Leprechaun is a 1993 American horror comedy film written and directed by Mark Jones, and starring Warwick Davis in the title role, with Jennifer Aniston supporting. The film follows a vengeful leprechaun who believes a family has stolen his pot of gold. As he hunts them, they attempt to locate his gold to mollify him.
Originally intended as straight horror, Davis injected humor into his role, and reshoots added increased gore to appeal to older audiences. Leprechaun was the first in-house production at Trimark Pictures for theatrical exhibition; it earned a domestic gross of $8.556 million against a budget of roughly $900,000 and became a cult film. While reviews were negative, with critics lambasting both the direction and the characters and saying that the film is neither scary nor funny, the commercial success spawned a media franchise with a sequel, Leprechaun 2, released theatrically the following year.
Plot
In 1983, Dan O'Grady returns home in North Dakota from a trip to his native Ireland, where he captured a leprechaun, who then gave him a pot of gold in accordance with the leprechaun code. After burying the gold, O'Grady discovers that the leprechaun has followed him home and murdered his wife. O'Grady uses a four-leaf clover to suppress the leprechaun's powers and trap him inside a crate. Before he can burn him, the leprechaun makes O'Grady suffer a stroke.
10 years later, J. D. Redding and his teenage daughter, Tory, rent the O'Grady farmhouse for the summer. Contract workers Nathan Murphy, his 10-year-old brother Alex, and their dim-witted friend Ozzie Jones help re-paint the farmhouse. In the basement, Ozzie hears the leprechaun's cry for help. He accidentally brushes the clover off the crate, freeing the leprechaun. After failing to convince the others that he met a leprechaun, Ozzie spots a rainbow and chases it, believing that there will be gold at the end. Alex accompanies him. Ozzie finds a bag of one hundred gold coins. After Ozzie tests the gold and accidentally swallows a coin, they stash it in an old well.
At the farm, the leprechaun lures J. D. into a trap by imitating a cat, biting his hand. The others rush him to the hospital. Alex and Ozzie visit a pawn shop to see if the gold is pure. The leprechaun kills the shop owner. He steals a go-kart and returns to the farmhouse, getting pulled over by a police officer on the way back for speeding. The leprechaun kills the officer, returns to the farmhouse, and searches for his gold. Leaving J. D. at the hospital, the group returns to the farmhouse. Finding it ransacked, Nathan checks outside and is injured by a bear trap set by the leprechaun. The group fights the leprechaun with sticks and stones.
After finding a shotgun in the farmhouse, they repeatedly shoot the leprechaun, to no avail. They attempt to flee the farm, but the leprechaun has sabotaged their truck's engine. After ramming the truck with the go-kart, the leprechaun terrorizes the group. Ozzie reveals that he and Alex found the gold. Tory recovers the bag from the well and gives it to the leprechaun. They leave for the hospital. Counting his gold, the leprechaun discovers that he is missing one coin and resumes menacing them. Ozzie realizes he wants the coin he swallowed, but Tory refuses to sacrifice Ozzie to save the group and says they have no choice but to kill the leprechaun. Ozzie says O'Grady, who was taken to a nursing home after his stroke, might know how to do so. The group distracts the leprechaun by throwing dirty shoes around, which he cannot resist shining, while Tory gets into her Jeep and drives to the nursing home.
At the nursing home, the leprechaun pretends to be O'Grady. After chasing Tory to an elevator, the leprechaun throws O'Grady down the shaft as Tory flees. Before dying, O'Grady tells her that the only way to kill the leprechaun is with a four-leaf clover, which grows in a patch outside the farm. At the farmhouse, Tory searches for a clover until the leprechaun attacks her; Nathan and Ozzie hear the screams and save Tory. Ozzie reveals that he swallowed the last coin to draw the leprechaun's attention. Before the leprechaun can kill Ozzie, Alex takes a four-leaf clover Tory has found, sticks it to a wad of gum, and shoots it into the leprechaun's mouth, causing him to melt. The leprechaun falls into the well, but his skeleton climbs out. Nathan pushes the leprechaun back into the well and blows up the well with gasoline. As the cops arrive in the morning, the leprechaun vows his spirit will not rest until he recovers all of his gold.
Cast
Production
thumb|Warwick Davis signs Leprechaun merchandise at the Norwich Sci-Fi Film, Toy, and Collectors' Fair in 2006.|alt=Actor Warwick Davis sits at a table, smiling and holding Leprechaun merchandise.
Mark Jones, the writer-director, had a career in American television shows. Desiring to make a film, he decided that a low-budget horror film was his best opportunity. Jones was inspired by the Lucky Charms commercials to create a leprechaun character, only his twist was to turn the character into an antagonist. Jones was further influenced by the film Critters, which featured a small antagonist. Jones brought the concept to Trimark, who were looking to get into film production and distribution. Leprechaun became the first film produced in-house by Trimark to be theatrically released. Entertainment Weekly quoted the budget at "just under $1 million". In an interview with Fangoria, Jones stated that he began writing the script in 1985 and spent a long time developing the Leprechaun character, which he initially envisioned as a "horrible, murderous creature", but which became a more comedic and developed character before filming began. Warwick Davis, who had experienced a dry spell after playing the protagonist in Willow, liked the script and was excited to play against type. Jennifer Aniston, an unknown at the time, impressed Jones, and he fought to have her cast. Davis performed most of his own stunts. For the scene where Davis chases Aniston in a wheelchair, Aniston had to run in slow motion so that Davis could keep up with her, as he had trouble manipulating the wheels. To pass the time while the make-up was being applied, Davis said he had bizarre conversations with Bartalos, with whom he got along well. Davis was conscious of the need to stay relaxed and not move, and he channeled his confidence that the make-up effects were properly applied to his acting. Leprechaun opened on January 8, 1993, in 620 theatres and took in $2,493,020 in its opening week, ultimately earning $8,556,940 in the United States. Vidmark released it on VHS in April, and it sold over 100,000 copies. The film score was released on March 9 by Intrada Records. The film was released on DVD in August 1998. Lionsgate released a triple feature collection on March 11, 2008. All seven films in the series were released on Blu-ray in a collection in September 2014. The film is often broadcast on cable channels such as Syfy on Saint Patrick's Day.
In November 2025, the film had a VHS release by Lionsgate Films.
Sequels and reboot
Leprechaun was followed by five sequels: Leprechaun 2 (1994), Leprechaun 3 (1995), Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997), Leprechaun in the Hood (2000), and Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003). In 2014, a reboot, Leprechaun: Origins was released. After Leprechaun 2s theatrical gross disappointed Trimark, Leprechaun 3 was released direct-to-video. Origins was theatrically released. Leprechaun Returns was released on DVD on December 11, 2018, serving as a direct sequel to the original film. The film stars Linden Porco as the Leprechaun, and Mark Holton as Ozzie Jones, who reprised the role from the first film, and directed by Steven Kostanski.
Reception
On release, critical reception to the film was negative. Also criticizing Trimark's release of the film, The Austin Chronicles Marc Savlov called it clichéd, uninteresting, and an "utter waste of perfectly good Kodak film stock". Internet-based critic James Berardinelli called it "unwatchable" and not even enjoyably bad, and Matt Bourjaily of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the film "has brought new meaning to the term 'bad'". At the Los Angeles Daily News, Robert Strauss called it "as witless and worthless a horror film as could possibly be conjured". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Ron Weiskind called the film incompetent and criticized the film's acting, lack of suspense, and production values.
Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times called the cast "the usual all-formula grab-bag", and The Washington Posts Richard Harrington said the human actors are all bland. Berardinelli described the characters as "a group of morons who act like they flunked kindergarten" Hicks also described the leprechaun as similar to Chucky. The use of Lucky Charms as humor also received commentary. Harrington wrote that Jones is "so bereft of inventive ideas that he refers to Lucky Charms cereal not once but three times", The review concluded: "Unsuitable for adults or kids, this is ultimately for completists". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 17 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". A 2014 retrospective from Entertainment Weekly identified it as Aniston's worst role to date, and Aniston herself has expressed embarrassment over the film. In 2009, Tanya Gold of The Guardian selected it as one of her ten favorite scary films to watch on Halloween.
Disagreeing with his colleagues in 1993, Luke Y. Thompson of the New Times opined: "The perfect high-concept comedic slasher, and it's still Jennifer Aniston's best film to date".