Leprechaun 1 - 6

I sat down recently with one of East Village Film Society's toughest critics and one of my best buds, Todd Breland, with the sole intention to knock out the Leprechaun franchise. Just in case you didn't know, there were officially 6 installments in the Leprechaun universe. That's right, 6 of these fucking things. Hollywood really will green light anything.

Well let's get into it.

Leprechaun
(1993) [Trailer]
Director: Mark Jones (IMDB)

The first film in the saga and probably one of the best of the entire lot, which doesn't mean a lot. It stars Willow (who will star in all the other films), Jennifer Aniston and that guy who was a real dick in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. It's set at some run down farm house in God knows where. The protagonists show up to paint the house, which they suck at, and end up getting more then they bargained for when a Leprechaun comes to life in the basement. This movie isn't really scary and at times, is pretty funny, which is the over all tone of every film in the franchise.






Leprechaun 2
(1994) [Trailer]
Director: Rod Flender (IMDB)

This one finds the Leprechaun in L.A. It stars...no one I can think of. It's very slow to start but overall I think the Leprechaun's main objective in the film is to find a wife/sex buddy. The best part is where he uses a souped up go-cart to try and kill someone.











Leprechaun 3
(1995) [Trailer]
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith (IMDB)

In this chapter we find the Leprechaun in Las Vegas. It stars, yet again, no one you've heard of. It opens in a pawn shop with a stereotypical Indian guy who unleashes the Leprechaun after stealing his gold necklace. He then uses the internet to figure out how to kill the Leprechaun, he dies, the Leprechaun then goes on to kill a bunch of gambler degenerate types. I would say out of all of them, this is the worst. It's real boring and really ugly.








Leprechaun 4 - Leprechaun in Space
(1997) [Trailer]
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith (IMDB)

You would think that since it's set in space, it would rule, but sadly, it does not. It's another cast of no names and it's some of the shittiest acting out. Story-wise it's exactly what you would expect: they pick up the Leprechaun from an alien planet, he takes over their space ship and fucks people up. The set pieces and costumes look like hand me downs from other sci-fi shows. It has the look of a porno movie from the 90's (the golden age.) It's a really bad movie, but still better then part three.







Leprechaun 5 - Leprechaun in the Hood
(2000) [Trailer]
Director: Rob Spera (IMDB)

OK, this is a great idea for a Leprechaun movie, and they do a good job pulling it off. Totally campy and cheesy, but still a lot of fun. It stars Ice T (this is the performance that landed him the gig on Law & Order) and is centered in South Central LA. The Leprechaun's gold is stolen (big surprise), he comes back for it, smokes weed and fucks people up. Perfect. It's the best of the films, just barely edging out part one.








Leprechaun 6 - Leprechaun Back 2 Da Hood
(2003) [Trailer]
Director: Steven Ayromlooi (IMDB)

So much promise, I really was excited for this, but sadly, it's a watered down version of it's predecessor. It stars the guy from Onyx...and...no one else you've heard of. The plot is pretty much the same as the last. I feel like it's trying for 'Friday' meets 'Leprechaun', which should be amazing, but it's not. It's slow, especially to get to the Leprechaun scenes. When he arrives finally, he smokes more weed, kills a dude with a bong, and then kills even more people. The last half is pretty good, enough to secure it third place.