When it comes to horror villains, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and the leprechaun (Warwick Davis) could not be more different. Freddy Krueger is a terrifying dream demon, while the leprechaun is… well, a killer leprechaun. He could have been scary, but instead, he just comes off way too cheesy and silly to be taken even remotely seriously.Leprechaunis the kind of movie you watch when you’re looking for something so bad it’s entertaining, something you can’t peel your eyes away from out of pure disbelief.A Nightmare on Elm Streethas its silly moments, but at its core is a grounded horror film with genuine scares and immaculate thought behind it. The franchises are incomparable, as are their villains… or are they? As it turns out,there’s a very strange (and very gross) connection between Freddy and the leprechaun, and it’s how they are resurrected in their respective franchises.
Horror Has a History of Resurrecting Characters in Dumb Ways
Almost every horror film has its villain defeated by the end of the runtime, which is gratifying for the heroes we follow, but serves as a problem if said film gets greenlit for a sequel. Or in this case, many sequels.It’s happened with theChild’s Playfranchise, theHalloweenmovies did it too, and it’s always a wonder how the writers go about resurrecting the movie’s villain. Sometimes the villain’s status is left unknown, making it easy to write in a quick explanation as to how they got away, and then get right back into the story. Other times the filmmakers must scramble to retcon the previous movie’s ending, which often results in some laughably bad story choices.
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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any scarier…
For example, the terrible decision to retcon Michael Myers’ death inHalloween: H20.What was such a gratifying moment for the series’ final girl, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), was quickly squandered by the next movie,Halloween: Resurrection, when it’s revealed that she didn’t chop off the head of Michael like we thought, but instead an innocent ambulance driver.It’s completely eye-roll-worthy and only served to frustrate fans— especially sinceResurrectionturned out to be a pretty bad addition to the franchise. But as it turns outA Nightmare on Elm StreetandLeprechaunmay just haveHalloweenbeat for the most absurd villain resurrection, because Freddy and the leprechaun were both once resurrected by urine.
Freddy Krueger and Leprechaun Were Resurrected By Pee
Yes, you read that right, at one point in their respective franchises, bothFreddy Krueger and the leprechaun were resurrected because someone took a leak on their corpse. And if that isn’t a weird enough connection, for both villains this happened in their franchises’ fourth installment.Leprechaun 4: In Spacesends the leprechaun into the stratosphere,which also seems to be a weird sort of trend for horror franchises. The movie begins with the leprechaun planning to marry an alien princess so that he can become king of her planet. His plans are quickly thwarted when space marines show up and attempt to kill both him and his space princess.
The leprechaun is killed by a grenade in the action, but since it’s only the beginning of the movie, you know he’s going to be back. It’s just a matter of time. In celebration of killing off the grotesque, gold-hungry leprechaun, a marine named Kowalski (Geoff Meed) pees all over the leprechaun’s remains. And in what is one of the most mind-boggling script choices ever, the leprechaun’s spirit floats up into Kowalski’s urethra. Surely the filmmakers could have just had Lep’s spirit overtake him, right? No, instead, while Kowalski is getting hot and heavy with a woman,the leprechaun decides to make his grand reappearanceand bursts out of Kowalski’s… ahem, appendage — like a kidney stone from hell.
Thankfully, Freddy Krueger’s pee-induced resurrection is less disgusting — but it’s just as weird. InA Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, one of the character’s dogs begins to dig around in the dirt, like dogs often do. The dog pauses only to pee, which wouldn’t seem completely out of the ordinary except for the fact that he pees fire. Why exactly? We don’t know. But the fiery pee cracks open the ground where Freddy’s remains lay buried, and apparently,the dog has some sort of magical urine because Freddy’s bones merge back together and resurrect the dream demonto haunt some nightmares once again. It’s a lot less drawn out than the leprechaun’s resurgence, but not any less strange of a choice.
Leprechaun: In SpaceandThe Dream Mastercame out nearly a decade apart from each other, so perhaps you could surmise thatLeprechaunis ripping offNightmare.Whichever way you spin it, it’s still an odd choice. Yes,horror villains get defeated and revived all the time, but the fact that both the leprechaun and Freddy were resurrected by human or dog piss — and in their fourth sequel to boot — is a funny little bit of trivia that ties the two characters together. After all, these two characters and franchises couldn’t be any more different, but at least they’d have something to talk about should their paths ever cross.But let’s maybe not do the magic pee thing again anytime soon, okay?
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Masteris available to rent on Apple TV+
