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Now available free on Amazon Prime… newly restored in HD!

This past Saturday night, my girlfriend and I were several beers deep when we decided to watch a movie around 2am. We pulled up the Amazon app on Playstation 4, hopeful to find something fun to watch on Prime. What I never expected was that we’d end up watching a movie about, well, “an aborted fetus dumped in a sewer full of toxic sludge.

That’s the plot description Amazon provides for The Suckling, a 1990 horror film that I had never even heard of prior to this past Saturday night. A little research informed me that the film’s alternate title is the even more attention-grabbing Sewage Baby, and it was the sole directorial effort of Francis Teri – whose desire to make his own Z-grade horror movie, I can only assume, came from playing a police officer in 1988’s Flesh-Eating Mothers. True story.

The Suckling, a pro-life horror film if there ever was one, begins with the proclamation that it’s based on true events that took place in the early ’70s, but I suspect Teri wasn’t being completely honest about that. In any event, the opening crawl – no doubt inspired by the John Larroquette-narrated opening of Texas Chain Saw Massacre – tells of “the most bizarre and macabre event in all of Brooklyn’s modern history,” wherein twelve people were killed inside of a crude prostitution house that doubled as a back-alley abortion clinic.

The film centers on a young man and woman who are looking for the latter service. After their baby is aborted and flushed down the toilet, toxic waste barrels in the backyard begin to seep into the sewer. Naturally, this supernaturally re-animates the fetus, which soon grows into a towering, vengeful monster.

The cast of ill-fated characters, including the aforementioned young couple, house pimp/abortionist Big Mama and a rich businessman whose day of pleasure turns into a night of pain, find themselves trapped inside the house, which the monster has – through means that are never explained and barely matter – fully encased inside of, like, I think it’s supposed to be a womb?

Now you may be thinking this is all pretty smart social commentary – an abortion literally creating a monster that literally traps its victims inside of a womb-like environment and aborts *them* one-by-one- but I promise we’re still talking about a really bad monster movie here. I also promise that thinking too hard about The Suckling may actually be hazardous to your health.

If you’re looking for a really bad, under-seen monster movie that delivers all the schlock you could possibly ask for from a “best worst movie,” you need look no further than The Suckling, home to all the terrible acting and weird storytelling choices that make bad movies so much fun to watch. This movie has it all, and it’s highlighted by surprisingly good creature effects that outshine absolutely everything else on display in it.

Dean Mercil, who subsequently worked on Critters 3, Critters 4 and Face/Off, is credited as the special effects technician on The Suckling, and the titular “sewage baby” is actually pretty impressive at times. It’s clearly, for the most part, a man in a monster suit, and the creature can best be described as “bootleg Pumpkinhead.” In a better movie, one could argue that “The Suckling” could’ve gone on to become a franchise icon of sorts. In The Suckling, well, he’s a cool monster swimming in a sea of glorious garbage.

At a time when the home video market was booming, one can assume that Francis Teri knew that all he really needed was a good title, a good tagline and an attention-grabbing cover, and The Suckling no doubt checks off all three of those boxes. And though the video stores of my own youth are far gone, now twenty eight years later, my decision to watch The Suckling this past weekend reminds that there’s still one universal truth about the horror genre: sometimes, a title, a tagline and a poster are more than enough.

The Suckling is bad movie gold. And it’s just waiting for you to fall in love with it.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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