Starring Gregory Smith, Madeleine Potter, Godfrey James, John Bluthal, Tina Martin, James Ellis, Sylvester McCoy, Ion Haiduc, Mike Higgins
Directed by Ted Nicolaou
Expectations: Moderate. I liked the first one.
On the general scale:
On the B-movie scale:
Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns is a great, intriguing title, but to be honest it’s not the most fitting one for the film that bears it. There is some spell breaking to be had, but I can’t remember any great secret of the leprechauns that comes to light. Anyway, this shouldn’t get in the way of the fun, and who knows, maybe in the course of writing this review, I’ll somehow unlock the film and discover the secret of the leprechauns. 🙂
This film picks up a short time after the original. Michael Dennehy (John Bluthal) has returned to his home on Fairy Hill, where he lives in harmony with the leprechauns and the fairy folk. His grandson, Mikey Dennehy (Gregory Smith), is staying with Gramps (no sign of the other family members) and enjoying his time there. One day while fishing, a woman rides up on a horse and sparks a conversation. She introduces herself as Morgan (Madeleine Potter), explaining that she’s staying at a nearby castle. Michael thought the place was uninhabitable and haunted, but apparently it’s been recently cleaned up! Morgan does need a spot of help, though, so Michael volunteers Mikey to help the nice woman.
But to be honest, my relative disinterest in parts of the first two-thirds could be because I watched Spellbreaker fairly close to the original. They both hit a lot of similar beats with the leprechauns and the fairies, on top of the rather obvious plot that holds the film together. It’s still a charming jaunt around Fairy Hill, I just would’ve enjoyed more character and originality. I’m sure the film’s target audience of kids will have no issues if they liked the first one, though. I can usually shut my brain off to watch these Moonbeam films, but sometimes they get the best of me and my adult brain just won’t accept the contents.
Next time I get around to a Full Moon movie I’ll be checking out the tangentially related to Full Moon film, The Brotherhood IV: The Complex! Let’s hope it’s more like the first two than the last one! See ya then!