The F*cking Black Sheep: Leprechaun 3 (1995)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

THE BLACK SHEEP is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATH. We’re hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Dig in!

LEPRECHAUN 3 (1995)

DIRECTED BY BRIAN TRENCHARD-SMITH

Say, who’s up for a killer trip to Vegas to properly wind down the summer?! Let’s F*cking Go!

Here’s a helpful tip for all you hardened horror fans out there, I was recently perusing the free streaming movie site Tubi and was pleasantly surprised by their healthy collection of high and low brow, new and old school horror titles. For instance, you can currently find the entire LEPRECHAUN franchise on tap, which I was too intrigued to pass up when it caught my eye this past weekend. Yep, it must be the dog days…

Now, full disclosure, I am not the world’s biggest fan of the LEPRECHAUN franchise, as I tend to favor the overtly camped-out humor over the straight-faced attempts at horror. Naturally then, I gravitate toward the little limerick spitting Lep puffing herb and kicking rhymes with Ice-T and the boys in the hood. That said, of all seven LEPRECHAUN flicks, I feel pretty strongly that the highest quality outing, LEPRECHAUN 3, is also one of the most overlooked of the entire canon. And you know who agrees? Yep, Lep himself! Indeed, Warwick Davis is on record saying LEPRECHAUN 3 is his favorite film in the series, specifically because of how well director Brian Trenchard-Smith nailed the caustic sense of humor. As you’ll see below, this is just one reason why LEPRECHAUN 3 is a F*cking Black Sheep!

Firstly, a quote from Davis on his view of the film, per IMDB:

I think it tapped into the potential of bringing a comedic element to it all. And Brian Trenchard-Smith, who directed that one, is an incredible director. He manages to get so much out of so little money, and that was what was great about working with him. He really got the humor."

Another reason why the movie ought to receive more credit than it deserves is the fact it was shot in just 14 days on a budget of around $1.2 million. Even by 1995 dollars, that’s virtually no time or money to aptly capture what must be intended by writer David DuBos (FUTURE SHOCK, BAYOU TALES). Then again, as Davis noted, Trenchard-Smith excelled at visually capturing what he desired for essentially no money. Even so, LEPRECHAUN 3 was the first film in the franchise to suffer the fate of a direct-to-video release, which is a major F*cking Black Sheep slap in the face if there ever was one. Fortunately for a movie about an accursed pot of gold, LEPRECHAUN 3 ended up being the highest-selling direct-to-video release of 1995. The f*cking luck of the Irish!

As for the plot, it’s clear from jump-street that LEPRECHAUN took on a more fun, silly, campy, kitschy and overall more entertaining tone than its two stern predecessors. The mere idea of having Leprechaun’s stony edifice brought to Las Vegas, where one of his prized gold schillings is found in a pawn shop before making its round across Vegas, transferring from one unwitting victim to the next, is pretty damn amusing. Just imagine if the film was released in 3D, as initially reported by Fangoria in 1994! Anyway, our leading man Scott (John Gatins) is a bright-eyed college kid on his way to California, intent on seeing Vegas for the first time. He picks up cocktail waitress and aspiring magician Tammy (Lee Armstrong, who reportedly quit acting after this movie, haha), who sneaks him into the Lucky Shamrock Casino where she works, so long as he doesn’t try to gamble underage.

Yeah, that ain’t happening. Soon, Scott loses his shirt and needs to sell his Rolex at a pawnshop for quick cash. There, Scott finds himself in possession of Lep’s lucky schilling, which grants him a lucrative roulette winning streak. Of course, the wish comes with a side-effect, which happens to turn Scott into a green-skinned, Irish-lilting, grown-up Leprechaun with his own nefarious M.O. Meanwhile, the murderous munching, the homicidal homunculus, the lethal Leprechaun continues to inventively waylay every poor sucker who dare touch the gold schilling. This includes one the most hilariously prolonged death of the pawn shop owner, whom Lep spends like 20 minutes biting his ear, beating him with a ball-bat, kicking him around on the floor, before finally ending the poor bastard’s life many minutes and several scenes later. I’ve never, ever, seen any non-villain take that long to die in any movie. Too funny!

In fact, it is precisely the combination of cheeky punch-line humor with grisly violence that makes the movie work as well as it does. As Lep maniacally marauds one casino after another in search of his gold schilling, he spouts such hysterical couplets and ludicrous limericks as “I want my gold schilling, tell me where it is or there will be more killing,” or “for pulling this trick, I’ll chop off your dick!” The little green goblin is the goddamn Lilliputian Poet Laureate of 1995!

For my money, the number one standout death scene comes when Lep encounters two idiotic casino low-lives (Tom Dugan and Roger Hewlett). With a dead straight face, one of the dudes sees Leprechaun and has the nerve to tell the little bastard he really ought to see a dermatologist for his nasty facial skin. Unamused, Leprechaun rams a wand through the f*cker’s eyeball, stabbing it right out of his skull until he falls to the floor in a flailing moribund state. It’s the perfect blend of side-splitting humor and eye-gouging horror, paving way for the ferocious show-stopping finale. You know, the one in which Tammy’s magic-mentor Fazio (John DeMita) gets gruesomely lopped in half inside his own magician’s box with a chainsaw. Shite’s the perfect capper to a movie that prioritizes fun-filled entertainment over all else, with a healthy dash of campy humor coming in close behind.

All told, little Lep tallies nine corpses over a fast-paced 93 minutes. An average of one death per 10 minutes isn’t too shabby, especially given how long it takes him to lethally assault the pawn-shop owner. The death blows really pick up in pace after the hour-mark or so, which again is surprisingly entertaining for a horror movie that has such little violence for such a large portion of the runtime. What the first half lacks in horror it atones for with humor, which makes the violence strike that much harder when it does finally come about. Warwick Davis, for his part, never short shrifts (no pun) his performance as Lep, something he easily could have done considering how quickly the movie was made for a DTV release. A constant pro, Warwick makes LEPRECHAUN 3 go!

Let’s recap all the ways in which LEPRECHAUN 3 ranks as a F*cking Black Sheep of a franchise entry. First, it was shot in just two weeks, which tells you how little Blue Rider Pictures thought about the script to begin with. Next, the movie was the first in the franchise to be released straight to video, rather than theatrically like its predecessors. The overtly humorous tone that pervades the rest of the franchise was born right here, with a mordant, Non-PC sense of humor cutting as harshly as Lep’s various weaponry. Additionally, each death scene (one per ten minutes mind you) consciously melds the biting humor with the brutal horror, with the highlight being Lep’s vicious eye-gouging and chainsaw-wielding body-cleaving. All of these aspects contribute to LEPRECHAUN being the most fun film in the entire franchise, and a F*cking Black Sheep even among its own litter!

GET LEPRECHAUN 3 ON DVD HERE