Where To Watch
The Waltons shared a filming location with a famous, franchise-launching horror movie
"It felt a little blasphemous."
In 1993, a new horror icon leapt onto the screen. Leprechaun was a notable film for a few reasons — it starred a then-unknown actress named Jennifer Aniston, just a year before Friends started, it created one of Warwick Davis' most well-known characters, and it spawned a franchise that, as of this writing, has eight films with a ninth in production.
Warwick Davis, who was recently given the BAFTA Fellowship award, had already appeared in the Star Wars films as Wicket the Ewok and starred in Willow, but by the time Leprechaun came around, the roles had dried up. In Davis' autobiography, Size Matters Not: The Extraordinary Life and Career of Warwick Davis, Davis explained that it wasn't just the paycheck that drew him to the role, but the interest of playing a villain. He happily signed on to play the murderous leprechaun.
In the first Leprechaun movie, a significant portion of the film takes place on the secluded property where, unbeknownst to the new residents and painting crew, an imprisoned leprechaun waits in the basement to be freed and hunt down his gold. When he is accidentally set free, he sets about slaughtering everyone who stands between him and his treasure.
"We... shot scenes at Big Sky Ranch, where Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons were both filmed," Davis said. "These were insanely popular TV dramas and it felt a little blasphemous turning these sets, known for their incredibly saccharine family-friendly dramas, into a comedy-horror location — especially the scene in the local store where I cruelly crush the store owner's chest and stomach by hopping on him with a pogo stick.
"Prairie was also famous for its opening credits where three children run down a hill. I broke a cop's neck at the bottom of that hill. Oh yes, this was quality horror."
Davis appeared as the titular character in six of the Leprechaun movies, and while he stepped away from 2014's Leprechaun: Origins and 2018's Leprechaun Returns due to not wanting to work on a horror movie with young children, he is open to returning to his role.
"Mark [Jones, Leprechaun's director] and I remain proud of it to this day, and I'm always delighted when people mention the Leprechaun in lists of other classic horror characters," Davis said. "Alongside Freddy, Chucky, and Jason, I'm in good company."
Related
3 Comments
