Leprechaun (film)

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"Try as they will, and try as they might, who steals me gold won't live through the night."

"Your luck just ran out." —Original poster tagline

"Her luck just ran out." —The tagline for the DVD cover that gave Jennifer Aniston top-billing

A 1993 horror-comedy film that spawned a franchise. In all six (6!) installments, none of which seem to have any sort of continuity, the titular character is played by Warwick Davis.

In the original Leprechaun, a family moves into a rural house and discovers not only a pot of gold, but the rightful owner. The leprechaun will kill any who touches his gold, but has a weakness to wrought iron and four-leaf clovers (they cancel out his magic). They are finally able to kill it (with fire). Or do they?

In Part 2, the leprechaun is alive and well, and now for some reason living in L.A. As it turns out, on every leprechaun's 1000th birthday, he is allowed to take a bride of his choosing (without her consent) on the condition that he can make her sneeze three times, without someone saying "God bless you." He selects his target (a descendant of the only man to ever get the better of him), but her boyfriend manages to steal his gold, which he hopes to trade for her freedom.

At the start of Part 3, a badly beaten man drops off a rather peculiar looking statue at a Las Vegas pawn shop. He's willing to take whatever the shopkeeper will offer him, but warns him that he must never remove the gold medallion that hangs around the statue's neck. As soon as he's gone, the shopkeeper does this. The statue comes to life, revealing the leprechaun, who kills him and sets out to reclaim his gold. A new "rule" was added, that said if you get bitten by a leprechaun, you will turn into one, unless you kill him. Also, each leprechaun has a "lucky" gold piece, that will grant whoever holds it one wish.

Part 4 is creatively titled Leprechaun In Space, which shamelessly ripped off the tagline from Alien, "In Space, No-One Can Hear You Scream". In the future, a team of Space Marines are searching for an alien princess, who the Leprechaun intends to make his bride. Apparently, the more gold a leprechaun has, the more powerful his magic is. Combining her wealth with his own will make him the most powerful being in the galaxy!

Leprechaun in Da Hood takes place sometime between Parts 3 & 4, only the action is moved back to L.A. A local hoodlum (Ice T!) discovers the leprechaun's gold, and in the ensuing struggle accidentally tosses the gold medallion from Part 3 around its neck, trapping it in stone. Among his newly acquired treasure, he comes across a golden flute that gives its owner great musical talent. Flash forward several years, and he is now a successful rap producer. One night, three aspiring singers rob his office in retaliation for denying them a record deal. They steal the flute and the medallion, unwittingly releasing the leprechaun... in da hood.

Leprechaun: Back 2 Da Hood is basically a rehashing of Part 2 in the setting of Part 5.

And contrary to what Syfy wants you to believe, Leprechaun's Revenge is not a sequel to Leprechaun.

In 2012, Lionsgate films and WWE films announced they are planning on producing a reboot.

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The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Leprechaun (film) franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

• Aerosol Flamethrower
• Agony of the Feet: Leprechaun usually goes for the legs.
• Alien Blood: Leprechaun bleeds green.
• All in the Eyes: Used briefly on the Leprechaun in the second movie.
• Almost-Dead Guy
• Antagonist Title
• Attack of the Killer Whatever
• An Axe to Grind: When leprechaun catches Nathan on a beartrap in the first film, he attempts attack him with an axe.
• Barrier-Busting Blow
• Batter Up
• Beam Me Up, Scotty: Only one of the films takes place on St. Patrick's Day, not all of them.
• Bear Trap
• Beard of Evil
• Beat It by Compulsion: Leprechaun is compelled to shine all the dirty shoes he comes across.
• Becoming the Genie
• Berserk Button: Do not steal the Leprechaun's gold. He will find you.
• Big No
• Black Comedy: The films aren't strictly horror. Hell, the Leprechaun chases people on roller skates, wheel chairs and tricycles, performs a rap number and kills one person with a po-go stick.
  • The later ones are pretty explicitly self-parody, as well.
• Non Sequitur Episode: In Space manages to be incredibly bizarre even compared to the other films.
• Bland-Name Product: Lucky Clovers cereal. Making it even more obvious is that they refer to Lucky Charms in the dialog: "Fuck you, Lucky Charms".
• Breast Expansion
• Bullet Time: Used briefly in the pogo stick scene.
• Can You Hear Me Now?
• Captain Obvious
• Car Fu
• Cassandra Truth: Simple guy he is, nobody believes Ozzie when he says that there's a leprechaun in the basement and how it was going to shine his shoes.
• Chekhov's Gun: Subverted with the cop's gun in the first film.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: How our protagonists finally find the four-leafed clover in the first film.
• Cobweb Jungle
• Combat Haircomb: An Afro Pick shuriken.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Pogosticks, anyone?
• Damsel in Distress: Bridget in the second film.
• Death by Falling Over: Mrs. O'Grady's death in the first film.
• Death by Materialism
• Dem Bones: Leprechaun resurrects the skeleleton of his dead slave to do his bidding in the first sequel.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Four-leaf clover-laced hollow point bullets in Back 2 tha Hood.
• Donut Mess with a Cop
• Dramatic Thunder
• Drinking Contest: Morty challenges the Leprechaun to one in the second movie.
• Drop the Hammer
• Dolled-Up Installment: Leprechauns Revenge was advertised as a new movie in this series despite not being related at all.
• Dutch Angle: Used in the first movie when Tori goes to the retirement home.
• Ear Ache
• Efficient Displacement
• Elvis Impersonator
• Every One Remembers the Stripper: The one scene most people remember from the 4th film, is the female doctor getting her pants ripped off towards the end, and spending the rest of the film running around in a t-shirt and panties. That, and the alien princess giving the heroes a death sentence by showing them her breasts.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: True to the legends, a rainbow leads to the leprechaun's pot of gold.
• Evil Laugh: Lep has a distinctive "haahaha" -laugh.
• Eye Scream: Tori pokes leprechaun's right eye out in the first film. Then he gouges up a spare from a corpse.
• Face Framed in Shadow
• Face Revealing Turn
• Facial Horror: The Leprechaun kills a barista by melting his face with steam in the second film.
• The Fair Folk
• Fan Service: The topless scene in the fourth movie is an infamous example.
• Femme Fatalons
• Fingore
• Foot Focus
• Fright Deathtrap: In the first movie, against the Irishman's wife.
• Genre Savvy: A few humans know enough about the folklore of leprechauns to actually use them against him, but often they're not savvy enough to kill him.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger
• Going in Circles
• Groin Attack
• Gold Fever: Leprechaun has developed one for the second film.
• Gory Discretion Shot
• Grievous Bottley Harm
• Harassing Phone Call
• Helping Hands
• Hollywood Darkness: Made painfully obvious in the first movie, when Nathan brings flashlight outside.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Dan O'Grady suffers one just before he's going to get rid of the leprechaun.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Second movie happens on St. Patrick's Day.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty
• I'm Melting: Leprechaun starts to melt when he swallows the four-leafed clover.
• Immune to Bullets
• Impending Doom POV
• Implacable Man: The Leprechaun, bordering on The Juggernaut in Back 2 tha Hood.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Leprechaun is fond of these in the first film.
• Jackass Genie: The Leprechaun's preferred style of granting wishes.
  • The guy who captures him in a cast iron safe could probably be used as a Trope Codifier for this. His first wish is for the Leprechaun's pot of gold... so the Leprechaun summons it inside the guy's stomach. The Leprechaun then says he can't get it out of the guy's stomach from inside the safe, the guy will have to wish him out of the safe. He wishes it... oops, says the Leprechaun, safe is cast iron, you'll have to drag yourself over and do the combination. But once you do, second wish granted! For the third wish you want the pot of gold out of you? Okay! *SLICE*
• Knuckle-Cracking
• Kryptonite Factor: Wrought iron and the four-leafed clovers are the weakness for the Leprechaun.
• Lady in Red
• Left Hanging: The Leprechaun comic series produced by a company called Bluewater Productions was seemingly cancelled after four issues, and just as it was getting good.
• Lego Genetics: In 4. a blender was involved.
• Letters 2 Numbers: Back 2 tha Hood.
• Love Triangle
• Lull Destruction: When Alex sets the bear trap for the leprechaun in the first movie, voice over of him saying "how he's going to get him" is added
• Man Child: Ozzie in the first film.
• Manipulative Bastard: Leprechaun imitates voices when needed.
• Mind Over Matter
• N-Word Privileges: The Hood movies.
• Neck Snap
• New Powers as the Plot Demands
• No Peripheral Vision: When Tori goes to the basement looking for Nathan, both them miss each other despite the small space.
• Not Using the Z Word
• Numbered Sequels: Stopped after the fourth film.
• Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Gradually. There's Leprechaun, followed by Leprechaun 2 and Leprechaun 3, then introducing subtitles with Leprechaun 4: In Space, followed by dropping the number for Leprechaun: In The Hood and ending with Leprechaun: Back 2 Da Hood by mimicking 2 Fast 2 Furious's ridiculous title.
• Offscreen Teleportation
• Our Fairies Are Different
• Our Monsters Are Weird
• Outside Ride: Leprechaun attempts it in the first movie, but he can't quiet hold on.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse
• Pistol-Whipping
• Precision F-Strike: "Fuck you, Lucky Charms!"
• Pop Goes the Human
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old
• Recycled in Space: Literally with fourth film.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Leprechain is fond of rhyming.
• Saw A Woman Magician In Half
• Say My Name
• Screaming Woman
• Self-Plagiarism: Director of the first film (and writer of every entry in the series) Mark Jones made Rumpelstiltskin in 1995, which is another horror film with an evil wish granting dwarf. He seems to have thing for mini-monster movies, since he also made one about a Demonic Dummy called Triloquist
• Series Continuity Error: The biggest issue is regarding how the Leprechaun is awakened as it changes from movie to movie. His age is also inconsistent.
  • How he's killed or defeated is different each film. However, suprisingly, the same weapons that work on him in one film normally continue to work in another. Cast iron is among the most often used.
• Sequel Hook: Leprechaun's declaration at the end of the first film.

"I'll not rest till I have me gold. Curse this well that me soul shall dwell, till I find me magic that breaks me spell!"

• The Siege: Last third of the first movie.
• Slave Collar
• Stripped to the Bone: Mooch, after being exposed to flesh-eating bacteria in In Space.
• Shut UP, Hannibal
• Take That: In the first film, the Leprechaun tries a knock-off of Lucky Charms and promptly spits it out.
• Taken for Granite: The Leprechaun in 3 and In the Hood.
• Teleportation Spam: Done when the leprechaun harasses a cop in the forest.
• Those Two Bad Guys: Loretta and Fazio in 3.
• Time Skip
• Turn the Other Fist: Parodied in the 4th film.
• Under Crank: Used in the first film to make it seem that leprechaun is going faster.
• Villain Song: "Lep in the Hood, come to do no good"
• Vasquez Always Dies: The fourth movie features a platoon of Space Marines with two women among their ranks: a Botoxed and boob-jobbed blonde and a brunette tomboy. Guess which one dies.
• Viva Las Vegas: Third film.
• Window Pain
• You Fight Like a Cow: In Back 2 Tha Hood, after Watson punches the Leprechaun into a pile of garbage, the Lep shrugs it off and tells him, "You hit like a wee lass."
• You Got Spunk