I mean this movie is pretty straight forward, it's about a leprechaun who wants his gold back.
The movie opens with this creature in a cave counting his gold. Then it flashes to an older man, Daniel O'Grady [Shay Duffin], who returns from a trip to Ireland. He finds a Leprechaun's gold, brings it back and guess who follows him to America? Yup the Leprechaun. His wife is killed, and he has a heart attack while the Leprechaun is locked up in a crate with a four leaf clover sitting on the crate. You know that part always sort of annoyed me. Wouldn't the clover have withered away and just died/or crumbled? Would the magic of the clover be gone after like 6 months?
Anyway, there is a flash forward to 10 years, meaning the Leprechaun was in this crate for a decade. Weird? Wouldn't he have died eventually or is in immortal. IF he is, then a four-leaf clover shouldn't killed him. But I digress. Now after all these years, a father, J.D Reding [John Sanderford], and his daughter Tory Reding (Jennifer Aniston) move into the Grady house. I mean they leave the city and move to the country. Why? It's never really explained. However, the meet up with the house painters, Nathan Murphy [Ken Olandt], Ozzie [Mark Holton] and Alex [Robert Hy Gorman]. Now Ozzie is not the brightest bulb in the box, and he ends up letting the Leprechaun out of the crate. It also doesn't help that this dude ate one of the coins. I still don't get why and what the point of it was. Regardless, they now have to get a four leaf clover and kill him.
One, do you have ANY idea how hard it is to find a four-leaf clover? Why couldn't it have been a little easier to find? Like an axe or acid? Also like I've mentioned, this dude is immortal and the thing that takes him out is a four leaf clover? Talk about a clique.
Third, like I already mentioned, Ozzie randomly swallows one of the gold coins? Why? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't help that this leprechaun is so anal that he needs all 100 of his coins. What a greedy bastard. I just don't get why he put it anywhere near his mouth. I mean it's got to be like 600 years old, which is gross; if you think about it.
I do have to say one thing about this movie, the make up effects of the Leprechaun are absolutely amazing. Also I think Warwick Davis does a fantastic job portraying the character. He gives the right about the trills and chills. As far as the rest of the effects, there aren't many things to talk about. The way the leprechaun dies after he gets the four leaf clover in the mouth is pretty cool. He is all melted and dissolved. It's so gross. It grossed me out so much as a kid and it still kind of does.
Second, who sells a house without informing anyone that there is a murderous evil Leprechaun in the basement? I mean they have to tell you if there was a murder in the house. I mean technically, there was and an attempted murder. I'm just saying. Who buys a house site unseen in the middle of nowhere anyways?
Here is the video clip of his death; which has the best/worst on liner ever:
This leads me right into the sequels. I mean I know Freddy got pretty funny towards the end of the franchise, but the Leprechaun started off as a joke. I know it's a challenge to balance the comedy and horror, which I think the original did that just fine; but the sequels, just flat out went for comedy. There were some jumpy moments in the first one, however once you started getting to the sequels, it got worse.
I made it all the way to Leprechaun 3 before I had enough. It's pretty much the same old gags and the same old jokes. I'd say the only sequel worth watching was Leprechaun Origins; which I've done a short review on already. Personally, I wouldn't call it a sequel, more like a remake. Also it was pretty terrifying as well as has a pretty interesting storyline. The cast of characters is pretty convincing in their perspective roles and the area itself is a pretty interesting character. This one brings them back to Ireland; which I think is a nice change of pace as well as it has a town with a deep dark secret. It does feel like the typical, "don't trust the locals" type movie, but it is done in a really good way. Also it does have the typical horror movie stereotypes, like the dumb blond, the jock boyfriend, the idiot and the final girl. All in all, good movie and good entry into the series. I like that they tried to reinvent the leprechaun rather than make another sequel.
BUT....
They decided to create another random sequel called Leprechaun Returns which was released on December 11th, 2018 on SyFy. It was awful. It was meant to be a sequel to the original. This is similar to the 2018 requel of Halloween, which is supposed to be a sequel to the original; but at the same time you're supposed to ignore all the other sequels. Literally I feel that SyFy had seen/heard what Blumhouse was planning with the new Halloween film and decided to do the exact same thing. It can't be a coincidence both movies came out within a few months of each other. Halloween was released in October 2018, where this one was released in December.
If you're expecting Warwick Davis, you'll be disappointed. The Leprechaun was recast and he portrayed by Linden Porco. I feel they tried to hard to recreate the feel of the leprechaun, because it failed. Like Robert Englund is to Freddy, the same goes for the Leprechaun. No one can play him like Davis. Plain and simple.
In short, a group of sorority sisters unwittingly awaken a depraved leprechaun who decides to teach them a lesson in murder. (Source: Wiki)
Um yeah. We have Mark Holton reprising his role as Ozzie (wearing the same exact overalls from the first one, weird). One of the Sorority girls, Lila (Taylor Spreitler) is supposed to be the daughter of Aniston's character (Tori Reding). This very vaguely links the two movies, however it does not feel like another sequel. It feels like a messed up remake with very loose connections to the first one. I mean they have could have created something better rather than just creating a requel. Another thing that bothers me about this sequel is that Ozzie still has the gold coin in his stomach from the first movie. Um wouldn't he have digested that or had to have it removed eventually? How did he survive with that in his stomach for over 20 years? I mean eventually it would have passed through his freaking system.
Anyway, that's pretty much Leprechaun and it's sequels. I liked the OG movie, it is a good one. I would stick to the original and Leprechaun Origins in my opinion, because the sequels were too much (for me), especially the 2018 one for SyFy. I mean there are some people out there who do like the sequels; but for me they were just way too ridiculous. Then again this was seen to be a little ridiculous. It had a budget of $900k and it went on to make $8.6 million upon its release on January 8th, 1993, so not a really financial success. It wasn't a success with the critics or fans either. Most people have called it a joke, or even boring at times. While all that maybe true, it's still a fun movie to watch and one they STILL air on St. Patrick's Day as well as Halloween.
IMDB: 4.8/10 || Rotten Tomatoes: 21%
Sleep Tight,
A Nightmare on Movie Night
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