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Leprechaun (film)

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Leprechaun is a 1992 horror film directed by Mark Jones. It was one of the first roles played by a young Jennifer Aniston, before she became known for her role in Friends.

Overview

When a single father, his daughter, and three painters discover a pot of gold hidden near a house that the family is moving into, a vengefully violent leprechaun stalks them and uses his magical powers to frighten them into returning his gold. Although they are more than willing to meet his desires, one of the painters, while biting it to determine its authenticity, accidentally swallows it, complicating matters and leading to a night of terror.

Plot

An evil leprechaun (Warwick Davis) is sealed away early in the film by Daniel O'Grady, who had stolen a bag of one hundred gold coins from the little green man, but ultimately paid the price when the leprechaun pushes his wife down a flight of stairs. O'Grady manages to seal the leprechaun in a crate in his basement by placing a four leaf clover on the crate, which negates the leprechaun's magic and renders him defenseless. O'Grady attempts to incinerate him, but has a stroke and collapses after saying "Burn in Hell you little green bastard!" before he can light a fire. He is later taken to a nursing home, leaving the Leprechaun in the crate.

Ten years later, a man named J.D. (John Sanderford) and his daughter, Tory (Jennifer Aniston), move into the same isolated house, its history unknown to them. Three painters, Nathan, his young brother Alex, and Alex's autistic friend Ozzie, also accompany them. Ozzie hears the leprechaun's cries for help in the basement and unknowingly releases him were the leprechaun asks him where the gold is or he'll bite his ear off and make a shoe out of it . He attempts to warn the others that there is a leprechaun in the house, but, of course, this falls upon deaf ears.

Later, Alex and Ozzie spot a rainbow above an old truck near the house, where O'Grady hid the leprechaun's gold. Ozzie, biting a coin to determine its authenticity, accidentally swallows it. Alex urges Ozzie to keep quiet about the finding, thinking that he can use the money to fund an operation for Ozzie. The leprechaun, meanwhile, bites J.D.'s hand while hiding in a tree, though the group is convinced that it was a cat. J.D. is hospitalized; while the rest are with J.D., Alex and Ozzie take one of the coins to a pawn shop owner, who keeps it further analysis. When the two leave, the leprechaun sneaks into the store, retrieves his coin, and kills the shopowner by cruelly crushing his chest and stomach by hopping on him with a pogo stick.

On the way returning to the house, the Leprechaun is pulled over by a Deputy, messes up his face, throws away his gun, chases him through the woods, and kills him when he twists his neck. As he gets to the house, looking for the bag of gold, he does some weird things, like eating Lucky Charms, screaming when he sees himself in a mirror, and polishes the shoes on the ground.

Tory, Nathan, Alex, and Ozzie meanwhile return to the home to find it ransacked, and this time, they're convinced that it was a bear. After cleaning up the mess, they hear a sound outside. Nathan goes to check it out, only to get his foot stuck in a beartrap. The Leprechaun trys to kill him with a little axe, but he is then shot by Nathan when Alex goes to get him a shotgun. Ozzie trys calling the police, only to have them think it was a joke about a killer Leprechaun, they then try it again, but the line is dead. Later, they try leaving, believing he's dead. But when Alex goes to fix the Distributor Cap, the Leprechaun is under the hood, with the cap in his mouth. The Leprechaun bites Ozzie's ear, and then gets a lighter stuck in his nose. The Leprechaun than runs back into the barn, makes a little go-cart, and then tips the pickup truck over with the gang still in it. The Leprechaun than chases after them back into the house, only to get his hand cut off by the door slamming on it.

Tory calls the police with her cell phone and gives them the message that someone's trying to kill them, but when the police send a dead deputy over, Ozzie and Alex finally tell Tory and Nathan about the bag of gold, and that they hid it in the well. Tory leaves to get the bag, and gives it to the Leprechaun, but the bag does not contain all of the coins. The Leprechaun tries to kill them, only to get his hand burned by a stove with the tea kettle on, and is shot another two times. During all that, Alex wanted Ozzie to not tell anybody about the coin in his stomach.

Eventually, Tory and Nathan learn that the coin is in Ozzie's stomach, and decide that they must kill the leprechaun. While Tory goes to the nursing home to talk to O'Grady, Nathan and Ozzie distract the creature by throwing him scratched, dirty shoes, which he has no choice but to polish since he is a shoemaker.

At the nursing home, however, Tory finds that O'Grady is missing; the leprechaun is in his wheelchair instead. She runs into an elevator; O'Grady's mangled corpse is then shoved through the ceiling. Just before he dies, he tells Tory that when a leprechaun is in contact with a four leaf clover, he will be as vulnerable as a human.

At the house, after they have found a four leaf clover, the leprechaun nearly kills Alex, intending to shove his head in the beartrap; Ozzie blurts out that he has swallowed the coin. The leprechaun, rather than wait for Ozzie's digestive system to produce the coin, instead slashes Ozzie's stomach with his shoe buckle. Alex saves Ozzie by firing the clover at the leprechaun with his slingshot, catapulting it into his mouth. His flesh begins corroding rapidly, and he falls into the well. As the Group rejoins, Ozzie mutters "I did a smart thing, I did a smart thing." Just when they think it is over, the nearly-skeletal Leprechaun crawls out of the well, only to be hit by the stock of the shotgun, falls back into the well, and gets burned when Nathan pours Gasoline in the well and drops a match in it. The well explodes.

The police arrive the next morning to find a barely-living Ozzie, muttering, in the arms of Tory, Nathan, and Alex. One officer looks in the well to hear the voice of the Leprechaun, saying: "I'll not rest 'till I have me gold. Curse this well that me soul shall dwell, 'till I find me magic that breaks the spell."

Box office

This film opened in 620 theatres taking in $3,279,000 its opening week. Domestically, the film has made $8,556,940 on a $900,000 budget. It was a commercial and critical success, and since its release it has gained a strong cult following among fans of the slasher genre.

Cast

Filming locations

External links





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