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[Editorial] ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Succeeds at Making Dinosaurs Scary Again

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Since it opened weeks early overseas, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has gotten mixed reviews, many negative (including Bloody Disgusting’s own). Perhaps as a dinosaur adventure it falls short of Jurassic Park, or even the first Jurassic World. But cut it some slack. Even Steven Spielberg couldn’t maintain the Jurassic Park momentum with The Lost World (although it’s my personal favorite of the series, for what that’s worth). And maybe Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom wasn’t ever supposed to be another epic island adventure anyway. Because as a smaller, more contained film that’s instead more focused on how scary dinosaurs would actually be if they existed here in 2018, Fallen Kingdom hits its mark.

The Jurassic movies were always monster movies anyway, at their core. A giant T-rex chasing a jeep was downright terrifying, even if it did eat that A-hole lawyer we all hated. And no matter how gentle the Brontosauri were, they were giant creatures that could pulverize you with a single step. Still, there’s a bit of a safe distance in the other Jurassic Parks and Jurassic World. After all, in those movies, you’re only really in danger if you buy a ticket to the theme park.

So Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom asks you to confront something much scarier: What if dinosaurs broke into your home?

The script by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow sets the second half of Fallen Kingdom indoors. Considering how giant dinosaurs are, that’s miraculous in itself. Sure, it’s an enormous mansion, but it’s confined to four walls, a floor and a ceiling. Director J.A. Bayona seems at home with this.

Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) has orchestrated a rescue of the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar before a volcano erupts and re-extincts them. Turns out, Mills is not a humanitarian. He wants to sell the dinosaurs to the highest bidder. Everyone thinks they can control John Hammond’s experiments, but it’s up to Owen (Chris Pratt), Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) to contain this mess and escape the mansion.

There’s a reason siege movies are a tried and true subgenre of horror. What works for zombies can work just as well with dinosaurs, especially in the hands of a director like Bayona (The Orphanage). The principle is you’re trying to keep the monsters out, but you’re still trapped. It doesn’t matter how big or small the monsters are, they’re relentless.

The dark corridors of the mansion lead to a lot of reveals of dinosaurs lurking in the shadows. Bayona knows how to build suspense to keep you waiting until the dinosaurs step out into the light. There are hiding places for the humans too, but what good is hiding when an Indominus Rex/Raptor crossbreed can smell you?

They sort of did this in Jurassic Park with the kitchen scene with the raptors. The kids were hiding, and the raptors learned how to turn doorknobs. This is the kitchen scene on a much bigger scale. There are more hallways and elevators in the mansion, and lots more (and bigger) dinosaurs on the loose.

Fallen Kingdom gives you sympathy for the monsters too. Like King Kong, Godzilla or Frankenstein, the dinosaurs didn’t ask to be created.

They’re just living their lives, doing what giant prehistoric animals do. By the time they’re loose in the mansion, they’ve been dragged off their island, shot with tranquilizers and bullets in some cases. And they’re not happy about it. Maybe they don’t know that Owen, Claire and Maisie are on their side; maybe they don’t care. The heroes don’t want to hurt the dinosaurs. They’re still dinosaur advocates at the end of the day, but that only makes it harder to survive the nightmare scenario. How do you defeat a monster you don’t want to kill?

I get why Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is maybe a misfire to audiences used to Spielbergian dinosaur epics. The size and scale of dinosaurs necessitates wide open spaces and the franchise has firmly established tropical locales as main settings. Asking those viewers to now get excited about dank, dark, wet interiors, well, that’s maybe a tough sell.

However, I hope the audience that loves movies like Dawn of the Dead, Assault on Precinct 13 and From Dusk Till Dawn appreciate what Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has given us. They made a Jurassic sequel that’s really just people trapped in a house with monsters, and it totally works.

I realize that even among horror fans, the audience for Jurassic World may not want the franchise to stray too far from the epic monster movie roots of the series. That’s fair, but Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is here anyway. If you’re worried it’s going to be a letdown, I hope you can at least consider watching it in the context of a housebound horror movie and see if it satisfies you as much as it did me.

From where I stand, dinosaurs are scary again. And that’s a win for Fallen Kingdom.

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.

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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.

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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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