Although laughable in ridiculous camp with decent make-up, Leprechaun is one of the worst franchise ideas in horror *history* with enough unholy acting, voice nasiliness, & basicity of a D-film script necessitating a Pot O’ Channel-Changers. 3/10

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Plot (Kind-Of) Synopsis: Dan O’Grady (Shay Duffin) steals 100 gold coins from a leprechaun (Warwick Davis) while on vacation in Ireland. The leprechaun follows him home, but Dan locks the murderous midget in a crate, held at bay by a four-leaf clover. Ten years later, J.D. Redding (John Sanderford) and his daughter, Tory (Jennifer Aniston), rent O’Grady’s property for the summer. When their new neighbors accidentally release the leprechaun, he goes on a murderous rampage to reclaim his gold.

*Possible spoilers ahead*

Review: A Pot O’ Channel-Changers. That’s all I could think about as I watched the unholy array unfold before my eyes of a horror film that somehow became a.. franchise.. based around – an evil Leprechaun. You heard that right: Leprechaun. Like the Lucky Charms cereal mascot Leprechaun. Built on this failed premise, the film adaptation fairs about as well as you would expect: Although laughable in ridiculous camp with decent make-up design/score, Leprechaun is one of the worst franchise ideas in horror *history* with more scariness in unholy acting, voice nasiliness, & basicity of D-film screenplay than its actual premise.

Laughability in D-film trickery with decency in make-up design and score. I have to admit, it’s actually pretty funny how awful and ridiculous the film is. We literally see a guy get pogo-sticked to death. A pogo-stick. Enough cheap ketchup-y gore, cackling, and voice-changing shenanigans to elicit eye-rolling chuckles make it fine as a cheesy Halloween campfest (although – of course – that doesn’t make it a good film). The film is actually decent in make-up design for its titular creature getting his gremlin/ghoulish features right, a surprisingly charismatic orchestral accompaniment, and the novelty of seeing eventual staple actress Jennifer Anniston when she hadn’t yet learned how to.. well, act, but these pros are miniscule if looking at the film as an actual film.

The flaws. Where to even begin? One, the premise instantly setting up the movie to fail from its first shot. How on earth did such an imbecilic premise get greenlit into a movie, let alone an actual FRANCHISE: an evil Leprechaun (the mythical creature we’ve been conditioned to view as a kid’s/benevolent folk tale) that suddenly goes berserk and starts killing everyone.. in North Dakota. The acting is absolutely horrendous feeling like a fan or D-film with better performances likely coming off the streets, voice of the Leprechaun awful and not even remotely intimidating about 2-3 octaves too high and nasily, set-ups mediocre, craftsmanship hilarious (they use a flip transition at one point. A FLIP TRANSITION, like Microsoft Office), and screenplay so amateurish and mega-basic a child could’ve written the plot (and any decently-capable creature of mythical power could’ve solved in literally seconds): find. pot. of. gold.

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Overall, Leprechaun is one of the worst movies and franchise ideas I can ever remember in the horror genres. Although laughable in ridiculous camp with decent make-up design/score, Leprechaun is one of the worst franchise ideas in horror *history* with enough unholy acting, voice nasiliness, & basicity of D-film script for a Pot O’ Channel-Changers.

Overall Score: 3/10