Leprechaun (film)
Encyclopedia
Leprechaun is a 1993 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 directed by Mark Jones
Mark Jones (screenwriter)
Mark Jones is an American screenwriter, film director, television director, film producer, and television producer. He is notable for his work on the Leprechaun horror franchise and numerous television series such as The A-Team and The Highwayman...

, starring Warwick Davis
Warwick Davis
Warwick Ashley Davis is an English actor. He is most notable for playing the title characters in Willow and the Leprechaun film series, as well as for his roles in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and the Harry Potter movies. Davis currently stars in the sitcom Life's Too Short, written...

 and Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...

 in her first film role. The film was shot in Saugus, California. It is the first of six movies in the Leprechaun franchise
Leprechaun (franchise)
Leprechaun is an American comedy horror franchise consisting of six films and a comic book series. Beginning with 1993's Leprechaun the series centers around a malevolent and murderous leprechaun, who, when his gold is taken from him, resorts to any means necessary to reclaim it.-Overview:In the...

, though chronologically takes place after the events of Leprechaun in the Hood, Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood
Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood
Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood is a 2003 direct-to-video comedy-horror film written and directed by Steven Ayromlooi. The sixth installment of the Leprechaun series taking place before the events of Leprechaun 3, Leprechaun, Leprechaun 2 and Leprechaun 4: In Space the film has the villainous...

 and Leprechaun 3
Leprechaun 3
Leprechaun 3 is a 1995 slasher/black comedy film. It was the first direct-to-video in the Leprechaun series. The movie seems to take place after the events of Leprechaun: In The Hood and Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood but before the events of Leprechaun-Plot:In a Las Vegas pawn shop, a decrepit old...

.

Plot

Daniel O'Grady returns home from a trip to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, to tell his wife that he had captured a leprechaun and that by doing so, acquired his pot of gold. Unknowing to him, the evil Leprechaun
Leprechaun
A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology...

 had stowed away in one of his suitcases, killing his wife by pushing her down the basement stairs. After burying the gold, Daniel discovers the leprechaun and tries to kill it by showing a four leaf clover, the leprechaun's weakness. He manages to trap him inside a crate and attempts to burn it and the house to the ground, but suffers a heart attack, leaving the leprechaun inside, guarded by the magic of the four leaf clover.

Ten years pass when J.D. Redding (John Sanderford) and his daughter Torie (Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...

) rent the O'Grady farmhouse for the summer when they meet Nathan Murphy (Ken Olandt
Ken Olandt
Kenneth Andrew "Ken" Olandt is an American actor, producer, and executive producer. He has starred in many feature films and television shows....

), his little brother Alex (Robert Gorman), and their mentally challenged friend Ozzie (Mark Holton
Mark Holton
Mark Holton is an American actor.-Career:Holton's most famous roles may be that of Francis Buxton, Pee-Wee Herman's nemesis, in the 1985 blockbuster Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and Joe Charbonic in Bille August's Convicted, starring Connie Nielsen and Aidan Quinn. Other notable 1980s roles were as...

), who are re-painting the farmhouse. Ozzie is looking around the basement when he hears the leprechaun's cry for help, mistaking him for a little child. He brushes the old four leaf clover off the crate, letting the leprechaun break free.

After trying to convince the others that he met a leprechaun (which fails horribly due to his former ludicrous stories), Ozzie spots a rainbow and chases it, believing that there will be a pot of gold at the end. Alex accompanies him for fear Ozzie might hurt himself when they come across an old truck, with the bag of one hundred gold pieces magically appearing. After testing to see if it's real gold (where Ozzie bit the gold piece and accidentally swallowed it), they plot to keep it for themselves, hoping to fix Ozzie's brain.

The leprechaun lures J.D. into a trap by imitating a cat, biting and injuring his hand. Tory and the others rush him to the hospital, followed by the leprechaun, who traveled there on a tricycle. Alex and Ozzie go to a pawn shop to see if it's real gold, while Nathan and Tory are out to eat, waiting on J.D.'s results. The leprechaun attacks the pawn shop owner, killing him by crushing his chest with a pogo stick. After terrorizing and killing a policeman, the leprechaun returns to the farmhouse, searching for his gold, while shining every shoe in the house. Everyone (minus J.D.) returns home, finding the house ransacked. Nathan goes out to see what is outside when he is injured by a bear trap set up by the leprechaun.

After shooting the leprechaun several times, they try to leave the farmhouse when the truck breaks down, due to the leprechaun biting all the cords. After ramming the truck with his specially made car, the leprechaun terrorizes the gang until Ozzy reveals that he and Alex found the pot of gold. Tory recovers the bag from the old well, and gives it to the leprechaun. Believing the worst to be over, they try to head out to the hospital. The leprechaun is counting his gold when he discovers that he is one gold piece missing (the one Ozzy swallowed) and thinks that they have tricked him, leading him to terrorize them until Ozzy tells them about O'Grady, who was taken to a nursing home after his stroke. Tory decides to head out to the home to find out how to kill the leprechaun.

Tory arrives at the nursing home, searching until she finds O'Grady, who is actually the leprechaun, who chases Torie to the elevator. Torie escapes, while the bloodied body of O'Grady crashes through, managing to tell her that the only way to kill him is by a four leaf clover, before dying. Tory returns home, and automatically starts searching for a clover until she is chased by the leprechaun, who almost kills her until she is saved by Nathan and Ozzie. Alex tries to set a trap but is attacked by the leprechaun, almost killing him but Ozzy tells him that he swallowed the last gold coin, and is critically wounded by the leprechaun. Before the leprechaun kills Ozzie, Alex takes the four leaf clover from Torie, sticks it to a wad of gum and shoots it into the leprechaun's mouth, taking away his power. The skeleton of the leprechaun appears out of the well until Nathan hits him down and pours gas inside the well, blowing up the well and killing the leprechaun.

The police arrive where Torie is reunited with her father as the police investigate the remains of the well, where the leprechaun vows he will not rest until he recovers every last piece of his gold.

Box office

This film opened in 620 theatres taking in $3,279,000 its opening week. Domestically, the film has made $8,556,940 on a $900,000 budget.

Reception

Critically, the film received mixed to average reviews. The film has a 30% average with a 4/10 rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

. Despite the mixed reviews, it was a commercial success. It has since received a cult following due to it's campy nature and very silly tone.

Cast

  • Warwick Davis
    Warwick Davis
    Warwick Ashley Davis is an English actor. He is most notable for playing the title characters in Willow and the Leprechaun film series, as well as for his roles in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and the Harry Potter movies. Davis currently stars in the sitcom Life's Too Short, written...

     as Leprechaun
  • Jennifer Aniston
    Jennifer Aniston
    Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...

     as Tory Redding
  • Ken Olandt
    Ken Olandt
    Kenneth Andrew "Ken" Olandt is an American actor, producer, and executive producer. He has starred in many feature films and television shows....

     as Nathan Murphy
  • Mark Holton
    Mark Holton
    Mark Holton is an American actor.-Career:Holton's most famous roles may be that of Francis Buxton, Pee-Wee Herman's nemesis, in the 1985 blockbuster Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and Joe Charbonic in Bille August's Convicted, starring Connie Nielsen and Aidan Quinn. Other notable 1980s roles were as...

     as Ozzie
  • Robert Gorman as Alex Murphy
  • William Newman as Sheriff Cronin
  • Shay Duffin
    Shay Duffin
    Shay Duffin was an Irish-born American character actor of the stage and screen. Was in the 1993 film Leprechaun. He also had a role in the 1997 film Titanic....

     as Dan O'Grady
  • John Sanderford as J.D. Redding

External links

  • Leprechaun digital comic books from Devil's Due Digital
    Devil's Due Digital
    Devil’s Due Digital Inc. is an American digital publishing company established in 2010 by cofounders Mark Thompson of Checker Book Publishing Group and Josh Blaylock of Devil’s Due Publishing.-History:...

    .
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