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5 Great Home Invasion Movies!!!

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With You’re Next in theaters RIGHT NOW I figured I’d take a look back at the Home Invasion sub-genre in order to get everyone in the appropriate, violated, mood. After all, that’s what these films are all about. You’re supposed to be safe in your home… but you’re not. Someone is coming into your house while your defenses are down and you don’t know what they want but… it can’t be good.

In the film out today, “When a gang of masked, ax-wielding murderers descend upon the Davison family reunion, the hapless victims seem trapped…until an unlikely guest of the family proves to be the most talented killer of all.

Head below for 5 Great Home Invasion Movies!!!

THE STRANGERS

One of the films on this list that captures the random aspect of home invasion that can be so frightening. You don’t have to owe someone money, you don’t have to have a jealous lover that wants revenge… you just have to be home. In fact, that’s the great line of the film, “because you were home.”

Bryan Bertino’s 2008 film was actually a pretty big hit despite a level of brutality I thought would turn off many mainstream movie-goers. It’s not often America goes to see the right horror movie!

FUNNY GAMES (2007)

In 2007 Austrian director Michael Haneke remade his own 1997 home invasion thriller, and the exercise was not nearly as redundant as it sounds on paper. While the original film was an examination and indictment of the audience’s own bloodlust, the remake is able to tackle the same material while being a critique of remakes themselves.

Add on to that some chilling performances from Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet as the preppy, erudite invaders and you’ve got something that’s quite compelling and watchable – even if the director thinks you’re a fool for doing so.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

While the bulk of this film doesn’t take place in or around a home invasion, such an event is at the heart of one of the film’s most pivotal – and sickening – scenes. Alex and his Droogs break into the home of a writer and his wife and terrorize them while belting out “Singing In The Rain.” Eventually Alex beats the woman to death with a statue of a penis (not a metaphor at all there).

Eventually Alex makes a Last House On The Left style mistake my seeking refuge in the very same home after being discharged from prison and severely beaten. It does not go well.

STRAW DOGS (1971)

One of the pre-eminent home invasion films, everything that happens in the film serves to fuel the anger and rage that leads up to locals’ siege on David and Amy Sumner’s vacation home. One of them has already raped his wife, and this attack perpetuates the sense of violation. Director Sam Peckinpah has his beta protagonist (Dustin Hoffman) fight back against the alpha antagonist (Del Henney). Ultimately, it turns out that Hoffman’s David might enjoy this sort of thing more than he’d like to admit.

INSIDE

Talk about violation, even the “unrated” cut of Alexandre Bustillo’s intense and beautiful 2007 film was chopped to pieces. Furthering the violation concept, this time it’s not only the house the antagonists want to penetrate, it’s the womb itself.

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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