Every Leprechaun Movie, Ranked Worst To Best

Holiday themed horror films occupy a special place in the genre. While too many horror movies are released and forgotten, ones tied to annual holidays find themselves back in the conversation each and every year. John Carpenter’s “Halloween” is obviously the king of this particular hill, both in how strongly its tied to the day and in the breadth of its franchise, but there are numerous others occupying the calendar year. Christmas has dozens of memorable horror films, New Year’s Eve/Day has “Terror Train” and “New Year’s Evil,” Valentine’s Day has “My Bloody Valentine” and “Heart Eyes,” Thanksgiving has “Blood Rage” and “Thanksgiving” — you get the idea.

It might surprise you, though, that when it comes to the size and scope of the franchise, it’s a horror franchise connected to St. Patrick’s Day that lands the spot right behind Halloween. It might not take place on the holiday, but “Leprechaun” and its six sequels and one reboot are undeniably thematically associated with the day given the inspiration from Irish folklore. Pop culture had previously considered leprechauns to be spunky, playful characters thanks to cartoons and cereal commercials, but what the films presuppose is, what if the little guy was actually a real jerk with an unhealthy appetite for gold and murder?

The films can obviously be watched any time of year, but St. Patrick’s Day continues to see both new and returning viewers giving them a spin. Only have time for one or two? You’re in luck: Here’s our ranking of all eight films in the “Leprechaun” franchise.

Four friends arrive in a remote part of Ireland for some hiking, adventure, and local history. They find all of that and more, though, and ultimately end up crossing paths with a creature straight out of Irish lore.

Eleven years after Warwick Davis stepped out of the leprechaun’s shoes for the last time, the little monster finally returned. The WWE’s Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl is no Warwick Davis, though, but that’s as much by design as it is by the performers’ nature. “Leprechaun: Origins” never even tries to recapture the spirit of the earlier films, as it instead aims to be a serious horror movie. It’s not a comedy, it’s not playful, and the leprechaun isn’t a sassy, single-minded prankster. He’s just a monster trading personality and charisma for thermal vision and shoddy makeup effects. A character does say, “Go to hell, Lucky Charms,” which is a nice touch, but it’s the film’s sole moment of wit.

There’s nothing wrong with shaking things up, especially when that thing is a 20-year-old direct-to-video franchise that had long since gone stale. The issue here is in the execution, as director Zach Lipovsky tries to breathe life into a straightforward and dull script. A small village, a smaller monster, a secret that sees the locals feeding tourists to the beast in exchange for their own safety. Something thrilling can be made from those ingredients, but making the leprechaun a snarling animal who never speaks and has zero fashion sense? Why even make it a leprechaun? Without that unique angle, the film just becomes a generic monster movie with a monster we hardly ever get to see. 

A man named Mack Daddy stumbles across Lubdan the leprechaun and his magical flute, one that lets its player mesmerize and control anyone in hearing distance. Decades pass, and he’s now a successful rap producer, but when three young wannabes steal the flute and release the little green menace, all hell breaks loose in the hood.

It’s a misuse of the term to suggest that “Leprechaun in the Hood” has anything resembling highlights, but in the spirit of saying something positive, let’s just say it has three. Warwick Davis’ leprechaun is rhyming again, after its absence in the previous film, and he shares a joint with Ice-T. Plus, he gets to rap over the end credits. That’s it. Everything else here is an embarrassment for the franchise, especially coming after the high of the previous two entries. The only supporting performer here showing anything resembling real energy is Ice-T, while the main players bring little to the table.

In their defense, the script, direction, and budget offer them very little to play with here. Kills are dull, the production design and visuals are even blander, and the only one you’re rooting for here is the damn leprechaun. One issue that shouldn’t be ignored here, aside from the film’s real lack of value as a horror/comedy, comes in the form of some transphobic material. A trans character is introduced solely as comic relief and then killed off in fairly crass fashion, and two of the leads cross dress later for more “laughs.” It’s ugly antics in an ugly film that feels like a cheap stab at a new market.

A group of friends discover a hidden treasure beneath a Los Angeles street, but while they’re quick to spend the loot, they’re slow to catch on that the fortune’s owner — an eternally murderous leprechaun — is hot on their tail.

Initial plans for the sixth film in the “Leprechaun” franchise originally planned a tropical island locale, but Lionsgate saw the receipts for the previous entry and instead returned to the city. “Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood” doesn’t build on that previous film — an odd choice seeing as it was both a financial success and is the only entry to end with Lubdan the leprechaun still alive — and instead introduces new characters facing off against the little guy. He loses his rhyming skills again, so he doesn’t rap, and the comedy feels a bit slighter as the film leans just as much towards horror.

Still, it’s that last point that sees the film edge out its predecessor. While the best entries cast Warwick Davis as head of an ensemble cast, in this film he’s the monster stalking and slashing with abandon and goofy one-liners. The contrast works well enough, and while it’s far from good, it has some gory fun with the premise and fights. A jaw is torn off, limbs are severed, and there’s an action film’s worth of gunfire too. There’s improvement with the protagonists, as well, starting (and arguably ending) with a smart, capable final girl played by Tangi Miller. This was Davis’ last stab at the role, and while it’s an obvious disappointment, he leaves with his head held high as one of the great unconventional monsters in horror.

A group of young people cross paths with an angry, tricky, and humorously inclined leprechaun who’s searching for his stolen gold. Luckily for them, tricks are for kids.

Director Mark Jones’ “Leprechaun” earned eight times its budget in theaters — don’t feel too shocked, it cost less than a million dollars to make — and kicked off the entire eight-film franchise, but it’s still probably best known for starring a young Jennifer Aniston in a lead role. She plays a California girl (without blonde hair, gasp!) who comes to the Midwest to visit with her dad only to discover two things: One, North Dakota looks like California (because it was filmed in California), and two, the only thing that can kill a leprechaun is a slightly uncommon weed. The film has fun letting its characters unload on Warwick Davis’ diminutive monster with guns, fire, and more, but it’s ultimately a single four-leaf clover that melts his flesh and ends the nightmare (until the sequel).

The film leans towards the horror/comedy subgenre through some silly dialogue and deliveries, but it’s Davis who has his foot planted most firmly on the laughing gas. Seemingly inspired more by the wise-cracking likes of Freddy Krueger than any other horror villain, the eternally smirking leprechaun verbally harasses his prey with abandon. What he doesn’t do, though, unlike other magical big bads like Freddy or the Wishmaster, is use creative methods of murder. The end result is pretty bland on the horror front, as the kills feel uninspired and unmemorable. Still, it’s Davis’ world, and we’re just living in it — for the next five sequels.

Our favorite leprechaun is celebrating his 1000th birthday, but instead of landing the bride of his dreams, he’s foiled by the woman’s father. Another ten centuries later, and he’s setting his sights on the man’s descendant.

While most horror franchises offer at least a token effort at connecting one film’s ending to the next one’s beginning, “Leprechaun 2” makes it immediately clear that won’t be happening here. He may have melted into a fiery well last time, but now he just pops out of a tree after some cheap whiskey dribbles his way. The protagonists are once again fairly forgettable, especially since there’s no future mega star among them, but Warwick Davis ups his energy and attitude to make up for it. He’s having a blast, and he’s never happier than when he’s running people over in his Leprechaun green go-kart.

The film’s biggest area of improvement, though, comes in the use of practical effects to execute its kills. They were fairly bland in the first film, but here we get a handful of fun prosthetic demises that earn a smile or two for fans of old school effects. A whiny barista has his face burned by a coffee maker’s steam, and a greedy fool wishes for the pot of gold only to have it appear in his now extremely extended stomach. The effects highlight comes as a handsy incel is tricked into thinking the whirling blades of a lawnmower are actually a woman’s inviting breasts only to be rightfully rewarded when he goes in for some motor-boating.

Lila arrives at a remote desert shack to help transform it into a sorority house, but it’s going to be more of a challenge than she’s expecting. Why? Because this is the same place where her mother faced off against an aggressive leprechaun exactly twenty-five years ago… and he’s back for round two.

The final film in the franchise (as of this writing, but not for much longer) is actually a direct sequel to the very first. Surprising, but even more shocking is the realization that it’s actually one of the franchise’s better entries. Warwick Davis doesn’t return, but Linden Porco finds his own footing as a wisecracking prankster prone to rhymes and acts of carnage. “Leprechaun Returns” restores the humor and his costume as well, two things sorely missing from the previous film, and the end result is a movie that finds the right tone between silliness and gory horror.

Credit for that goes, at least in part, to director Steven Kostanski, who’s mastered that tonal balance over the years with films like “Father’s Day” and “Psycho Goreman.” It helps that he infuses his work with an abundance of practical effects gags, and that continues here. The leprechaun emerges from one poor guy’s exposed entrails, heads are spiked and lopped off, and another character is sliced in half by a falling solar panel. It’s a whole lot of dumb fun as a quartet of sorority girls faces off against the drone-riding leprechaun, with one of them even landing a stellar line as she kicks the little monster to his doom — “Eat a dick, Ass Baggins.” Honestly, we should already have three more sequels to this one.

Lubdan the Leprechaun might have his treasure, but he’s still on the hunt for a wife. His attempts to woo an intergalactic princess are interrupted, though, when space marines rescue her and earn his wrath.

Five years before Jason went to space in “Jason X,” everyone’s favorite leprechaun got there first with a sequel that sees him looking for love in a galaxy far, far away. (It’s the franchise’s wildest premise, but not its craziest pitch, thanks to an abandoned Candyman crossover.) Director Brian Trenchard-Smith returns after the triumph of his previous film, and the result is the franchise’s second-best entry. “Leprechaun 4: In Space” delivers a genre blend of horror, sci-fi, and comedy on a tiny budget, and it does so with nods to everything from “Alien” and “Aliens” to “Star Wars” and the original “The Fly.” Lubdan forgets to rhyme in this one, sadly, but the film finds plenty of other fun.

The silliness kicks off after a space marine blows up the leprechaun only to celebrate by urinating on his remains. Bad move, buddy, as Lubdan travels upstream and explodes out of the guy’s nether regions. Things only get weirder and wilder from there as the leprechaun wields a lightsaber and flattens another guy’s face like a pizza-sized pancake. We also get a mad scientist whose bottom half is a motorized wheelchair and who eventually morphs into a giant spider? Sure, why not. By the time it ends, our tiny monster has grown to the size of a T-Rex — a change that prompts him to smile after checking the size of his newly enlarged junk — before being jettisoned into space — and into our hearts with his final gesture.

A Las Vegas pawn shop takes possession of a life-sized statue of a leprechaun, but when the owner removes a fancy medallion from its neck, the statue comes to actual life. Our buddy Lubdan the leprechaun soon discovers that Sin City is his kind of town.

The second film underperformed in theaters, leaving “Leprechaun 3” to be sent straight to home video, and the irony of it all is that this is arguably the best film in the franchise. No shade on the previous directors, and not to confuse a leprechaun with a Rumpelstiltskin, but Brian Trenchard-Smith is a real filmmaker used to spinning gold out of small budgets — seek out “The Man from Hong Kong,” “Turkey Shoot,” and “Night of the Demons 2” for more evidence of that. He only shot a single day in Las Vegas, but he delivers a comedic horror romp filled with atmosphere, fun effects gags, and an engaging mix of characters.

Warwick Davis is in good hands here and once more having a very good time, as he rhymes his way to murder, does an Elvis impersonation, blends in at a hospital by dressing like a surgeon, and turns greedy people into desecrated corpses. The film also finds a small amount of pathos in Caroline Williams’ performance as an aging roulette dealer pining for her younger, hotter days — she makes a wish, sees her body get younger and hotter, and then watches in horror as her vainest body parts are filled with fat until she explodes. “The Substance” director Coralie Fargeat, “Leprechaun 3” fan, possibly confirmed. It’s a film that knows what it is and what it needs to be, and it’s the pinnacle of the franchise.