Movie Info
Movie Name: Leprechaun
Studio: Trimark Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/Comedy/B-Movie
Release Date(s): January 8, 1993
MPAA Rating: R
Don’t f*!? with the Leprechaun
An evil has been unleashed on a country home. When the leprechaun (Warwick Davis) comes searching for his pot of gold, the new renters are the ones who are caught in the middle. Tory Redding (Jennifer Aniston) is new to town, and despite the assurance of her father (John Sanderford), she is not seeing a fun summer ahead. Unfortunately, Tory and the three painters hired by her father brothers Nathan Murphy (Ken Olandt) and Alex Murphy (Robert Gorman) and their friend Ozzie (Mark Holton) find themselves in a deadly face-off against the evil spirit that will stop at nothing to gets its gold back.
Directed by Mark Jones, Leprechaun is a horror comedy. The film was released to poor reviews but became a cult hit. Followed by multiple sequels, the film also later gained attention by being the first feature film of Jennifer Aniston before she starred on Friends.
He does love his toys
I am always going to favor horror movies with murderous little monsters because bigger does not always mean scarier. I eagerly rented the VHS of the movie at our local grocery and enjoyed it for what it was…a goofy, sloppy horror movie. It has remained that over the years.
The movie is pretty dumb…no question about it. The reason could be that it was initially intended to be a young-adult picture with the leprechaun trying to gets its gold in a less violent manner. I’m sure that they planned for the leprechaun to be evil in both versions, but that could explain why the movie is trapped in this weird limbo between comedy and horror movie that isn’t like other comedy horror films. It is overly long and kind of like watching the Three Stooges and Benny Hill mixed together and trying to kill everyone (which now has me wishing to see that movie).
I’m coming for my “friends” next!!!
Warwick Davis at least does his best to make the bad script his own and has fun with the character in spite of everything. His evil leer and cackling really make the character. It doesn’t always work when the movie goes slapstick, and I don’t care how indestructible the leprechaun is, it seemed like they did fine just beating on him for a while Nathan was caught in the trap…I just don’t find him threatening. He’s laughable, but not threatening.
The rest of the cast including Aniston doesn’t do a very good job. He might have been bad, but I always love seeing Pee-Wee’s nemesis Francis (Mark Holton) show up in movies. In a more PC world it is a bit hard to see a person playing mentally handicapped. It is even harder to watch the movie in a post-Friends world because all I can see is Rachel when Aniston is on the screen.
No one gets my lucky charms!
Other than the actual make-up on the leprechaun the movie looks incredibly cheap. The sets look cheap and it sure doesn’t look like the cast left California to shoot the movie while the film is supposed to be set up north.
Leprechaun is one of those great movies to get together with friends, watch, and make fun of. The movie is pretty aware that it is bad, but it doesn’t cross over into the so-bad-it-is-good realm (though it does get close). Leprechaun 2 was released in 1994 and took the humor farther by sometimes giving itself the tagline Leprechaun 2: One Wedding and a Lot of Funerals…setting the stage for future sequel classics like Leprechaun in Space and Leprechaun in the Hood.
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