“Where’s me gold????”
Almost two years prior to her iconic role as Rachel Green on Friends, Jennifer Aniston starred alongside Ken Olandt and Warwick Davis in the horror comedy Leprechaun (1993). Aniston would like to forget that the film was ever made and I don’t necessarily disagree with her. It’s not that great (which is why it isn’t part of my Classic Horror category) but it does have a few high points.
In the film Aniston portrays Tory, a stuck up young lady who has to spend the summer with her father in a rundown farmhouse in North Dakota. When they arrive on the farm, a local man, Nathan (Olandt), is painting the house with his little brother, Alex (Robert Hy Gorman), and their friend, Ozzie (Mark Holton). Little do they know that ten years earlier, the original owner of the farmhouse, Dan O’Grady (Shay Duffin), pinned a devious leprechaun down in a crate using a four leaf clover. The clover is the only thing that has prevented the leprechaun from seeking out his bag of gold. Ozzie, a simpleton with a childlike demeanor, unintentionally knocks away the clover, releasing the leprechaun. When he tries to tell Nathan, Alex, and Tory about the evil creature, they don’t believe him. Then Ozzie and Alex discover the leprechaun’s gold. They decide to hide it so that they can use it later to “fix Ozzie’s brain.” Instead, the leprechaun goes on the hunt, intent on killing anyone that gets in his way of his gold. Can Rachel….uh, Tory stop the little monster? You’ll have to watch the film to find out.
The film has a made-for-television-movie feel to it and it should come as no surprise since its director/writer, Mark Jones, cut his teeth on television with series like The A-Team. There’s really nothing that special about it overall. It’s a pretty straightforward horror comedy. The biggest highlights are the performances of Warwick Davis as the leprechaun and the makeup done by Gabe Bartalos. There’s absolutely no indication that Jennifer Aniston would be a massive star just a couple of years later, either. I will admit that it was cool seeing Mark Holton in the film. Genre fans might recognize him from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Francis) or Teen Wolf (Chubby). Other than that, Leprechaun is simply an average flick.
Despite being so average and for having received terrible reviews over the years, the film spawned a franchise that currently stands at eight films. The first film only cost around one million dollars to make and it made 8.5 million in theaters. It generated fifteen million more on home video. I’ve only seen a few of the sequels but I remember enjoying them a lot more than the original film.
I don’t necessarily recommend this film but I won’t tell you not to see it. It’s an enjoyable enough movie and it’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s also pretty neat to see Jennifer Aniston in her first starring role in a film. I plan on reviewing some of the sequels later.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading my post. Tomorrow I’ll be visiting the next album in my Year of KISS series. See you then!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 