Imagine coming home from a long day at the office! You have sat down on the couch with a couple of beers and are in dire need of some quick entertainment. Surely, an Oscar contender or a timeless masterpiece would not come to mind. As fantastic as these content-driven films are, we do need a dose of cheap thrills, guilty pleasures that make you grin, especially during stressful hours. Movies like the Leprechaun franchise make their debut in this genre.
Yes, these are not horror classics, and they will not frighten you or make you cry. They do, however, provide the simple enjoyment that we all crave, and there is no shame in admitting that we all have our share of guilty pleasures! After days of eating greens, a delicious juicy cheeseburger never hurts!
You have probably figured it out by now that this film is devoted to people who take their mindless entertainers seriously. We delve into the realm of the Leprechaun and bring you all of the films in the franchise, fully researched. Some are quite hilarious, while others are merely passable, but they all ensure that you laugh heartily and enjoy the antics of the deranged little creature – the filthy Leprechaun in action!
Leprechaun (1993)
It all started from here, and this movie was another addition to the late 80s and early 90s stream of horror flicks that did not take themselves seriously. Written and directed by Mark Jones, this film not only introduced the horrors of the Leprechaun but also gifted us an actress who would go on to become a superstar in the years to come – Jennifer Aniston! The story begins in 1983 when a man named Dan O’Grady returns home after a trip to Ireland.
During his travel, he got an opportunity to interrogate a Leprechaun and stole a pot of gold from the evil creature. Back home he buries the gold, but he soon realizes that the creature is still after his gold. The Leprechaun murders his wife, but Dan manages to use a four-leaf clover to trap him in a crate. Just as he is about to burn him, Dan suffers a stroke, and the story jumps ten years down the line.
J.D. Redding and his daughter Tory rent the same farmhouse, where it all happened with Dan O’Grady. While the contract workers are fixing the house, they accidentally end up freeing the Leprechaun, and the gold-thirsty entity is back with a vengeance. The body count keeps rising, and the Leprechaun is determined to kill anyone who stands between him and his gold.
When the violence gets a bit too much to handle, they start trying to figure out ways to kill a Leprechaun, and the same old technique of using a four-leaf clover seems to be the key. Finally, the family and the workers find a four-leaf clover, and it is shot into the Leprechaun’s mouth, which makes him melt away.
He falls into a well, and the well is blown up with gasoline to end the menace for good! But, just as you start thinking that the menace is over, the movie ends with the Leprechaun vowing to come back for his gold once again!
Terror comes in all sizes
This light-hearted tongue-in-cheek horror flick would have been a lost cause had it not been for the brilliance of the cast. Warwick Davis owns the role of the Leprechaun, and he is easily the best thing about the film. Even in the absence of a water-tight script, he manages to be both creepy and amusing, and the cheesy lines justify the perfect appearance that was given to him.
Jennifer Aniston shines in her debut, and the lack of extreme gore or fan service is compensated by some close-up shots of her running around. The makers initially wanted to turn this into an out-and-out horror flick, but Warwick Davis ensured that there is a generous dose of humor to go around.
The violent dwarf, who is barely three feet tall, terrorizes everyone from grown men to cops, and the Leprechaun deserves credit for daring to brave the impossible. Make no mistake, there are a few genuine horror elements present in the narrative as well.
As you can imagine, they never went big on the effects either. It was never meant to be taken seriously, and it is all about the amusing moments and the cheesy narrative. Say what you will, but this uproarious horror comedy will always be a part of our childhood and our comfort zone. When the days are rough, all we can say is, “I want me Leprechaun”!
Leprechaun 2 (1994)
Did you think that the Leprechaun only lusts for his gold? Well, this time around, he is back looking for a bride, even though the gold still remains on his agenda! The narrative picks up a thousand years ago in Ireland, where an evil Leprechaun is celebrating his 1000th birthday. He has a human slave named William O’ Day, and he promises to free him after marrying his desired bride.
To their shock of William, he finds out that the Leprechaun has picked his daughter to be his bride, and the evil creature states that whenever the lady will sneeze three consecutive times without anyone saying ‘God Bless You’ she will be his forever. William manages to save her daughter by interrupting her sneeze sequence, but the Leprechaun kills him and vows to marry one of his descendants on his next 1000th birthday.
We are back in present-day Los Angeles, and the time has come for the Leprechaun to fulfill his vows. It has been thousand years since the last appearance of the Leprechaun, and we are introduced to Morty and his nephew Cody, who work as tour guides to scam the tourists. Cody’s girlfriend Bridget turns out to be one of the descendants of William O’Day, and now, the Leprechaun is after her.
Cody and his uncle Morty try their best to fight the demented Leprechaun, and distracting him by misplacing his gold seems to buy them some valuable time. Eventually, it all boils down to a final face-off between Cody and the Leprechaun, and he must use all the tricks in his bag to save his girlfriend from becoming the Leprechaun’s bride!
A Typical 90s B-horror sequel
There are some who seem to think that the sequel is actually more fun than the original and they have their reasons. The direction changed hands, and Rodman Flender brought in some changes that we didn’t mind at all. For starters, the plot is certainly better, and the violence gets a lot nastier than before.
Secondly, the absence of Jennifer Aniston is filled with the alluring Shevonne Durkin. It was supposed to go to Denise Richards, but we aren’t unhappy with the end result. Another thing that we appreciate about Leprechaun 2 is that it toned down on the cheesy, goofy bits to make it more like a typical horror flick about a sinister Leprechaun.
Warwick Davis is back with his magical performance one more time, and we love how his voice just complements the character. He is just made for this role, and he perfects his second performance as the sadistic Leprechaun. We also loved the cheesy action sequences, and watching an enraged Leprechaun hunt down his targets was thoroughly entertaining.
However, it has to be said that the movie did not do justice to the decent budget that was allocated. The effects are nowhere close to spectacular and save for the amusing moments and some occasional scares, there is not much to take home. Overall, the trick is to overlook the flaws and love the hilarious bits that make the franchise so iconic! Once you do that, this will not seem like an inferior attempt at entertaining the audience, but an attempt to entertain with inferior content! We don’t necessarily complain about the latter!
Leprechaun 3 (1995)
When the big-screen releases fail miserably at the box office, there is only one way for the franchise to move ahead. Yes, you guessed it right! From the third movie in the series, the Leprechaun franchise took the direct-to-video route, and we would be lying if we said that the quality wasn’t compromised. It begins when a pawn shop owner buys a strange statue of a Leprechaun from a stranger who claims that it is a good luck charm.
The seller warns him to never remove the golden medallion of the statue, but greed takes over, and the pawnshop owner takes it for himself. All of a sudden, the statue transforms into a dangerous Leprechaun who would slaughter anyone that takes his gold. He goes on a killing spree in a casino in Las Vegas, and finally, it is up to Scott and his girlfriend Tammy to destroy the Leprechaun for good. They use a flame thrower on his gold to destroy it, and this in turn makes the vile creature burst into flames.
This enjoyable cheese-fest is probably the best in the series
Say what you will, but this still turned out to be the highest-grossing direct-to-video flick of 1995, and people certainly loved their share of guilty pleasure back in the day! In fact, despite being a direct-to-video flick, it made up for the lack of quality with good content.
The veteran cult director Brian Trenchard Smith works his magic around this movie, and there is an undeniable energy and vibrancy that boosts the movie. The director surely knows how to use his imagination, and it works like a charm. The green little guy spends all the time in the big city, and there are some funny moments, such as the one where the Leprechaun meets an Elvis impersonator.
The fans of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 will enjoy watching Caroline Williams in action, and Warwick Davis continues to own the role of the Leprechaun. Lee Armstrong as the female lead is a sight for sore eyes, and the audience will be treated to some gratuitous violence, and women sans their clothing!
This film has more one-liners than the previous two, and most of them are hilarious. Watch out for the campy violence, and the dialogue gets corny as hell at times! But, that is exactly why you will be watching a Leprechaun movie in the first place, so stop being a grumpy critic and enjoy this one with a few beers!
Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)
They have had enough of the vile little Leprechaun causing havoc in the cities and quaint houses, and this time, they premised the whole thing in space. Like things weren’t ridiculous enough already! The story is set in the future, in the year 2096 on a remote planet. The Leprechaun has courted an alien princess named Zarina because he plans to kill her and take over her home planet with time.
On the other hand, the alien princess is after the Leprechaun’s gold, and even she plans to have him dead after the wedding. With both partners planning their nefarious strategies, a platoon of space marines interrupts their ambitions. In the fighting that ensues, the Leprechaun is killed by a grenade explosion, and the space marines think that have gotten rid of the demented creature.
However, when one of them urinates on the dead body of the Leprechaun, his spirit enters his body, unknown to the others. The space marines leave on their spacecraft with the injured alien princess, and during the journey, the Leprechaun makes a violent entry. He finds gruesome ways to kill many of those on board, and he continues to pursue the princess the whole time.
The crew also ends up transforming him into a giant Leprechaun after shooting him accidentally with an experimental growth ray. Finally, the last surviving space marine opens the airlock of the spacecraft, and the Leprechaun is sucked into space and explodes to his demise!
A Bad Joke Stretched too far
In order to answer this question, you must first answer if you believe in the boundaries of a guilty pleasure! How trashy should a movie be in order to not qualify in the league of those flicks that don’t take themselves seriously? If you are lenient on this matter, Leprechaun in Space might not be as shocking as it is, to many others!
Indeed, the horror franchise takes things a bit too far this time, literally so! The plot is outrageous, to say the least, and apart from the versatile performance from Warwick Davis, there is hardly a redeeming quality about this movie. Yes, you might enjoy the occasional laughs, but things also get on your nerves at times.
To make matters worse, the killings aren’t exactly very creative, and the lack of anything unsettling can be quite a bummer. Is this a spoof of the Alien franchise with a Leprechaun in the mix of things? Well, even if that is the case, there have been better spoofs. In space, no one can hear you scream, and apparently, none of the makers could hear the agonizing screams of the audience either! Jokes aside, this is probably the weakest link in the franchise, and that is saying something about the movie!
Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)
Finally, Leprechaun is back on Earth, and this movie finds him in Los Angeles as a statue. Mack Daddy and Slug stumble upon a room full of gold, and they find the Leprechaun statue with a medallion on its neck. When Slug accidentally removes the medallion, the Leprechaun is freed and kills him immediately.
Mack Daddy somehow manages to trap the vengeful little beast once more, and we move ahead 20 years. Now, a group of wannabe rap artists finds themselves at the receiving end of an audition gone wrong. Their speaker is destroyed, and one of the members named Stray Bullet manages to convince Mack Daddy, who is now a successful record producer to make something with them. When the group refuses to change their music style, Mack Daddy refuses to go ahead with the deal.
As a revenge, the group breaks into his office and steals a magic flute that belonged to the Leprechaun. The trapped monster is back again, and he is now looking for his stolen flute. Bodies keep piling up, and after loads of action and bloodshot we are led to a shocking twist. It turns out that Mack Daddy has been taken over by the Leprechaun, who now lords over the music industry!
The Green Monster Conquers the Musical World
The first thing that was noticed was the considerable improvement in the narrative from the previous movie. We breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that this one is not half as bad as Leprechaun in Space, and Warwick Davis is at it again, entertaining the audiences with his mesmerizing acting.
He balances the moments of grotesque creepiness and amusement, lords over the franchise, and dedicates himself to the role. The problems begin elsewhere, and they are mainly concerned about the cheap production values. The special effects look like someone made them in a hurry, and the script should have done more to introduce the characters properly.
Some of the previous Leprechaun movies were known for their whacky brand of dark humor, but the fun bits are largely missing from this one. This makes the narrative look monotonous, and we would have loved something out-of-the-box in this regard. There is not a single jump scare to blow your mind, and the suspense hardly tests your attentive nature. While we wouldn’t go as far as to comment that this is a horrid Leprechaun movie, it is far from the best! Maybe, this is where the creators should have taken the hint and called it curtains for the franchise.
Leprechaun Back 2 tha Hood (2003)
The movie starts with an animated prologue that explains the origin of the Leprechauns. We learn that they were made custodians of gold by a king, but after the king’s death, one of the Leprechauns was too corrupted. He was obsessed with the gold that he guarded, and since then, anyone trying to take his gold became his sworn enemy.
Father Jacob laid his hands on the gold pile, and he wanted to build a youth center, but he died in the process. After a year, four friends find this huge stack of gold that had been hidden by Father Jacob. They split the treasure among themselves, and they use the gold to fulfill their fantasies.
Unfortunately, they are completely oblivious to the fact that the Leprechaun is back, and he is hunting them down for his gold. Finally, it takes the same old method, using the four-leaf clover, and the same clever strategy to trick the Leprechaun into falling into wet concrete, where he gets trapped with his gold!
Warwick Davis bids Goodbye to the franchise
This was an emotional moment for the fans because Warwick Davis did not reprise his role as the Leprechaun in future projects. If you have appreciated the numerous Leprechaun movies as your kind of guilty pleasure, there is no reason to hate this one. Warwick Davis shines in this role for the last time, and the story is not as terrible as some of the other Leprechaun movies.
The narrative falls short on the laughs, and apart from a few sporadic amusing moments, there isn’t much to tickle your funny bone. The other members of the cast are rather pathetic, and their incompetence affects the quality of the movie. The lack of creativity in the kills continues to bother the viewers, and the bland direction leaves little room for innovation.
The comedic approach could have been the highlight of this movie, and with a better script and funny jokes it could have turned out very differently. Instead, the film opted for a darker approach, and the sheer ridiculousness of the plot ruins it for the audience. In short, this is another mediocre addition to the franchise, but not as bad as Leprechaun in Space. Watch it only if you have exhausted the better Leprechaun movies already.
Leprechaun: Origins (2014)
Life without Warwick Davis was going to be difficult for the Leprechaun franchise, and the effects started showing in this film itself. The movie started with a violent scene, where some vicious entity is trying to kill a young couple. It gets the man and finally catches up with the young lady as well. Meanwhile, four American students are on a vacation in the Irish countryside.
They explore a village that used to be a gold mining center, and now, the population has dwindled after the gold ran out. They soon have an encounter with a monstrous creature, which they later learn is called a Leprechaun. He owns all the gold and in return for the gold that the villagers sought, they had to sacrifice two humans every year.
The friends learn that the villagers have a practice, where they sacrifice the tourists, and they realize that they must face the wrath of the Leprechaun all by themselves. It turns out that there are multiple Leprechauns on the prowl, and three of the four friends fall prey to their murderous ways. The last surviving member, Sophie, manages to decapitate one of the Leprechauns using a special knife, and she crosses into safety while being pursued by three other Leprechauns.
A failed series reboot attempt
The fans of the franchise had high hopes for this one, but it turned out to be a rather disappointing affair. The plot offered some originality, in the sense that it moved away from the usual premise of the franchise. While this could have been intriguing, the makers ruined it with too many plot holes and turned the movie into a generic monster flick.
Somewhere down the line, this movie picks up all the mistakes made by the previous movies in the series, and magnifies them further. We felt the absence of the iconic Davis, and the narrative is often too dull and humor-free. Even the characters are dull, and there is not enough suspense to hold your attention for the entire duration of the movie.
The Orc-looking costume hardly makes the Leprechaun intimidating, and even for a B-grade horror flick, the effects are pathetic. Every time the Leprechaun was on screen, the camera work turned shady, and the creature design was found to be lacking.
Imagine watching a monster flick without proper shots of the monster! To sum things up, even those who have enjoyed the previous Leprechaun movies, as harmless fun, will find it hard to sit through the entire film. Try finding some solace in the graphic violence because there is not much else to enjoy here.
Leprechaun Returns (2018)
This is the last film in the franchise as of now, and it acts as a direct sequel to the original Leprechaun movie back in 1993. The stories are connected, and the protagonist here is the daughter of the character played by Jennifer Aniston in the original movie. It has been twenty-five years since the events, where the Leprechaun was stopped and destroyed temporarily. As luck would have it, the property where it all happened now belongs to the AU Sorority House of a premiere college.
The pot of gold is still missing, and the Leprechaun is still lurking around to get his revenge. He gets the perfect opportunity when a group of students decide to spend the summer vacation in this house. When they unwittingly revive the Leprechaun, he is back with vengeance, and he wants his gold back! However, the Leprechaun is not going to have it easy. The ladies band together, and they are determined to get rid of the evil creature once and for all!
The Last Laugh – is not the worst end to the franchise
After the disastrous outcome of the last Leprechaun movie, we did not have many expectations from this one, but we were pleasantly surprised. Make no mistake, this is no horror classic to remember, but it is certainly way better than some of the worst films in the franchise. Warwick Davis was offered to reprise his role for this movie, but he decided that he had had enough of the character.
While his presence is still missed, the film makes the viewers rejoice in gore and dark humor. Yes, the laughter is back, and that is such a relief for those who watch the Leprechaun flicks just for the goofy jokes.
It is a mindless horror film with relentless gore, which is often a bit too much for the squeamish. The killing methods are quite inventive, and that is a welcome change from the monotony that had crept into the franchise. The one-liners in the script promised a laugh riot, and the nonsensical rhymes are fun to hear.
The only major issue that we faced was tolerating the strange Irish accent because the guy who played Leprechaun in this movie couldn’t keep it convincing. The finale is a bit too long, and it could have been a lot more entertaining without dragging the narrative unnecessarily. Do not keep your expectations high, prepare yourself for loads of cheesy content, and you will find yourself enjoying the perfect guilty pleasure.
Like we said in the beginning, these movies will do no more than just allowing you to have a good time, and your expectations should be nothing beyond that. Even we feel that the franchise overstayed its welcome, and after the absence of Warwick Davis, there was nothing much to look forward to in the last couple of movies.
Steven Kostanski, the director of the last Leprechaun movie, Leprechaun Returns. Has revealed that he is willing to make a sequel if the opportunity arises, and we hope that it never does! It was fun while it lasted, but as of now, even the Leprechaun fans like us are tired of the same old show over and over again.