have looked great if it was Tarman.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Oh, see, they could have made another reference.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

They could have made so many references, Mac. That's why this movie just ah.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

But that's like the whole thing, right? It's the moments that we get those type of shots that I feel like is probably one of the better parts of the film. I think the practical effects that we get when they focus on those is great. And I think that's just about as much as you can truly love with this movie. How they played into these practical effects, whether it's this, you know, flesh, this the skeleton with flesh hanging off of it, whether it's this body horror mutation of this arachnid man robot thing or whatever the fuck happened there. Loved that Dr. Mittenhand evolves like that, and I think it looked great. I loved it, it was gross, it was giving the fly. Obviously, you mentioned that. It was also not referencing it, but it also brought me back to Monster Alyssa Sue. It was superb.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Listen, I will say the metal plate and Metal Head's and Sergeant Hooker's head looked fucking brutal. There is something really gummy about the ridges there, right? And even when you see Dr. Mittenhand and the way his head kind of rests on his shoulder, and you get the shots where he's in front of the camera from the back, he's just like a fucking CPR dummy. There are some some problematics up there. But some of those moments are really effective. Some of them really hit unlike the opening asteroids looking like a fucking Windows 98 screensaver, just like you fucking said, Sean. It looks like it's very SD, but also you can edit in progressive or interlaced, like when you're ingesting all of your media and you're like basically recording the tape and putting it into another digital editor. And if you fuck up and pick the wrong one, your shit looks pixelated as fuck. And it looks like you're editing at a different resolution than what you actually filmed at. When you export it, it can look even worse. The problem with this movie, one of the main problems, this is where we actually get into what the shit looks like later. Ludnan goes mega-sized. He's at a lower resolution than the rest of the fucking movie.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

The stuff they did in this visually, first of all, if you're in space, we've had good looking spaceships for at this point in time, back in the 90s, it was like almost 50 years, and all you had to do was use models and get your zoom and perspective and whatever you had to do with the camera magic right, and then it looked real. Star Trek did it best. I think Star Wars really perfected it when you had those battle cruisers show up. That stuff was amazing. You have miniatures, you can make beautiful things happen, and then you spike in some lasers and stuff like that if you need to with CGI. But the CGI here was offensive. Like I think even Babylon V cried a little bit when this showed up on screen. Yikes, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Sorry, I realize I'm just a hater tonight, but I do promise I have nice things to say about Lupton.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Well, even his gigantic hand at the end flicking them off looked like when they put live action clips into video games in the 90s. I thought it was a great way to end the film. Yeah, but that mutant was fun. It was great. That's what I'm saying. I gotta respect the visuals on that.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Okay, so the mutant is kind of a spider-y situation. There's like meat webs, it looks like these like red webs that Miguel Nunes' character sticks is just stuck in. How do you, as this fucking creature, and this is where I'm also like, ah, what's going on? I for sure thought he was gonna go. I would have been sad if he went. I'm glad he made it to the end. But this guy fucking comes through. There's like this big reveal of like, holy shit, what the fuck happened to you? Almost like this guy is just hanging there like he's in a hammock the rest of the fucking movie. Just like, gotta get the password. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

He was trying. But there were some funny moments in this movie too. One of the early moments when they're investigating the remains of the leprechaun, and one dude was like, Hey books, give me a hand here, and then he literally throws him a severed hand. Those are the slapstick, campy comedy moments that kind of shine through a little bit, right? Obviously, it had its little snippets throughout the movie that gave you some fun, so it wasn't the worst thing in the world, but there were some great moments sprinkled in there.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

I think one of my favorite moments of this movie, as silly as this may be, is the opening of the film. Once we get past the outer space of it all, and we see him making this proposition of like, okay, you're gonna be my next bride, but he's not in his traditional leprechaun gear. He is speaking like a proper gentleman, and by I don't mean he's actually acting or behaving like a gentleman, but he's speaking completely differently, like he's long matured now in the year 2096. That energy really carries itself through the entire movie because there were moments where he's like, I am eternal as the sun, I am a thousand demons from hell. And I'm like, Okay, you really just set the fucking bar in the beginning of the movie and said, This is who I am, and I'm gonna follow through with it the entire fucking way.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

That's true. It is funny because it reminds me of the Hugh Laurie TV show recently where at some point he has to switch accents and his real accent comes out. But I love that when they have British actors doing accents that aren't their own and they get to use their real accent, and it's usually a put-on, like, oh, I'll do a fake accent. Sure, here it is. And then it's like, oh, that's just how you speak, bro. That's what it felt like to me at the beginning. It was like they're like, Yeah, just speak like you would normally for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

But hey, we're all friends here. It was also cute. Again, he's coercing a bride. So this moment is not cute at all. But before he gets into his leprechaun bullshit, it is just like, all right, look, I'm a tired man, I'm trying to settle down. What you got for me? Obviously, he's on his quest to become a king and have power, which also feels very inconsistent with who Leprechaun is. This man's been about his money, this man's been about his gold. Now all of a sudden he wants to be a king.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Now all of a sudden he needs that respect.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah. And then he realized that maybe a woman would run off with his money, and then he's like, Well, fuck that. I gotta kill her then. I'm like, okay, geez.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

I know it kind of took a turn. Like it went from like, oh, I need to be with this princess so that I could get this status, and then all of a sudden, towards the end of the movie, it was like, I don't need you, like, fuck you, was like a complete 180 for him.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Yeah, I mean the honeymoon phase was over.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

It was over, it was over for sure. I do think I did one moment that I think the the Lovedon, let the leprechaun really shined through in some of the comedy too, was there was the scene that ultimately led to another kill, which was Private Danny's demise, but at the beginning of that whole segment where we get the leprechaun and he gives his workplace safety video chopping his fingers off. I loved that. That was some really fun stuff. I had a great time with that whole scene. Obviously, that little workplace safety video was great, and then you know, the whole exchange. I gotta love that.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Yeah, workplace safety is something I think he does this really cool thing, right? Where he tends to just pop in anywhere he can. It's kind of like Freddie Kruger in that way, right? Freddie Krueger can manipulate how he physically manifests, but then also there's a lot of supernatural energy there. Yeah. And with Lubden in particular, he seems to be a fan of two things. One being in your TV, two, fucking masquerading as a hot naked woman. He did it again. He fucking did it again, guys.

SPEAKER_04 35:48

He did it again. He did it again. Man, it's so true. Which also makes me think that one of the probably one of the highlights of this whole film was this hilarious like drag queen marine scene that we got, man. Because like, where the fuck did that come from? You know?

SPEAKER_02 36:05

That was very strange.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

That was just thrown in there with the nunchucks, with nunchucks. But I was here for it.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

It was kind of a funny scene, it was fun. This seems like one of those, like, let's just throw stuff at ever at them and see what they like, you know. So I see either feel like they're making the movie, and then they turn around and they're like, dude, what if you did drag? Yeah, let's do it. Why not? We got a little bit of budget left. Let's buy a dress.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

I think they really just did that to like completely disrupt, I guess, what you would expect of any of these characters. And this actually is a great moment because we have this reality that A, he has his whole drag moment, but B, he's then revealed to be synthetic, to be a robot, or just alien, also.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

No, no, no. So he's he's a he's a he's revealed to be synthetic just like the movie Aliens. It's it's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

However, they still accept him and respect him for who he was. And he's one of these characters that like fuck, I found him annoying a hundred percent of the time. But even then, that tenderness, that moment between them, when you realize that you know he was he has this metal plate in his head allegedly because he carried a marine on his back. I was like, okay, there's some there's some deeper dynamics here that I can appreciate. And then you realize, okay, well, this motherfucker was also trying to negotiate for their entire welfare. It's like, all right, okay, you're doing some good shit.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

What's interesting to me is like you watch this and it kind of calls to Starship Troopers a little bit, but that movie I think came out in '97, so it wasn't playing on it, but for some reason it just like seemed really similar.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

It's because you got like the whole marine in space kind of vibe, you know what I and you've got kind of like a comedy aspect thrown in there. Obviously, not as great as that movie, but like Starship Troopers is its own thing. Like it's it's got some really great moments, it's definitely a little cheesy, but it's also like it's got some really good comedy in there, and and it's a good action kind of sci-fi film. Whereas this one kind of like tried to have the Marines in space, but didn't hit the mark, was a little bit too cheesy in some areas, and it didn't put up, you know, in the areas that we needed to see visually to make it really, really great. But I will I will also say the the Dr. Mittenhand of it all, when he was showing up on his little TV screen, it was definitely reminding me of Zordon from Power Rangers.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 38:34

Yes. I mean, come on, come on.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Yeah, he also looks like the kind of person who answers a FaceTime call in the car but doesn't have their phone mounted at a good angle. Not that I guess you should be I'm not saying that we condone this, right? But it's like they're holding it in their hands and it's just like fucking holding up at the most unflattering angle.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

Whoops. Yeah, it's an awkward like side shot.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

They just bring the phone closer so they can hear, so you only really see like the fucking eyebrow.

SPEAKER_04 39:04

You're like in someone's face.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

That's how I talk on FaceTime sometimes. I'm like, hmm, what? If I don't have my AirPods, I'm sorry. I'm I'm mitten handing you.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

Mitten handing you. That's wild. That's wild. Was I also the only one that thought that Brent Jasmer, the guy who played books, actually looked like he could have been Sylvester Stallone's son. I mean, come on. That guy looked like any and he's taking his shirt off. You know what I mean? Like this guy literally could be the spawn of Stallone.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

He wasn't taking the shirt off, honestly. Even the leprechaun took his shirt off as a woman.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Very true. Very true.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yeah, see, here's the thing. Yes, he's cast because he's a fucking attractive man. He's muscular, he's got the build, but holy shit, zero chemistry between any of them. Miguel Nunes, the only person with chemistry in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

Yeah. Yeah, it eked out of him, and every time they gave him a one-liner, I was tempted to write it down because I was like, so basically, for the for good quotes to open the show with, he's he's got almost all of them. Like, you know, who's driving this, Ray Charles? Like, that's just a silly thing that would be funny in the 90s, and it works in this situation. Love it. But yeah, he just kind of oozed, I don't know, charisma as an actor. I think he's got it.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

What did not ooze charisma was that moment that she's apparently fucking covered in acid, and then they're like, oh, just take off all your clothes.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

It's burning through. You gotta take off her clothes and throw water all over her.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Ah, shucks.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

Whoa, how unfortunate.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah, that's crazy. No, I'm sure it hasn't already burned your flesh.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

It does take me back to the Bruno Mars thing because our leprechaun friend is willing to jump on a grenade for her, but she can buy herself flowers because if she gets damaged, she just regrows. So he she didn't need him to do that.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

That's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

That is true.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Also, how fucked up is it that she obviously talks about like having any man she could want, she could have any kind of suitor, wealthy or not, and he's pointing out you're almost perfect, then points out one little tiny blemish, and then gives her a fucking horrific acne. The fucking manipulation on this guy. So he was he already wasn't funny, and then he stopped being cute.

SPEAKER_04 41:12

Yeah, got worse. It got worse. And it's tough, right? Because I love Warwick Davis. I think he's obviously in my childhood, I immediately think of Willow, right? He's so great in that film. Obviously, we love him in in some of the other leprechaun movies because he's got some really clever rhymes and one-liners and things like that. And it's not to say that he didn't have some good moments in this movie, but definitely, as we were talking about earlier, something felt a little bit off. I don't I don't know that maybe it was I don't want to speak for anybody, but maybe he wasn't into this one. It almost felt like he knew that this movie was shitty and was like, I ain't gonna put too much effort into this one because this is ridiculous. You know what I mean? Like, could have been that, who knows? Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Yeah, I think if it felt more like just poor direction and vision for the movie. It felt like that more than anything.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

The writing is interesting because, like I mentioned, some of the characters actually have some decent one-liners along the way, and I feel like they stole from the leprechaun to give these lines to them. That's where all the humor went, is it left him, and they just would give this character a line here and this character a line here, and then they didn't leave very much for him to work with.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

Yeah, that's so true. The leprechaun needs, you know, the leprechaun needs his one-liners, and we don't really need it from the other people. We just want to see the other people die. Like that's the vibe we're looking for here. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Yeah, apparently he's described Leprechaun 4 in space as a bit of a mess.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Which makes you wonder about perhaps like the production of the film or the writing or the direction or something, something here definitely definitely feels messy. It doesn't, it doesn't seem even as good as perhaps the third installment was. I mean, I'm not in terms of film quality, but in terms of like having it together while they made it.

SPEAKER_04 42:59

Yeah. True. I also think you know, the the if we could talk about Harold for just a second, because Harold, why why did this guy have to be so fucking rapey? He was almost worse, if not worse, than Dr. Carl Hill from Reanimator. Reanimator moment is a little bit much, right? But this was like, holy shit, dude, every chance he gets, he's perving on somebody.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

He perved on everybody equally when he said, What did you say? Don't touch me unless you mean it, cowboy.

SPEAKER_04 43:27

Yeah, he was just perving on everybody, and it led to his fucking demise. What an idiot, this guy.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

Yeah, it was a necrophilia and rubbing up on a corpse that he believed to be dead. Granted, the princess came back. We get it, but holy shit.

SPEAKER_04 43:40

Holy shit, man. Where are we, by the way?

SPEAKER_00 43:43

And you know what? I think that actually might be one of the worst parts of this movie. It's evidence of just how fucking inconsistent and unfunny it ends up being. The cowboy moment, okay, maybe a little bit funny. The leprechaun in the beginning in the fucking tux. Trying to really proposition this whole thing. Funny. Jumping on a live grenade, hilarious. However, the rest of this, a complete fucking mess. And I think even that, the tone deafness of it, the movie could have been funnier had it done less of this, less of the like sexual teasing or groping, etc. Less of just trying to like put naked women on screen.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

This is a horny film.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

It was too horny for a space movie. Like what the fuck? You know what I mean? Like, listen, we've seen some horny horror movies that are also fucking hilarious. Like, don't get me wrong. It's not that no movie can be horny. However, this just didn't need to be. And if that effort was then redirected into shoring up any other component of this movie, it probably would have been a middle of the road slash.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

It's interesting the direction they took because I think had they stuck to everyone in the film being really serious, it would have worked so much better if they really tried to like, I mean, completely like parrot aliens and other films. Like have the leprechaun be the xenomorph in this in this movie. And I think that would have worked really well. He could have had all the funny lines, he could have provided all the humor, and everyone else could have played the straight man. And that would have worked out, I think, so much better. I'm gonna agree with you that it is the worst part of the movie, that this movie smells like a locker room. It is very much 15-year-old testosterone-fueled comedy. And so, like those moments we get that I enjoyed, I'm like, okay, I have to look past the other stuff.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Yeah, one of the worst parts of the film, but I think one of the best parts is just gonna remain that we get that kind of body horror practical effects that's kind of paying homage to the fly, right? It was great to see. I loved especially the moment where he's like keeps like trying to like control the ship, but is getting distracted by his like incessant like need for the flies. Like he this arachnid mutated monster is like trying to do what he's supposed to be doing, but also just has this unquenching hunger for flies and finally gets that fly. I wish we lingered in that character a little longer. I wish that character got to give us a little bit more kills. That would have been kind of cool if we stayed in that space a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

Yeah. You know, I realize that we had so many different antagonists in in this movie, and we had the same thing in Leprechaun fucking takes Vegas, right? But let me not escape unscathed without a hard compliment to this movie. I love that his lightsaber comes from his cane. It's very fucking cute. That's it. Sorry, I just horrible. Listen, he looks so tickled. It's one of the my fucking favorite images from this movie. He turns, he turns his cane, fucking ignites his saber, and then he looks just like there's so much joy. And in that moment, I don't think Warwick Davis is thinking about the leprechaun having a lightsaber. That's Warwick Davis fucking enjoying pretending to have a fucking lightsaber.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

Right. Absolutely. But I gotta tell you, I honestly think the universe was trying to do me a solid by unintentionally skipping over this one because it's probably the worst installment in the entire franchise, and I honestly cannot see myself ever watching this one again.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Oh, yeah, this is definitely a movie to play video games to, so that you can kind of like choose when you want to watch it. It's not one that you need to sit down and watch and then watch again in a year. It's like, oh, it's on, okay, whatever, cool, I'll let it happen. That's kind of the most I think I would give it on a rewatch.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

I don't have any interest in watching this movie. If I want to see Warwick Davis in space, I think instead I'll watch a Star Wars film where he stars as an Ewok Wicket. That is the move to make.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

Mm-hmm. But for now, there you have it, folks. Leprechaun 4 in space has earned two hacks and one slash. Now we certainly had a lot to talk about here. The conversation doesn't end here by any means. I think we have to feel out Binks' stance on the whole leprechaun in space situation. And there's just a lot more to unpack.

SPEAKER_04 48:10

Yeah, there's definitely so much more. There is so much more at the end of this rainbow. And if you want to find out what's at the end of the rainbow, don't steal the leprechauns gold. Just consider supporting the show because you can find out how to do that by visiting patreon.com slash hackerslash where you can enjoy even more of the show, including bonus content with early access, extended episodes with our B-sides, movie nominations, and live shows.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

If you want to taste the rainbow instead, leave us a five star review wherever you get your podcast. This helps us continue to deliver great content for all you horror fiends out there. We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, always wear a prophylactic.

SPEAKER_04 48:50

What do you do if you want to unload it?