Week of Review - Thinner (1996)

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A week from today will mark the premiere of a new remake of the Stephen King classic Pet Sematary.  So far the new film has a lot of positive buzz, which makes sense given we’ve entered into a new Golden Age of Stephen King adaptations.  Seriously between The Mist, Gerald’s Game, Mr. Mercedes, IT, 1922, Dark Tower, 11/22/63, Under the Dome, and Castle Rock Stephen King is undergoing a shocking renaissance of TV and movie adaptations in the 2010s with even more films yet to come.  As such, I’ve decided to look to the past, specifically the ‘90s, as that was the last time Stephen King became the go-to thing to adapt in the horror genre.

However, I’m not planning to look at the big names of King adaptations that have always stuck in people’s memories like Shawshank Redemption, no I’m interested in the weird B and C list adaptations the past has to offer.  After all, there’s really not much left to say about a movie we’ve all agreed is good and should be remember but off-beat oddities that pop culture has collectively turned its back on can be so much more weirdly rewarding and it doesn’t get much more weirdly rewarding than 1996’s Thinner.

Filmland - Leprechaun Series

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Geek culture and St Patrick’s Day have never really been comfortable bedfellows.  I’m not sure why that is, holidays, in general, tend to fit the geek aesthetic shockingly well.  They’re all about strict color-coded palettes, they’ve got mascots and usually some degree of lore, but for whatever reason St. Patty’s has never found the home among the nerds that Christmas, Halloween, and others have secured.  

Maybe it’s the emphasis on raucous social interaction putting people off- I couldn’t say.  I will say that the one place where nerd culture and the ephemera of St. Patty’s- stereotypical Irish stuff, a handful of surface level Celtic folklore, four leaf clovers, and most importantly the holiday’s favorite mascot, combine is in the 1993 horror-comedy oddity Leprechaun. 

There was a time everybody had heard of this flick though I think its ubiquity has faded as the video store era has evaporated from memory.  However, there was an age when the Leprechaun franchise, a horror series based around the joke of having a little person dressed in a caricature of “Olde Irish” garb, was a powerful enough juggernaut to spawn five sequels and even a reboot, though we’ll get to that.  So, with St. Patty’s upon us once more let’s dive into that misbegotten era that was the ‘90s for a full look at the Leprechaun film series.