Leprechaun (1993) Rated R
Stars: Warwick Davis (Leprechaun), Jennifer Aniston (Tory), Ken Olandt (Nathan) , Robert Hy Gorman (Alex), Mark Holton (Ozzie)

Every once in a while nothing quite hits the spot like a cheesy 'horror' movie. Feeling like that recently I saw Leprechaun on cable and had to re-watch it. I knew it had just the right amount of scary movie cliches, lame plot and just enough gore to fit the bill. In fact the only thing missing to make this a primo cheesy scary movie in my book is the lack of gratuitous sex, and a high body count (only 4 deaths in this one).

The starts off in the home of two old people, the O'Gradys. Mrs. O'Grady is in making tea and hears a child calling out and goes to investigate. Hearing the calls from a case she opens it letting out a vicious leprechaun who attacks her when she cannot tell him the location of his gold. After she is disposed of Mr. O'Grady returns delighted that he has hidden the gold. Now we here Mrs. O'Grady, from another room, asking where the gold is hidden, when Mr. O'Grady goes to see her it is the leprechaun and some more mayhem ensues. With Mr. O'Grady trapping the evil thing in a crate holding him there with a four-leaf clover on the top, to bad they guy has a stroke before he kills the thing.

Now flash to ten years later...

We see J.D. Reddington (John Sunderford) and his daughter Tory driving to the new house they just bought. Once they arrive we see it is the old O'Grady and Tory is less than thrilled by the rundown old place. Once inside she is even more disgusted, it is dusty and full of spiders including one big tarantula (when tarantulas ever lived in N. Dakota I will never know). As young Tory runs from the house on her cell phone calling a local hotel she runs into Nathan. Nathan is a painter there to work on the house, apparently his making fun of her is enough to goad her into staying in the house. Later we find her going into the creepy basement to deliver drinks to Nathan when he scares her. Now they discover a crate and are about to open it when we hear screams from outside and they leave. Of course all the noise they made in the basement has woken the leprechaun and now he bides his time until someone will let him out.

Now get Ozzie in the house, he is the big dumb guy that I think is supposed to be 'slow'. Anyway he gets in the house and hears a voice calling to him and goes to investigate. Once in the basement her hears someone begging to be let out of the crate. He goes over to listen and knocks off the clover. Now the little green meanie is on the loose and looking to make 'pair of boots out of an ear' if Ozzie doesn't give up the gold. After a rhyming explanation about his fashions and the fact that he loves shoes from the old Lep, Ozzie runs out to warn the others.

Of course Nathan and Tory are busy painting the house Red and Blue while flirting and everyone else is off doing something but come running to make fun of Ozzie and his tale of the mean leprechaun in the basement. Then suddenly out of the sunny sky appears a rainbow and Ozzie and his sidekick Alex (a smart, cynical 12 year old) go off to find the end of the rainbow. Once there they find a rusty old truck, but what is that shimmer there? It's a bag of gold. Of course Ozzie knows they way to tell if it is real gold is to bite it. In doing so he manages to swallow it (if I swallowed something the size of a half dollar I would be hurting). Alex takes a coin so he can get it appraised and hides the rest in a well next to the house.

From that point on hilarity ensues with the evil leprechaun killing and maiming any extras in the movie while looking for his gold. Why his powers cannot just tell him the gold is in the well is never explained. Each killing of course come with some rhyming song from the lep and we get a little, very fake looking gore. We do get some almost amusing moments, like seeing the leprechaun being distracted by getting dirty shoes thrown at him, that he feels compelled to clean, and a death by pogo stick.

Eventually of course they learn the secret to defeating the little bugger (remember the clover on the crate) and manage to do so by finding a four-leaf clover in a patch that looks sort of like a green light shining on the ground. Once found said clover is slingshot into the mouth of the leprechaun and he burns or melts or something and 'dies'.

Overall the movie is more funny than scary and I find it tries a little to hard to be campy. Unless you have a real love for b-movies of this type you should probably skip this one. The special effects are bad, the script is lame and the acting is either over the top (Davis) or just plain bad (everyone else). Jennifer Aniston is .. well.. basically a teenage version of her character on Friends. If by some chance you like this kind of movie then you will be happy to know that there are at least 4 sequels to this movie, including one in space and one "in the hood".



Recommended: No

Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age
Special Effects: Well at least you can't see the strings