Every Leprechaun Movie Ranked, Worst To Best

The Leprechaun horror franchise has been turning out movies for decades, so here’s a useful breakdown of how all the films rank up against each other.

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They might be incredibly silly, but the Leprechaun movies fit a special niche in the horror genre where a movie can be both a ridiculous spectacle and a terrifying sight. That said, the franchise’s many movies are all over the map in terms of quality.

The Leprechaun movies aren’t trying to be high art. They’re all absurd horror films that take a rambunctious supernatural creature like a Leprechaun and turn it into a murderous mischief-maker. All of the movies revolve around the titular Leprechaun’s pursuits to reclaim his gold, but the circumstances get progressively more outlandish. Extreme kills combined with Warwick Davis’ absolutely gleeful performance as the bloodthirsty Leprechaun help the silly movies work far better than they should.

There are many horror films that have capitalized on the appeal of turning an innocent holiday of celebration into the background for a grisly monster movie. The Leprechaun franchise has held the monopoly on St. Patrick’s Day since the series’ debut in the 1990s. They weren’t critical hits, but against all odds, there have been eight films in the Leprechaun series, with the latest one released in 2018. While there has been some discussion of another movie being added to the Leprechaun franchise, as of this writing, there’s no concrete plans. Here’s how all eight movies rank, worst to best.

8. Leprechaun: Origins

Leprechaun: Origins attempts to reboot the horror franchise and move it away from the sillier style of mischief that Warwick Davis brought to the Leprechaun role. Leprechaun: Origins stars Dylan Postl as the Leprechaun, but the movie approaches the creature like a rabid beast rather than the rambunctious character. The film digs deep into the lore of Leprechauns and has a Wicker Man quality, where a town traditionally sacrifices people to the monster. It ultimately misses the mark and feels like any generic monster movie, which is a very disappointing direction for a reboot and why these plans were changed.

7. Leprechaun In The Hood

Many were unsure where the murderous Leprechaun could go after conquering outer space, but naturally the answer is to the hip-hop recording industry. Leprechaun in the Hood is a bizarre premise that sees a bunch of struggling recording artists stumble upon the Leprechaun and his gold. It’s an idea that shouldn’t work, but manages to be surprisingly entertaining and shows that the Leprechaun can rap just as well as he can kill. The film is full of stereotypes, and the Leprechaun has a one-liner for every situation. The creature gets some entertaining personalities to play off of and fits in almost too well into the “hood”.

6. Leprechaun Returns

Legacy sequels are all the rage, and the most recent entry in the Leprechaun franchise chooses to ignore all of the sequels and directly continue the original film’s story, 25 years later. Leprechaun Returns centers around the daughter of Jennifer Aniston’s character from the first film and a group of sorority sisters who inadvertently end up on the Leprechaun’s radar. The college students in peril angle doesn’t do the film any favors and there’s a shoehorned environmental angle involved. However, there’s still a level of joy to see some familiar faces from the first movie. The Leprechaun at least has his trademark dark sense of humor back, but Warwick Davis’ absence is still felt throughout.

5. Leprechaun 2

Leprechaun 2 mixes things up for the franchise as the Leprechaun is out to settle a 1000 year-old vendetta to get a bride. The Leprechaun sequel transplants the conniving killer to Los Angeles, and although there are some wonderfully absurd deaths, it still feels like a step backwards. The circumstances behind the Leprechaun’s arrangement for his bride are weak, but the fact that he wants to enslave someone to matrimony is more compelling than a hunt for gold. No one really stands out beyond the Leprechaun and it sometimes indulges in the wrong extremes. That being said, the movie still has a lot of fun with the Leprechaun’s growing powers.

4. Leprechaun 4: In Space

There was a beloved tradition in the 1990s to move horror franchises into space, but Leprechaun 4: In Space is definitely the most ridiculous example. The sequel is by no means good and features a borderline nonsensical plot where the Leprechaun wants to marry a space princess so he can be the king of her planet. However, the film is just so shameless that it’s hard to not enjoy it. The sequel is full of gratuitous “parodies” of other sci-fi fare and it’s the only film in the series where the Leprechaun wields a lightsaber and rips off Alien.

3. Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood

Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood is an inexplicable Leprechaun sequel, but somehow manages to be a satisfying morality tale. The film involves the Leprechaun’s gold getting in the hands of a youth center with many of the people using these riches to fulfill their unfulfilled dreams. The characters in this sequel actually connect and the audiences wants to see them succeed, unlike in some of the other pictures. Back 2 tha Hood knows exactly what it is and, as a result, it has some of the most satisfying and ridiculous deaths in the franchise, but also expresses a greater message.

2. Leprechaun

The original film that started it all uses the brilliant idea to take a holiday like St. Patrick’s Day and the playful character of a Leprechaun and make the mythical creatures into slasher stars. The first film is more restrained than the others and sees the Leprechaun held back by many rules, but Warwick Davis’ performance helped the movie stand out from the pack. Leprechaun also happens to feature Jennifer Aniston in her first theatrical role, making her career forever tied to a tiny green menace.

1. Leprechaun 3

Leprechaun 3 is the stealth winner of the franchise. It lets the Leprechaun loose on the vice-filled city of Las Vegas, where he goes on his most extreme killing spree. Leprechaun 3 is exactly the right kind of silly, and the murder set pieces feature robots, inflating people, and other impressive effects that feel like scenes from a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Leprechaun 3 is the most purely enjoyable movie in the series while still managing to be scary at times. It’s after this part in the series that the Leprechaun movies start to reach diminishing returns and their quality begins to noticeably drop.

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