‘Leprechaun’ is a silly, but gory, trip

Although St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, I only just learned that 1993 dark comedy “Leprechaun” is on Peacock so… we’re stretching the holiday out just a bit more for this Throwback Thursday.
“Leprechaun” was written by Mark Jones and stars Warwick Davis with a pre-“Friends” era Jennifer Anniston in a supporting role.
The movie takes place in a small town in North Dakota where we first watch, in 1982, as Dan O’Grady returns home from a trip to his homeland of Ireland. He reveals to his wife that he stole a leprechaun’s pot of gold and is quick to hide it. Unbeknownst to O’Grady, that same leprechaun has followed him home and is set on getting back his treasures. He kills O’Grady’s poor wife (seriously, she didn’t deserve that!) and attempts to finish off the thief himself.
However, O’Grady is able to trap the leprechaun using a four-leaf clover.
Ten years pass and J.D. Redding and his daughter, Tory (Anniston), are tenting the farmhouse for the summer much to Tory’s dismay.
They’re joined by contract workers Nathan Murphy, his 10-year-old brother Alex and Ozzie Jones as the three work to fix up the property during the Reddings stay.
Things go south, however, when Ozzie — the more dimwitted part of the group — accidentally removes the four leaf clover from the box trapping the leprechaun.
From then on its one little blood thirsty leprechaun against a group of very confused people.
The movie features a lot of gory scenes from our titular character as he stops at nothing to get his 100 gold pieces back. The special effects were pretty decent, I will say. I really appreciated the movie stuck with practical effects, only utilizing digital options where necessary and very sparingly.
Do the group manage to make it out alive and, maybe, return the leprechaun’s gold? I won’t tell! If you’re really interested you’ll have to sit through this quick, 90 minute film. It isn’t too bad honestly.
The movie was originally meant to be strictly a horror movie, but Davis added humor into his role while some reshoots added more gore. Overall, I’m glad Davis made the creative choice to be a little fun with it. Honestly, when I do imagine the mythical little guys in green, my brain does imagine they’d be a little silly — though not silly enough to necessarily let you just take their gold.
The gore also, by today’s standards, wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen. There were definitely a few moments where they were gory for no other reason than to see what gross things they could do with special effects. But overall, most of the violent scenes made sense for Warwick’s character. I mean, he does say he’ll stop at nothing to get his gold back.
“Leprechaun” turned out to do well, earning $8.5 million against a $900,000 budget. It would go on to become a cult film that spawned multiple sequels, with “Leprechaun 2” even being released theatrically the following year.
In total, there are seven films in the franchise. So, basically, the “Leprechaun” universe certainly finds itself up there with the likes of “Scream” and “Halloween” with its penchant for sequels. I’ll certainly have to check them out to see if I enjoy them as much as the other mentioned franchises. Something tells me I will.
I’m always a big fan of a silly horror flick. Sure, it’s nice to actually have the living daylights scared out of me from time to time. But I also like to have a laugh along the way if I can.
Overall, I’d certainly recommend giving this movie a shot if you want to watch a silly horror movie with a bit of gore. It’s not show stopping but it does give you an appreciation for Warcik’s acting abilities and a quick glimpse at Anniston before she’d be cemented as Rachel Green in “Friends.”
“Leprechaun” is rated R and may be watched on Peacock, FuboTV, Hulu, YouTube TV, Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and Apple TV.
And remember folks: No matter how tempting it is do NOT take that random pot of gold you may find at the end of a rainbow. Who knows if you’ll live to tell others.
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Laura Jameson is Managing Editor of The Express.