Running Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Format: Standard 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Languages: English
Subtitles: French, Spanish
Region: 1
MSRP: $14.99

Own It!
Leprechaun (1992)

A film about a killer leprechaun? Sounds like fun? Don't count on it. In a prologue we find out that some guy captured a leprechaun (Warwick Davis) and hid the imp's gold in his house in North Dakota. The leprechaun follows the man to America, and though the man manages to trap the murderous leprechaun in a crate, he dies of a heart attack.

Cut to ten years later. A father and daughter move into the dilapidated house. In the course of the renovations, some of the hired help lets the leprechaun loose. A killing spree follows.

The film is gory and sadistic, a fact that contrasts badly with the sitcom jokes and the leprechaun's silly capering. The characters are the usual eccentric bunch you've come to expect from this kind of film, which helps kill time until the plot kicks in.

Leprechaun is probably most famous for the fact that Jennifer Aniston plays the daughter, Tori, though her beauty is ravaged by the freakish accident of biology that was her original nose. This role gives Aniston a chance to practice her sitcom chops with dialogue like this:

Father: "I got a great buy on [the house]!"
Tori: "From who? Dracula?"

It should also be noted that producers of the film guaranteed that Jennifer wears no outfit that covers more than 10% of her legs. They knew what they were doing.

This movie was probably never very attractive to begin with, so it's tough to tell how good the presentation is. The full screen presentation is colorful, but the contrast seems off, making the film look a little dark. The sound is fine.

Not much here. Tri-Mark has included a full screen trailer to the movie that features more of Jennifer Aniston's pre-operation nose than the titular monster. And if you click on the little Tri-Mark symbol on the main menu you get trailers to Leprechaun 2 and Slam.

Scott Hamilton, 4/17/00