The slasher genre is full of freaks and weirdos, but none of them quite hits a festive note like the Leprechaun ushering in every St. Patrick’s Day. The mythical Irish monster, played with pizzazz for the bulk of the series by the iconic Warwick Davis, is equal parts Freddy and Chucky, chock full of the cringiest rhymes imaginable and an increasingly confusing lore. Yet despite the poor acting, confusing continuity, and slapdash look of the cheap sets and shaky camerawork, there’s a lot to love in this bonkers franchise.

After a first chapter which inspired more laughs than scares, the series made the smart decision to lean into the comedy intentionally and turn Davis’ Lep into more of a “hack” comedian, rhyming and throwing puns around like his life depended on it. While his dialogue remained groan-worthy, Davis put his all into the role, and two commanding factors gave the series life among horror nerds: An amazing makeup look for the titular monster created by Gabriel Bartalos, as well as some gratuitous and creative gore originating from the wacky kills.

Although only the first two chapters were released theatrically, there was levity granted to the series once it hit direct-to-video, a “let’s put on a show!” gumption that brought Lep to Vegas, the hood (twice!) and even space.

While many horror fans stick their nose up at the series, there is plenty of demented fun to by giving into this Celtic madman. Read Variety‘s ranking of this series below, complete with helpful rhymes that only the Leprechaun would love.

  • Leprechaun: Origins (2014)

    This Leprechaun’s design is so bad it might be cursed
    That’s why this seventh chapter is the absolute worst!

    An attempted reboot of the series faltered due to a key mistake: taking away the recognizable and beloved Leprechaun design. Instead, the titular beast looks like a far more anonymous monster, resigned to hide in the shadows and appearing in quick glimpses versus the wacky, murderous Lep we’ve come to love. The overall acting and violence is passable, especially compared to some of the series’ rougher moments, but an unrecognizable monster without personality completely misses the point. Against all odds, the next chapter actually course-corrects into a film placing much higher on this ranking.

  • Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)

    Lep gets gritty, ditching humor for lore
    Unfortunately, this sequel is a bit of a bore!

    Capitalizing on the success of the surprise video store hit “Leprechaun in the Hood,” the sequel ditches connections to the first and sets up a whole new story about people trying to survive life in their neighborhood as well as our murderous antihero. Lep ditches the rhyming and magic for a more serious outing, reinforced by a dapper new outfit, but unfortunately the series’ comedy, however groan-inducing, keeps these movies afloat. Without it, the over-qualified cast of actors are left to fend for themselves via a paint-by-numbers script about the price of wealth. The kills are mild and the whole affair is quite gloomy, and doesn’t live up to the twisted fun of its predecessor.

  • Leprechaun(1993)

    Movies this cheap? Not usually a fan of ’em
    Even if they star a young Jennifer Aniston!

    Unlike “Halloween” or “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” there’s no origin story in this franchise that can help anchor terrible sequels. In fact, the original film is one of the worst of the batch, stretching every dollar of its $1 million budget to the breaking point. The story, set in North Dakota (!), sees a transported Lep terrorizing a small family, including a bunch of amateurish actors and one very-out-of-place Jennifer Aniston. Davis’ performance is well-orchestrated even in this first chapter, but outside of an iconic death-by-pogo-stick and a child screaming “Fuck you, Lucky Charms!”, this movie drags enough that it could have been sentenced to a sequel-less life in the cutout bin.

  • Leprechaun 2 (1994)

    Watch this strange sequel, please don’t be a coward
    Or you’ll miss character actor Clint Howard!

    Weirder and crammed with more gore than its predecessor, “Leprechaun 2” is a step up in that it’s never boring. Lep is improving his sub-Cryptkeeper puns (example: After biting off a finger for a gold ring, Davis deadpans, “Finger-licking good!”) and bringing a spark to some of the killings. While the humans onscreen are still the worst, there is some bizarre character work coming courtesy of Sandy Baron, Michael McDonald, Tony Cox and Clint Howard, who make the whole outing seem dreamlike. Lep has plenty to do in this chapter, including hypnotizing a man to have a sex fantasy with two industrial-size fans, getting drunk, and ripping a pot of gold out of a man’s distended stomach. Less a movie than a series of fever dreams, it’s good enough to raise “Leprechaun 2” to the middle of the pack.

  • Leprechaun in the Hood(2000)

    Ice-T adds energy to this film indeed
    And who could hate a Leprechaun who smokes weed?

    Unlike the low-impact sequel, “Leprechaun in the Hood” is gonzo right from the start: Within five minutes Lep has killed a man with an Afro pick, and Ice-T retrieves a baseball bat from his oversized wig in order to defend himself. Although this Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker vibe only appears in fits and spurts, it keeps the energy of the movie chugging along as it once again threatens to get too serious. The main human story involves a rap trio trying to make it big, and while the actors doing what they can, it just dampens the more fun “what the fuck?” moments that happen whenever Lep steals the spotlight. Do we get to see Lep share a joint with Ice-T, create a zombie army, fight over a magic flute AND rap right before the end credits? Of course, and these batshit moments help to cement this film as one of the series’ best.

  • Leprechaun Returns(2018)

    In this legacy sequel, Lep has a new actor
    But the gore is so good it’s not even a factor!

    Much like “Halloween” (2018) and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2022), “Leprechaun Returns” is a direct continuation of the original film, ignoring the installments in the middle. On paper, this shouldn’t work, especially given that the movie was a Syfy co-production and replaces Davis for Linden Porco. But the film — directed by Steven Kostanski, who helmed two indie horror hits on either side of this, 2016’s “The Void” and 2020’s “Psycho Goreman” — is bloody as hell, filled with creative kills and also brings some of the scares back. Porco does the role justice, winking his way through the terrible jokes and bringing a fresh physicality to the performance. It’s the closest this franchise feels to a film that would hold up to a modern audience.

  • Leprechaun 3 (1995)

    Lep is Las Vegas bound, searching for gold
    In a sequel so good it will never get old!

    “Leprechaun 3” is a great example of this franchise firing on all cylinders. Instead of the anonymous North Dakota landscape, we have Lep indulging in the City of Sin, getting into all of the Vegas hijinks viewers can dream of. Lep is searching for his gold, but he’s also gambling, disrupting pawn shops, hypnotizing people, hanging out with murderous sex robots, giving people the finger and pretending to be a magician who saws people in half. Writer David DuBos seems to invoke his most childlike tendencies in a wonderful way, answering essential questions like “What would happen if you lit Lep’s pot of gold on fire with a flamethrower?” and “What noise would he make if you pushed him out of a hotel window?” It’s a gloriously chaotic installment, and a perfect introduction to the series — and many fans’ franchise favorite.

  • Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)

    While many cite this chapter as a disgrace,
    What’s not to love? It’s Lep in space!

    What’s the next step after creating a masterwork like “Leprechaun 3”? Throw that sucker into space and create one of the most bizarre films ever conceptualized. Toeing the line between “unwatchable” and “nirvana,” “Leprechaun 4” ditches all continuity in favor of a thought experiment gone gloriously wrong, and destined to be celebrated in the canon of trash cinema. It’s essentially an “Aliens” ripoff with Lep as the baddie, toggling between stomach churning practical effects and brain-melting CGI. The spaceships look like ’90s screensavers, but inside the vehicles there is some franchise-best mayhem. We’re not even 25 minutes into the movie when Lep emerges from inside a man’s penis, the physics of which still baffle our brightest minds. During the journey in space, Lep is turned into a giant, a man’s face is flattened like a pizza, there’s a lightsaber kill, and our titular leprechaun wears an adorable yellow construction hard hat. Although that may seem like a random list of occurrences, there is no real “plot” to speak of: The insanity just washes over the screen. Visuals are lifted wholesale from much better movies like “Total Recall” and “Star Wars,” and the actors are as believable as space soldiers as adult film stars are as pizza delivery guys, but it can’t be argued that “Leprechaun 4: In Space” elevates bad movies into an art form.

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV%2BhtrTA0mijnqiimrCprdSnZKanpp6ytHnRmqWknZRk