User reviews

Alright "phenomenon" may be a stretch, but "cult" definitely describes the Leprechaun film franchise. Writer/Director Mark Jones really took some chances with this movie in the early 90's, a time when the Horror genre appeared to be washed up. The end result was a moderately successful B movie that developed a small, but enthusiastic fan base. The idea of a leprechaun in a slasher flick may seem like a ridiculous concept at first. Let's face it, in most folk tales leprechauns are portrayed as adorable little Irish elves; not as hideous, conniving, murderous creatures. Mark Jones could have tried to make this a dark film, and if he had done that it likely would have failed miserably. By throwing some humour into the mix, the concept of the film begins to make sense and the movie becomes rather enjoyable to watch. Leprechaun was well-cast. Jennifer Aniston got her first big break, and she did a tremendous job. Watching her for the first time, it was obvious that she was going to move on to bigger and better things. Warwick Davis is another talented actor and was the perfect choice to play the Leprechaun. This franchise would likely have never become so popular if it weren't for him. The rest of the cast is made up mostly of character actors such as Ken Olandt, Mark Holton, and Robert Gorman. While their performances aren't Oscar worthy, they all do their part to keep the film moving along smoothly. The story is nothing too complex. It is what one would expect for a horror film with a Leprechaun. A Leprechaun has his pot of gold stolen and will stop at nothing to retrieve it and murder anyone who gets in his way. The only way he can be stopped is by using a four-leaf clover. The effects were decent for a low budget movie. The Leprechaun's make-up was very well done. It really enhanced the idea that this is supposed to be an evil Leprechaun. Overall if you are expecting to get a good scare from this movie, you will be disappointed. However, if you are simply looking for a simple, enjoyable movie with some light humour and a decent amount of gore, then this would definitely be worthwhile.

I wont ever get anything worthwhile as far as true scares with Leprechaun. Maybe if I were younger the effect would be with a stronger, stranger response, because the make-up- which is extremely well-crafted- and the un-hinged demented brilliance of Warwick Davis could be creepy for a kid. As an adult, however, a LOT of this is quite silly, the kind of flick that might've been presented as the St. Patrick's Day special on the grind-house circuit back in the 70s. Which means that what it lacks in any sort of quality and carries with idiot characters, it does a good enough job of making up for it as a comedy. There's next to no real character development at all, but who needs with then with a little green man running around...excuse me, riding around (on a variety of little goofy vehicles). The writer's make a self-conscious effort to make it in a predictable style, at least at first (they also waste no time getting to the Leprechaun at the start). The director Mark Jones makes shallow attempts for 'different' angles at times (lets do a quick tilt here, a little extra grand-guignol there), but it's really the Warwick Davis show at the end of the day, and the crazy situations that come out of his dogged attempt at one thing- his pot of gold!

A funnier side too is just suddenly seeing the name Jennifer Ansiton in the opening credits- a first time acting job that feels very much like one. She and the rest of the main human characters are pretty standard as somehow able enough to stay on their toes with such a wretched little s.o.b., but it goes without saying you'll come across the very inane dialog exchange or just tepid moment of "acting" (Mark Holton as Ozzie is an example of this). Meanwhile, the Leprechaun rides his tricycles and scooters, and sometimes runs like hell (in truly over-the-top action sequences), and its usually a gas if not entirely workable as horror. Whatever cheap thrills do come around, its never anything totally exciting. But I wouldn't trade some of the Leprechaun's classically mad turns of phrasing ("This old Lep, he played one. He played pogo on his lung"). That little near 4 foot ball of comedic bravado makes the picture somewhat memorable, and I'm sure I'd have fun again watching it again some time soon. Cleverest bit of old-time cliché logic: the Leprechaun's ability to talk in other voices ala the Terminator as a trick on those around the corner. 6.5/10

One of the most popular Horror flicks from the 90's. It's as bad as you have heard but accomplishes on the entertaining factor for B-movie lovers. If you're a Horror fan you might have not seen this one, but for sure you have at least heard of it. It's cheesy, yes but it's entertaining. At least there's some gore, and a likable villain in the style of Freedy Krueger. The plot is cheesy but easy to follow. You have the ingredients to spend 90 minutes of popcorn fun.

Now, this one could work as an actual regular PG-13 low budget Horror movie. The Slasher genre was dead by then but Leprechan remains as one of the efforts to generate life to the genre.

Watch out for a young and very, very cute Jenifer Aniston and a devilish performance by Warwick Davies.

I used to call Leprechaun a guilty pleasure of mine. Sure, I didn't mention it to many people, for the fear of being pointed and laughed at, while I hear people yelling "He's the guy that liked Leprechaun!" So, I kept it a secret. Until now! Why now, you ask (I don't care if you didn't ask, I'm going to tell you anyway)? Simply put, you can all still ridicule me, but I won't be able to hear you laugh or see you pointing at me.

Despite the fact I declare Leprechaun a guilty pleasure, the more I watch it, the more I hate it. Yes, I still find redeemable qualities (though, nowadays, that's becoming quite a task). But, the smell of crap is starting to fill the room anytime I put Leprechaun on.

First and foremost, the main cast (excluding Warwick Davis as the Leprechaun) is idiotic and annoying. How am I supposed to care for these people when they're in danger, when all I keep thinking about is "I hope that house collapses on all of them"? The answer: I can't! That's where the problem lies (cheats and steals?). Without a likable round-up of people, then the story itself falls flat on its face.

The main cast itself is bad, but nobody, and I mean nobody, was more annoying than Robert Gorman, who played the young kid Alex. Talk about your annoying kid actors. For the love of God, couldn't somebody have smacked the kid and threw him into the well that was in the backyard? I've seen some annoying child actors in my day (surprisingly, not including Dickie Roberts. Mainly for the fact that a grown man as a child actor is kind of creepy. I'm talking about you Christopher Knight). I would rather walk onto burning hot magma while having fat little trolls stab me with pitchforks, with House of the Dead (the crappy Uwe Boll movie, not the fun video game) playing simultaneously.

Overall, Leprechaun is like having a fun night out on the time. At first, you're living it up with your buddies, laughing your asses off, and shining people's shoes (this is what happens when you party with Warwick Davis). Then, a bunch of morons join in the fray, ruining your night. Then, you pass out in the bathroom and wake up the next morning with a horrible hangover that makes George W. Bush's presidential run seem tolerable compared to the immense pain your in. Basically, this was just my way of saying that Leprechaun has its moments, but has many flaws that smacks it in the face with a bullwhip.

This movie is rather ridiculous and predictable. First of all, understand, that there are absolutely no scary scenes in this movie. I don't think this movie would even scare me as a kid.

I love horror movies, and heard a lot about leprechaun, so I thought I'd give it a look. If you are looking for a scare, I'd recommend that you pass this movie up. However, it may be worth while to watch for a couple of reasosn.

Pure curiousity may be worth it as it is kind of funny. It can be boring to you if you don't appreciate this genre. Jennifer Aniston is awfully cute in this movie. I personally thought it was worth while just for that.

If you have fast internet access, I recommend you check out www.cinemanow.com

You can view Leprechaun for free as it is one of their free movie offerings.

Not all things at the end of the rainbow glitter. A demonic little Irishman(Warwick Davis) wreaks havoc in a small town in North Dakota when his golden coins are disturbed. Pretty lame, but decent for late late night viewing. Jennifer Aniston's big screen debut. Also in the cast: Mark Holton, Ken Olandt and Robert Gorman. Bad enough to be funny.

this is one of those movies that is meant to be scary, but really is not. i just happen to love that kind of movie. it's great for sitting down and watching with a group of friends for a good laugh. they figured this out later when making more leprechaun movies and not even trying to make them scary. i love the leprechaun series. warwick davis is my hero. if you're up for a good laugh, i suggest getting a group of your friends together and watching this. you must have a good sense of humor and an open mind. if you enjoy this, watch the rest of them. they get more outrageous as they go. i don't recommend this to people who do not find joy in watching silly movies.

It took me a while to get round to watching 'Leprechaun' and its numerous sequels, with so much going on and having a long watch and review list. Why were they seen in the first place? Mainly for curiosity to see whether they were as bad as reputed or whether they would fall into the guilty pleasure category. Also appreciate horror, and ones with splashes of comedy, and had gotten into watching a few horror franchises that had interested me for a long time.

Watching 'Leprechaun', while understanding why people would find it a guilty pleasure it didn't do it for me. Being someone who wanted to go against the consensus on this front, as it did have a good concept and that it had talented Warwick Davis involved going for it, it does genuinely regret me to say that. Didn't think it was that terrible and have seen far worse films, but found myself agreeing with the criticisms it had, and still has, directed at it and thinking it a bad film.

Davis is the best thing about the film. He is both amusing and creepy and does do the best he can, successfully, with a goofy look, terrible lines and less than tasteful horror which must have been hard to do and shows how conscientious and talented he is. Pre-'Friends' Jennifer Aniston is likeable enough as pretty much the only tolerable character in the film, and that is saying a lot.

There are sporadically mildly amusing moments that don't come anywhere near enough. It starts off relatively unsettlingly, again not enough to be a redeeming quality.

On the other hand, the rest of the cast is risible. On one side of the acting spectrum there is a completely lifeless and uncomfortable-looking male lead performance from John Sanderford. On the other there is Robert Hy Gorman in for me one of the most obnoxious child performances ever. Mark Holton's attempts at humour also grated, so much so it was very difficult to sympathise with him considering the character was disabled. The characters display very little personality when they aren't being insufferably annoying with their dumb antics and illogical decision making.

'Leprechaun' is severely lacking in the script and story departments. The dialogue is so childish and repetitive as well as heavy in the cheese, nothing is funny and any attempts at humour or playfulness are forced. Having gratuitous gruesome gore was not enough to cover up for the complete lack of scares and suspense, nothing bit my nails, nothing made my heart pound or skip, nothing made my palms or forehead sweat, nothing made me jump. It's not just because it is so intelligence insultingly dumb, excessively predictable and unintentionally comical, it's also because the second half especially drags so much, is so uneventful and so repetitive and anything trying to be scary on top of being un-suspenseful and gratuitously gory suffers from tastelessness (the silver shoe buckle laceration especially).

In conclusion, bad in almost every way. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Other members of the IMDb may have rated this "1", and that's up to them, but I thought Leprechaun was a real fun horror movie.

I have seen the other films in this series but the first was entertaining.

Low on budget yes, but never boring and always whimsical. Warwick Davis, the small actor who plays the leprechaun, is very good in this role, as he is in all his movies.

He may be lacking in height but not talent.

A brilliant performance by him, and even Jennifer Aniston isn't that bad, and I usually find her a turn off in movies.

Humour, horror, and lots of pace. I gave it 7 out of 10.

Great movie made me laugh. I also like see Jennifer Aniston back in her glory days.

I understand why people hate this movie, but i like it for what it is.

It has good acting Jennifer Aniston is a good actress and it has some funny characters.

I love the Leprechaun and this was the first movie of his franchise.

Warwick davis was great has the Leprechaun and if they make a new movie i hope he is in it.

Overall a entertaining movie and i can't say i recommend it, but if you like this kind og movie go and Watch it.

When i rented this movie, I thought I was in for a classic and memorable horror experience. I mean, everybody's heard of this movie, right, so it would have to be sort of good. WRONG! This movie was so bad it wasn't even laughably bad. When it was supposed to be scary, it wasn't. When it was supposed to be funny, it wasn't. The whole movie is pretty much just a site gag ("Ha Ha! Look at the midget run!") with some sort of poor excuse for a plot. Oompa Loopas are funnier and scarier. Also, it has one of those feel good endings that really makes me hate 90s horror. This movie failed miserably.

"Leprechaun" is Jennifer Aniston's only big screen appearance before she became a star on "Friends", and WOW! she looks hot! I'm not a fan of hers, and I've never watched "Friends", but she is drop-dead gorgeous in this film, 23 or 24 years old and just beautiful! Oh yeah, there's a leprechaun in this movie too...

I really liked this cheap, low-budget B horror flick. It's bad, but I'll be darned if it's not engaging and compulsively watchable. Much of the credit has to go to Warwick Davis, the evil leprechaun. It's not that he's particularly clever or funny, but he's very engaging, and in spite of myself, I kept wanting to see where he'd pop up next, even when it was predictable. I want more Leprechaun, luckily(?) there's another 5 movies to watch in the series. This film is the truest definition of "It's so bad it's good" that I've come across in recent memory. A lot of fun!

This movie was stunningly poor. Stunningly poor. I am at a loss to explain how anyone could justify one sequel, much less three. Hell, I can't figure out how the damned movie even managed to get distributed in the first place (despite the Jennifer Aniston factor, which is really no factor...her feeble powers are completely overwhelmed by this amateurish nightmare of a film). The story is dull, the dialogue is flat, and the decrepit little villain is evil in the most unimaginative, unmagical ways. It's hard to believe anyone could write such a boring, labored script. If you're looking for a pot o' gold at your local Blockbuster, don't bother searching for it in a plastic case marked "Leprechaun." All you'll find there is a tepid cauldron of algae-coated swamp water.

I LOVE bad horror movies. On the whole, the whole genre of unspeakably bad horror films is typically funnier that movies that try to be funny, such as "You've Got Mail."

But this movie is so bad, so shamefully poorly constructed, that I was not laughing. I was just bored. The whole time.

Well, not the WHOLE time. At the end, when the leprechaun climbs up out of the well with his face peeling off and screams, for the last time, "I want me go...aah....ohh," I was laughing. And it was kind of funny when he summons his bag of coins from Jennifer Aniston's hand, and you can see the string guiding it over to him. Those are good moments. That's why I gave this film a 2 instead of a 1.

Any film that is so bad that it doesn't even get unintentional-laugh points (except for two), has got to have an overwhelming amount of flaws. And this movie does. So everything works out.

Big fan of 80s-90s horror movies. Always liked this one growing up. Its nothing spectacular but still a fun movie to watch. On top of being a horror movie it has Jennifer Aniston in it so it's a win win!

Dan O'Grady returns home after stealing the Leprechaun (Warwick Davis)'s pot of gold. The Leprechaun stowaway in his suitcase. Armed with a pistol and a four leaf clover, Dan is able to stuff him in a crate. He suffers a stroke before he can set it on fire. Ten years later, J. D. Redding rents the rustic O'Grady farmhouse and his materialistic daughter Tory (Jennifer Aniston) wants to leave immediately. After meeting hot handyman Nathan Murphy, Tory changes her mind about the house. Tory, Nathan, his little brother Alex and idiot friend Ozzie have to battle the violent dwarf who is searching for his gold.

This is extremely cheesy. The Leprechaun costume looks ridiculously campy. Being scared of a four leaf clover makes him look really silly. The whole thing is one big joke. Jennifer Aniston does look good but that's the only redeeming quality. It's a horror that is more likely to make you laugh at its silliness. Although, actual attempts at humor are too stupid to be funny.

Leprechaun is actually, in my opinion, a fun horror movie with great comedy and some spooky scares. I know that this movie is beyond silly, but I think sometimes you need a villain that doesn't take himself too seriously, this movie made fun of leprechauns along with making it into an interesting horror movie. Come on, you have got to admit that that little leprechaun was one scary looking creature! Warwick Davis is just so awesome, I don't get how you could not love him, or be scared of him as the Leprechaun.

Leprechaun is about a daughter and a father move into an old house where the previous owner has gone insane and trapped a leprechaun in the house they moved into. The one thing that is keeping the leprechaun in the box is a four leaf clover. Jennifer Anniston in one of her earliest roles is a prissy Beverly Hills girl who meets Nathan, a hunky carpenter who is helping them out with the house, and his two friends Ozzie, a mentally challenged man and his little brother, Alex. When Ozzie goes down to the basement, he accidentally knocks the clover off the create, the leprechaun escapes! He also wants his pot of gold that Ozzie and Alex found and will kill to get it!

I know there are some major cheesy scenes, but they are just so laughable, you know, like the so bad it's good type of thing? I think that's why Leprechaun is a cult classic and a guilty pleasure for most. You just need to have fun and not take it so seriously as a horror movie. Warwick Davis is just a great leprechaun and he made it into a fun franchise!

7/10

I love the first Leprechaun which came out and was directed by Mark Jones. I think it is the best in the series and along with the first two that came after it, all three of them deserve praise. Especially this one however as it doesn't try to be a good film. Its wacky, mildly cartoonish in violence, funny death scenes and an excellent music score. All of these things with weird plot holes is what makes Leprechaun so great.

Getting off topic for a moment, I was mentioning how these elements worked to make the film work right? Well by Leprechaun 4 in Space, and then the two films where he goes to the hood don't work. Of course like the first one they're silly, but they never knew their limits and they failed to really provide comedy or horror. They just never worked. On another note, the 2nd and 3rd Leps in the series were able to work perfectly.

Anyway back onto Leprechaun 1, it is a classy, cheesy popcorn horror film which will fill you heart with laughter. It knows it's limits and Warwick Davis as the Leprechaun is a joy to watch in action. It also marks some of the best quotes from the Leprechaun. The music score is also the best here as it combines and contrasts absurdness and creepiness together.

Anyway, like many of Slasher Horror franchises like "Halloween", "Child's Play", "TCM" and "SCREAM", the first is always best to stick wit.

It deserves 8 four-leaf clovers out of 10.

A pretty good 90s low-budget horror movie with (young) Jennifer Anniston when she was a nobody, a year before "Friends" made her an A-list star. It helps if you know nothing about the old Irish stories about Leprechauns because the one in this film is not exactly true to legend. This film is a good thing to watch the night before Saint Patrick's Day, especially if you have had a pint or two. It's got lots of sequels, so you could binge watch them all night long. (I think that's required by law if you live in Boston.)

This film essentially begins with a man by the name of "Dan O'Grady" (Shay Duffin) having caught a "Leprechaun" (played by Warwick Davis) and, as is their custom, receiving 100 gold pieces for letting him go. Needless to say, loving gold as much as they do, the Leprechaun isn't the type to simply let bygones be bygones and he immediately decides to get his gold back. So, he subsequently follows Dan to his house where a struggle ensues between the two of them. Fortunately, thanks in large part to a four-leaf clover in his possession, Dan is able to subdue the Leprechaun and put him in a packing crate--with the four-leaf clover on top of it to prevent his escape. Unfortunately, the strain of the struggle causes Dan to have a stroke and he collapses not too far away. The scene then shifts to 10 years later with a man known simply as "J. D." (John Sanderford) having purchased Dan's old house and now moving into it with his daughter "Tory" (Jennifer Aniston). Naturally, since the house is rather old and in need of some repair, J. D. has also hired a paint crew led by a man named "Nathan" (Ken Olandt) to spruce it up. And it's during this time that the four-leaf clover on top of the crate falls off, which allows the Leprechaun to escape--and he is filled with a murderous rage. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was one of those films in which either the producer or the director (Mark Jones) didn't know what kind of movies he was trying to make. If it was intended to be a comedy, it lacked the necessary humor. If it was intended to be a horror movie, it lacked the necessary horror. Regardless, it turned out to be rather bad all the way around and I have rated it accordingly.