The 7 Best Kill Scenes from the Leprechaun Franchise!
Steve Barton
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Sep 7, 2014
Eleven years after the final installment in the original series, the Leprechaun franchise was brought back from the dead this week courtesy of Lionsgate and WWE Films, who together released Leprechaun: Origins (review) onto VOD outlets this past Tuesday.
The Warwick Davis incarnation of the titular character had a reign of terror that lasted from 1997 until 2007, the original franchise spanning seven installments that saw the Irish jokester taking a trip to Vegas, being shipped off to space and ridin’ dirty in tha hood on two separate occasions.
Needless to say, the Leprechaun has left a pretty large body count in his wake over the years, and in celebration of the reboot we wanted to shine the green spotlight on some of his most memorable slayings. So today we bring you the seven best kills from the original six Leprechaun films, which are the some of the wildest and most off the wall death scenes in horror franchise history.
Read on for the list, or else the Leprechaun will be pissed!
Sorry. Had to work a rhyme in there somewhere.
There are few things as utterly joy-inducing as watching the Leprechaun get high, and it’s hard not to appreciate 2007’s Back 2 tha Hood for providing us all with that joy. In the film’s most memorable scene, the little guy takes several big time pulls from a new friend’s bong, which sends him into a fit of laughter. But it’s not long before ole Lep gets the munchies, and by munchies I of course mean a desire to kill. After his stoner pal drops a gold coin on the ground, Leprechaun’s trip turns ugly, and the smoking device becomes a deadly weapon. He impales the dude in the stomach with the bong, before thanking him for the smoke and then bouncing. Always a gentleman, that Leprechaun.
If there’s anything that makes the Leprechaun superior to most of the other big franchise icons it’s that he’s a magical little bastard, capable of doing things that guys like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers simply cannot. Take, for example, Leprechaun 4, where the Irish demon bursts out of a dude’s dick. Okay, so I suppose Freddy could do that if he wanted to, but even he doesn’t play as dirty as the Leprechaun does. In the fourth installment of the series, set in outer space, Leprechaun is literally reborn out of a man’s private parts, materializing from the dude’s groin just as he’s about to make sweet love to his lady friend. The scene isn’t nearly as graphic as you’d hope or expect it to be, but the mere suggestion of what’s happening is more than enough to make it one of the franchise’s most memorable kills.
The Leprechaun’s original 1997 outing is not nearly as whacky as the subsequent installments in the series, and the body count is pretty damn low, with only one kill scene that really stands out. I’m of course referring to the pawn shop owner’s demise by pogo stick, wherein the wrinkle-faced little monster uses the children’s toy as a sort of jackhammer, repeatedly jumping down on the man’s body and piercing his internal organs with the business end of the stick – all while singing a catchy limerick. No horror villain has more fun doing what he does than the Leprechaun, and he proved that right off the bat with this early franchise kill scene. I guess you could say he hopped right into our hearts with this one, just as he hopped right into his victim’s!
There’s no better example of how whacky the franchise ended up getting than this bizarre kill scene from Leprechaun 7, which is hands down one of the most off the wall moments in the entire series. Several times throughout the franchise, the Leprechaun has magically made sexy women appear to seduce men he wants to kill, and in the Vegas-set third installment, he has a topless chick literally emerge from the horny casino owner’s television set. Just as things are starting to get hot and heavy, the woman transforms into a killer robot – with massive human breasts still intact, of course – and puts a little spark in the old man’s love life by electrocuting him to death. Long before The Ring taught us the same lesson, Leprechaun 7 tried to warn us; don’t ever trust women that crawl out of your TV!
Another one of the Leprechaun’s devious, sexually-charged illusions was on display in 1994’s first sequel, which was the film where he was on the hunt for the perfect bride. One of the first victims in the movie is a young man who attempts to seduce the Leprechaun’s chosen bride Bridget, incurring the wrath of her pint-sized husband-to-be in the process. In retaliation, Leprechaun uses his magic to trick the man into thinking Bridget is DTF, fooling him into believing that she’s standing topless in front of him, just waiting for his lovin’. In reality, Bridget’s boobs were actually the spinning blades of a lawnmower’s underside, the fantasy breasts turning the man’s face into a freshly sliced masterpiece. Now that’s just cruel.
‘Be careful what you wish for’ is a common theme throughout the Leprechaun films, with the wishes of characters often being granted in ways that they didn’t quite intend them to be. In Leprechaun 2, for example, a greedy character wishes for an entire pot of gold, and the Leprechaun gladly makes that wish come true. While at first the man experiences excruciating stomach pain, he soon realizes that the pot of gold is actually materializing in his stomach, distending his belly like the world’s worst food baby. His second wish? For the pot of gold to be removed, which the Leprechaun again grants – using his blade-like nails to tear open the man’s stomach and reclaim his gold. And that’s what greed will do to ya, kiddies!
I couldn’t think of a better Leprechaun kill scene to top the list than Caroline Williams’ epic death in the third installment, which saw yet another wish being granted in a horrifying fashion. Best known for her role as Stretch in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Williams played Vegas casino employee Loretta in Leprechaun 7 and her wish was simple enough; to be young and beautiful again. To grant her wish, the Leprechaun does some magical Botox and plastic surgery work on poor sweet Loretta, blowing up her lips, boobs and rear end to such an extent that her body eventually explodes into thousands of tiny little pieces. Not sure that Williams would consider it one of her finest career moments, but the scene is definitely a shining example of how much fun the Leprechaun movies were!
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