Still Watching the Skies: Episode 127 “Leprechaun 4: In Space”

By Robert Reineke

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Perhaps with apologies to the Irish and Irish descendants, Robert, Nat, and Cody get in the spirit of the season with 1996’s LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE. For good or ill.

LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE was straight to video, at the height of when that was a viable strategy. Considering that there were several films afterwards, it’s apparently a viable strategy. While we’d like to say it was at the forefront of the “slashers go to space” genre, we have to acknowledge that Hellraiser beat them to the punch.

That said, LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE is kind of at the vanguard of a straight to video/B-movie genre that really doesn’t exist anymore. Not when Netflix will throw over $3o0 million at a random science fiction film property that nobody likes and will be forgotten about in a few weeks. I kind of think LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE has already proven to have had more staying power.

What kind of staying power, is another question. I don’t think anyone considers LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE to be a hidden gem of the science fiction or slasher genres. That said, on its own silly terms, two of us had fun with the film and its cartoonishness. And if it doesn’t offer any fresh insights on the ideas of space marines and genetic experimentation gone awry, it doesn’t drop the ball on those tropes either.

I think the best we can say is that it knows what it is, the cast is having fun, Warwick Davis knows the assignment, and it has enough twists and turns so that it isn’t boring. Cheap and juvenile, yes. Boring, no. So, come listen to a conversation that perhaps takes a surprising turn.

No need to engage in genetic experimentation to listen to this episode. You can give us a play below or download the episode. Also, feel free to let us know what you think by commenting on our page at Facebook or you can Email Us at skiespocast@gmail.com as we appreciate feedback.

Time tracks:
0:00:00 – LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE Discussion
1:14:38- Next Movie and Outro

Next month, we stick with our low-budget early 1990s phase with CIRCUITRY MAN. We hope you’ll join us.

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Robert Reineke

Robert Reineke was born in the dark era before cable television, but somehow survived based on a steady diet of Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, 1950s science fiction, and Godzilla on his local UHF station. As a college student, he discovered the works of David Lynch and Akira Kurosawa which opened up different vistas for him. When he’s not doing useful things like heading up environmental investigations and cleanups or designing sewers, you can find him watching movies, writing about them, and talking about them. He’s a booster of the Milwaukee Film Festival. Somehow he puts up with young whippersnappers Nat Almiral and Cody Lang on the Still Watching the Skies podcast.