Teenage Tory (Jennifer Aniston) is visiting her family’s new North Dakota farmhouse when the dimwits hired to paint the place accidentally set free the Leprechaun (Warwick Davis), who had been trapped in the basement ten years earlier by the former owner. The Leprechaun wants all of his gold. It’s too bad the painters already found the gold and one of them somehow swallowed a piece. This Leprechaun gets all of his gold back except for that one piece. Leprechauns don’t stop until they get all the gold. It’s the Leprechaun code.

The very first Leprechaun film is actually a pretty simple affair. I am surprised the movie was given a theatrical release, because everything about it feels like something that would go direct-to-video. The puns are bad and the kills are unimpressive, though this might be the only movie to feature a deadly pogo stick. It also features a Leprechaun in a go-kart and a kid saying, “Fuck you, Lucky Charms!” because the cereal company decided they didn’t want their product in the film.  That earned Leprechaun an R-rating.  It would probably have been a PG-13 otherwise.

Warwick Davis is at least having fun as the Leprechaun. After Return of the Jedi and Willow, this film was his chance not only to be bad but also to head a franchise, and you can’t blame him for taking advantage of it. Jennifer Aniston is cute beyond words, and this is probably her liveliest film performance. The movie would probably be forgotten if it hadn’t spawned so many sequels. Remember Leprechaun in the Hood?