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When Tory Reding (Jennifer Aniston) and her father J.D. (John Sanderford) rent an old, rundown house in rural North Dakota, Tory thinks her only problems are going to be dust, bugs, spiders, cobwebs and no shopping mall or cable TV until 'Three Guys Who Paint' -- Nathan (Ken Olandt), his little brother Alex (Robert Hy Gorman), and their dim-witted friend Ozzie (Mark Holton) -- release a leprechaun (Warwick Davis) that's been crated up in the basement, accidentally brought over from Ireland ten years ago by previous owner Dan O'Grady (Shay Duffin). The leprechaun will stop at nothing to get back his pot of gold and takes to terrorizing Tory and her painter friends.

Leprechaun is based on a screenplay by Mark Jones, who also directed and produced the movie. Due to the success of this film, five more movies have been released in the series. These include: (1994), Leprechaun 3 (1995) (1995), Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996) (1997), Leprechaun in the Hood (2000) (2000), and Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood (2003) (2003), all starring Warwick Davis as the leprechaun.

Leprechaun straddles both sides of the fence, sometimes appearing as a comedy and other times as horror, much in the vein of movies like Gremlins (1984) (1984) and Critters (1986) (1986), to which it is often compared. The majority of the sequels focus more on comedy than horror.

The leprechaun tells Deputy Tripet (David Permenter), when Tripet accuses him of being a child wearing a mask, that he is over 600 years old.

Leprechauns are traditionally described as shoemakers. Apparently, this leprechaun was obsessed with them and couldn't stop himself from shining any shoes that crossed his path, much like a vampire must stop and count every grain of rice or millet that someone might toss in his path.

Tory sneaks into the rest home in order to talk with Dan O'Grady and find out how to kill the leprechaun, but the leprechaun has gotten there first. Riding in O'Grady's wheelchair, the leprechaun chases Tory down the hall until she jumps into an elevator. Suddenly, O'Grady, with his face all bloodied, falls from the ceiling. As he dies, O'Grady tells Tory that the only way to kill him is to get a 4-leaf clover and place it somewhere on his body. Tory drives back to the house, the leprechaun following in the wheelchair. He catches up with her when she stops to find a 4-leaf clover in the clover patch. He grabs her, and she runs, stopping only when she sees the flashing light of a police car. She jumps into the front seat to find dead Deputy Tripet sitting there. When the leprechaun runs up to the side of the car and tries to grab at her through the window, Tory pokes out one of his eyes with the deputy's nightstick. Suddenly a shot rings out and the leprechaun falls to the ground. Nathan (Ken Olandt) and Ozzie have heard her screams and come running. Together, they comb the clover patch for a 4-leaf clover. Meanwhile, Alex is setting up the bear trap in the barn when the leprechaun jumps him and tries to snap his neck in the trap. Ozzie, Nathan, and Tory enter the barn just in time to save Alex. Ozzie tells the leprechaun that the 100th coin is in his stomach and runs away with the leprechaun in hot pursuit. Alex takes the clover from Tory, wraps it around his wad of chewing gun, and slingshots it right down the leprechaun's throat. The leprechaun begins to disintegrate and falls into the well. As the four of them congratulate each other for killing the leprechaun, he climbs back out of the well, mumbling, "I want me gold." Nathan pushes him back down the well with the butt of his rifle, then pours a can of gasoline around the well. When he ignites it, the well goes up like an atom bomb. As the flames die down, the police finally show up. In the final scene, the leprechaun's voice can be heard coming from the well. "I'll not rest 'til I have me gold. Curse this well that me soul shall dwell 'til I find me magic that breaks the spell."

About a third of the way into the movie, before anyone (except Ozzie) knew about the leprechaun, Tory's father had his hand bitten by what he thought was a cat (it was the leprechaun meowing like a cat). They rushed him to the hospital, and he was kept overnight for observation. He does not appear in the film after that. He may be with the group of police that arrive at the end of the movie...the person that Tory rushes forward to see.

It's Aniston's first movie made for theatrical release. Aniston had previously appeared in Camp Cucamonga (1990), a made-for-TV movie released in 1990. She had also appeared as various characters in several TV series, like two episodes of Molloy (1990) (1990), 13 episodes of Ferris Bueller (1990) (1990-1991), and episode "Nowhere to Run" (1992) of Quantum Leap (1989).