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An evil leprechaun will do anything to get his gold back. Little does Tory (Jennifer Aniston) and her father realize that the house they just bought also contains the trapped leprechaun, awaiting a chance to resume the diabolical quest of finding his stolen gold.
This is the type of movie that deserves to have a cult following. It isn’t nearly good enough to ever be considered a “great” movie, but some how it endears the watcher not only to the heroes, but also to the villain. Never does this movie take itself seriously and that’s a good thing considering the plot. However, some people might think Leprechaun is just another stupid horror movie, and I’m not going to make any earth shattering arguments against that view. What makes Leprechaun fun to watch is its comedy, but like any type of joke, some people might just not get it. If you’re one of those people, then this movie isn’t for you. I consider myself to have a very dark sense of humor, so I love a movie like Leprechaun. I can’t help but be amused whenever I see the evil leprechaun riding his tricycle. Equally as amusing is the leprechaun’s fetish for needing to polish any scuffed shoes he encounters. I’m not sure if this actually has some sort of basis in real leprechaun mythology, but I find it an interesting character quirk regardless. Warwick Davis deserves a lot of credit for his portrayal of the leprechaun here. He’s over the top in spots, but still acts gruesome enough to make the little green guy menacing.
I’m sure that Jennifer Aniston is probably ashamed of having starred in a movie like this, considering how popular she is these days. The fact of the matter is she has nothing to be ashamed of though. I am, as of right now, making a plea to everyone reading this review to email or contact Ms. Aniston, begging her to use her Hollywood connections to make a new Leprechaun movie, starring her and at least half the cast of Friends. What are they doing these days anyway?
The plot is just terrible. There, I said it. Making the leprechaun’s one weakness a four leaf clover is just ridiculous. I mean when I was a kid I always thought those two things went hand in hand with one another. As well, it just doesn’t make sense why Tory uses her one chance to escape to go visit old Mr. O’Grady (AKA stereotypical Irish guy) rather than going to the police station to get help. Mr. O’Grady’s death scene is just laughable really. How did he get up on top of the elevator anyway? The lucky thing is that the humor and pacing make up for the weak points in the plot. The scary thing is that the plot could have been a lot worse. We get to see the leprechaun from the start of the movie and it would have been very tempting to take the opposite approach and build up to the audience seeing the leprechaun for the first time. Of course that probably would have involved a lot of boring scenes that moved the plot along and the leprechaun killing people while being only half visible or in the shadows. I’m glad they didn’t use this approach. Instead we get to see the leprechaun up to no good right from the start and the pacing is excellent as there isn’t a lot of moments where we’re bogged down by boring dialogue.
Another potential compliant about this movie might be that it isn’t scary. There’s some gore in it, but at the end of the day most people won’t be too scared of the leprechaun. My question is: if he isn’t that scary, why did they make another four or five movies with him in them? I think the answer would be that the character is a lot of fun and we might not be scared while watching a Leprechaun movie, but we’re more than likely going to be entertained.
I can understand why some people might hate this movie, but I can also understand why some people might think it’s a forgotten gem. My recommendation would be to see it if you have a dark sense of humor. Because of the huge potential of either loving or hating this movie, I’m giving this movie a special rating of two and a half Bubs.
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