Leprechaun is one of those movies where you spend the entire runtime wondering how in the hell somebody pitched this with a straight face, somebody else said yes, and then somehow they made enough money that they just kept making them. It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous. It’s barely scary for five consecutive seconds. And we had an absolute blast with it.

This one was actually already on Tara’s list of movies she wanted to see this year, but when we put it into the Spooky Season polls, you guys voted it in anyway. And I think you knew exactly what you were doing. You knew Tara loves Friends, so getting to see Jennifer Aniston in her first feature-film role a year before Friends was going to be fun. And you also knew that Tara’s version of a good horror movie is often one where the “horror” part doesn’t interfere too much with her laughing her ass off. Leprechaun absolutely delivered on both counts.

The funny thing is, the movie’s weird identity crisis is basically baked into its history. Writer/director Mark Jones originally conceived it as something much more straightforward and horrific, but the Leprechaun gradually developed more personality and comedy. Jones has said he wanted almost a live-action Scooby-Doo tone, while the studio pushed for more gore and a harder horror edge. So what we ended up with is this bizarre mixture of slasher movie, creature feature, slapstick comedy and Saturday-morning cartoon. Somehow, that inability to pick a lane is exactly what makes the damn thing work.

And then there’s Warwick Davis. He completely understands what movie he’s in. There is absolutely no attempt to maintain this guy as some terrifying, mysterious monster once he really gets going. He rhymes. He giggles. He bites people. He gets distracted by shoes. He rides around on tiny vehicles. At one point he gets on a tricycle and starts pumping those little legs as fast as humanly possible, and that was basically the end of Tara. She was done. I was done. I’m pretty sure the dog was done. It might be one of the least intimidating pursuits ever put into a horror movie, and it’s fucking glorious.

Apparently Jones got the original idea partly from seeing Lucky Charms commercials everywhere and realizing that horror had already attacked damn near every holiday and creature imaginable, but nobody had really turned a leprechaun into a horror villain. He also discovered while researching folklore that leprechauns were traditionally shoemakers, which is where the hilarious bit about the Leprechaun being unable to resist polishing shoes came from. That is the level of mythology we are dealing with here: ancient Irish folklore filtered through Lucky Charms and Scooby-Doo.

And sitting right in the middle of all this nonsense is 23-year-old Jennifer Aniston, one year away from becoming Rachel Green and having her entire life change. It’s fascinating watching her here because she obviously had no idea that thirty-something years later people would still be watching this ridiculous movie largely because she became one of the biggest television stars on the planet. Tara loved seeing baby Jennifer Aniston, and honestly you can already see some of the timing and personality that would make her work so well on Friends.

The movie cost around a million dollars and made more than eight million theatrically, then became even bigger on home video, which explains the truly insane fact that this stupid little killer leprechaun eventually became the center of an eight-movie franchise. Eight. They eventually sent him to space. Then they sent him to the hood. TWICE. At some point you have to stop questioning it and respect the hustle.

Tara thought Leprechaun was one of the stupidest things she had ever seen. She also liked it. A LOT. And those two statements don't contradict each other at all. This is exactly the kind of bad movie that can become a great movie with the right group of people watching it. It knows it's ridiculous, Warwick Davis commits to every second of it, Jennifer Aniston gives us this bizarre little piece of pre-Friends history, and the whole thing moves along with absolutely no concern whatsoever for dignity.

That also makes Leprechaun pretty much perfect for Tara’s Never Seen. We like great movies. We like classics. We like movies that genuinely surprise Tara. But every once in a while, give us some completely off-the-wall dumb shit that lets us spend 90 minutes laughing at the screen and each other.

Leprechaun is absolutely that.

It’s terrible.

We loved it.

In traditional folklore, you should be scared of Leprechauns, especially if you cross them. Like most fae folk, they'll mess your life up if you break a deal with them or get on their bad side 😅

Fun Fact the reason the box of Cereal is called Lucky Clovers is because once General Mills realized what kind of movie the Leprechaun was General Mills said they could no longer use Thier Cereal which is why The line F You Lucky Charms is used by the kid in the movie.

All I have to say is Leprechaun in space and Leprechaun in Da Hood.

Just imagine, someone in casting saw Anniston in this and said "we need her for Rachel!".

That part with the leprechaun rubbing that girl's leg - He just was trying to top her morning. -   lol

The sequels are fun & entertaining especially the third film.

Taras reaction to the tricycle was hilarious.

I actually remember seeing this cinematic masterpiece IN the actual cinema when it came out.  Then, when it came out on VHS, my friends and I would rent this all the time to watch on weekends haha.

the bit about the shoes. When I was a kid I remember there was a story about a legend That Leprechauns and Fairies were feuding (I forget what it was about, but they made a deal that ended it. The fairies would give the Leprechauns I think it was their fairy butter or wine in exchange for them to clean their slippers because they were good at polishing their gold and the fairies wanted their slippers to shimmer and sparkle like their gold. there's even another story I remember a teacher in school reading that a leprechaun was caught by a human because he was so focused on trying to finish polishing a pile of fairy shoes. I'm  not sure if the movie idea came from that lore but the last few times I heard about leprechauns and shoes it was that. but it was fairy shoes not anyone's shoes and they only did it in exchange for what the fairies gave them in payment for it.

The Leprechaun and Nightmare on Elm Street pretty started out the same way. The first once set the tone for wild insane crazy silly things to come

I think Tara will absolutely love the movie  "Black Dynamite"!!!!😂😂😂😂😂😂

The Warwick leprechaun movies are all mindless fun. Also its basically supposed to be a different leprechaun in each unless stated.

The Leprechaun has the survival skills of an Ewok and the magic of a powerful Nelwyn sorcerer.

"Your suitcase is singing to you. Don't open it." Words to live by. 😂

"Garth, she's reacting to 'The Leprechaun.'  Bonus."  

"I really don't like that movie."  

"Why?  It's a cult classic Garth.  Is it because you're afraid of the 'LEPRECHAUN!!!  I'm the LEPRECHAUN!!!'"  

"NO!  STOP!  CUT IT OUT!"  

"I'm sorry.  I should respect the fact that you live in mortal fear of the ...  'LEPRECHAUN!!!'"  

"WHOA!  YOU'RE FREAKING ME OUT!"

Leprechaun's fave OCD,  also if you spill rice on the floor they can't stop themselves from having to count each grain of rice

You guys are fucking adorable i will never get over the wholesomeness. This movie RULES hahaha

I grew up watching Leprechaun movies when I was young, but the first one that came out people had to laugh at it be it was a Leprechaun 🍀

Jennifer Aniston's embarrassed by this movie. She once said her boyfriend ran across it on late night tv and insisted on watching it. Much to her horror. 😂

I used to work at Blockbuster back in the day and saw how people love horror movies, no matter how dumb. My co worker and I wrote a Leprechaun vs Chuckie script. 😂