[Music]
what do you think i think we're dead
meat
real dead meat
go ahead and laugh you guys if i ever
find a little
a pasta meat welcome to dead meat the
channel that makes horror movies less
scary because of background music and
corny jokes
i'm that corny jokester james agenese
and today i'll be ranking
all eight movies in the leprechaun
franchise from worst to best in my
personal opinion of course
i covered the leprechaun franchise three
years ago before the kill count was even
a full one year old
back then i had some unkind words for
the series with particular disparagement
for one little shit
the leprechaun himself fucking sucks
he's mean and nasty and hardly ever
actually funny i've changed a lot these
past three years and
not just the speed at which i talk
seriously past james was someone chasing
your words with a machete
back then i had a more binary view of
judging films as good or bad
nowadays i appreciate movies in a
multitude of ways
including the often attempted but rarely
successful type where one is so bad
it's good i hate it when movies try too
hard to purposefully be
so bad they're good looking at you
sharknado but most leprechaun movies are
effortlessly bad they're exquisitely bad
they are in fact so bad they're good and
even the leprechaun himself
knows it i'm so bad i'm good god help me
i love that little shit that's why in
order to ensure an
accurate personal ranking i actually
re-watched all eight movies to write and
make this video
my opinions on them from three years ago
were simply too out of date it was
definitely the right choice
my rankings changed drastically from
what they would have been back then
always got to be willing to update your
beliefs and preferences
you know i'll be honest though between
my conflicting past feelings towards
each movie
and the extreme variance in their
strengths and weaknesses
this may have been the most difficult
franchise ranking i've ever had to do
but i did it cause i'm a professional
without further ado
here are my personal rankings of the
leprechaun movies from worst to best
number eight my least favorite
leprechaun movie is the 2014 reboot
leprechaun origins
i'm not striking any new ground here
this is probably
everyone's least favorite lap mostly
because
look at that thing it's not a fucking
leprechaun as with most movies though
you can still find some good things to
point out and appreciate the main
cast playing the college kids does well
considering the material
while gary chalk and teach grant give
some surprisingly passionate
performances as a conflicted father and
son
the plot of them sacrificing tourists to
keep their village safe from the
leprechaun
is interesting and i'm into it but after
some initial act one promise
the movie falls apart and becomes an
underexposed beat by beat snoozefest
i guess we shouldn't be surprised about
a storyline with a promising start that
ends up boring and predictable
this was made by wwe studios after all
and the lazy story isn't even the worst
part nothing
not the performances nor the halfway
decent production value
ooh drone shots can counteract the
film's most egregious effects
this shitty so-called leprechaun for all
his faults
o.g lepi boy is an s-tier monster makeup
design
gabe bartalos created a hideous creature
that perfectly suited warrick davis's
gleeful malice he felt
real he had character he was great in
contrast
here's this stupid fucking thing it's in
the shadows or out of focus
almost all of the time it's on screen
and when we do see it it just crawls
around and quickly cut close-ups
growling like a pissed-off zoo animal
it makes no sense to advertise dylan
postal in the role because it might as
well been a puppet being controlled just
off screen
and can you get any lazier than first
person attacks with a predator filter
thrown over the footage this would be
awful in
any monster movie but the fact that they
called this a leprechaun
is a downright insult to the franchise's
greatest asset
its iconic villain no matter how good
some of the kills are or how many tiers
teach grant sheds this movie is an
abject failure the original web movies
try to be fantasy slasher comedies
and they succeed at each of those things
to varying degrees
next time i'll take the elevator this
movie tries to be a serious creature
feature
and fails because its creature is barely
even featured
it sucks and it is easily my last place
leprechaun movie
number seven just above the bottom of
the barrel
is leprechaun 2 from 1994. this movie is
a huge step
up from origins meaning i don't outright
hate it at least not anymore
i'm still not a big fan but i can
appreciate it as a successful transition
for the series
while the original leprechaun was far
from serious the sequel pointedly
heightened the comedy and cartoonishness
which i think was the right move for
the franchise it also plays into the
fantasy element more and gives our lepy
boy some backstory even though it
wouldn't stay consistent throughout the
series which reminds me
there is a theory that most of the
leprechauns are different
individuals from film to film i actually
really like that theory it makes a lot
of sense
still i have some lingering annoyances
with this movie
mostly in the form of its characters
sandy baron does a fantastic job playing
drunk or morty with a lot of comedic
flourishes and lines i originally
overlooked
i should have returned this book to the
library five years ago but the character
is still
kind of obnoxious to watch a complaint
that goes double for the unappreciative
snob
bridgette some people can't afford to
let their small businesses fail
bridgette they can't just run around
riding go-karts all day
cody's not that much more interesting
than his love interest
and in fact this issue of having a
boring maine couple
is one that plagues the entire first
half of the franchise
there are enjoyable performances by
talented character actors and bit parts
though i'm still not sure why the hell
tony cox was acting so weird but the
problem
is that they're not in most of the movie
bridget and cody are
i know joke's on me number six
at number six i have the 1993 original
leprechaun aka the one with jennifer
aniston
and no one should get props for being
the first one but in all honesty this is
a pretty boring movie i mean no offense
to all the north dakotans in the house
but
i just don't think the peace garden
state is the best setting
for a movie about a magical murder fairy
it feels restrictive to the character's
potential
and limiting in its locale i don't want
to stare at a farmhouse for 90 minutes
the movie has a slightly darker tone
than its sequels and although i'm glad
the series quickly became more comedic
i like that we get one that tries to be
scary and funny
ward davis can balance those tones
perfectly in his performance
and this first film is a good showcase
of how sinister and sneering he can be
tricking people with his magic and
laughing while he murders
sure he's also sometimes a punching bag
and green striped socks but without his
moments of pure evil here the character
wouldn't be half as successful
as far as the other characters go i love
alex and ozzy they're a sweet pair of
friends but this first movie begins the
trend of having unlikable leads
tori and nate aren't as bland as some of
the main characters that would follow
but i can't stand their endless back and
forth basic ass
gender warfare did i misplace my 1950s
calendar here
girls listen bud okay this is the 90s
women are treated equal also
her dad just fucking disappears from the
movie he goes to the hospital halfway
through and never comes back that's
shitty writing the original leprechaun
introduced an amazing monster
and did a good job establishing a base
tone to build off of
other than that it was a lackluster
execution and we're lucky the sequels
course corrected or else we wouldn't
have all this little
shit to wade through number five
just on the wrong side of halfway
through the list is the sixth film from
2003
leprechaun back to the hood i'm a big
fan of the first in the hood but its
sequel
is the leprechaun movie i feel most met
about i don't dislike it at all but it's
also not very memorable
it tries to have serious characters and
moral dilemmas just like the first in
the hood but between the cheesy acting
and the sappy
score it sometimes comes off as more of
an after-school special
once it can get better for sam why our
lives got to be like this
this might be the only leprechaun movie
that has moments that are
unintentionally
laughably bad you've been making a lot
of moves on the street in the past
couple of days rory
plus those scene transitions like a page
peel
for real you just get windows movie
maker or something
i like the animated intro with the kind
of lord of the rings style voice
narration
and i really dig lep's new look that's
more gothic and darker in color
but he's also absent for a lot of the
first act this might be the leprechaun
movie with the least amount of lappy boy
you know not counting the bullshit that
is leprechaun origins
lep does have some memorable scenes when
he finally shows up but he
too often feels like a last-minute
addition to this movie sappy story
and what is with those gold soul bubbles
or whatever
make more sense movie it's a mediocre
end to work davis's run as the character
but at least it's far from being the
franchise's low point
number four at number four i have
leprechaun 4.
in space this might be unexpected for
those of you who remember the kill
counts
i hated this movie despised it three
years ago it would have been last on my
list
hell i still hated it when i covered lep
returns two years ago in 2019
except leprechaun 4 in space which can
still fuck off forever but now when i
watch
leprechaun in space i wonder why my
hatred burns so bright
yes it's a bad movie yes it's an alien's
rip-off
and yes they never once say the word
leprechaun which is pretty fucking weird
for a movie called leprechaun but
leprechaun in space is a sort of
masterpiece of trash not nearly as
boring as i made it out to be in the
kill count
so often you'll get a bizarrely bad
movie that's only interesting for a
little bit
before it coasts to a lackluster ending
not let 4
it's least wild shit happens in the
beginning when darth leppy boy breaks
out a lip saver the what the fuck
moments keep coming and coming and by
time you get to the german dalek who
becomes a scorpion spiderman you'll have
forgotten all about the comparatively
normal things like a flattened pancake
head
and a space princess who flashes her
boobs as a threat
by this film the franchise knew it was
ridiculous
and leaned into its b-movie status with
pride there's plenty to criticize and i
think i latched onto them my first time
through
the main characters are probably the
most bland of the franchise the
ultimate iteration of the series's
penchant for generically attractive
leads
their interactions are more awkward than
that drunk space marine dancing the
directing is lazy and lacks any
interesting camera angles or style
and the sets and kills suffered greatly
from the exceedingly low budget
although props for a kill so memorable
it didn't need a lot of money behind it
a weap coming out of a pee hole i never
all this movie's shortcomings are mostly
excusable though thanks to its endless
parade of weird shit from start to
finish
it didn't have the budget to properly
implement its ideas but
that never stops lep4 from trying to do
more and more
and that's kind of beautiful man number
three
my top three rankings were very
difficult to order and since they're all
such
different movies they're close to a
three-way tie for my favorite
for the sake of this video though i'll
put them in order and say the bronze
place goes to leprechaun
returns from 2018. the latest leprechaun
movie
ignored all the other sequels and reboot
and instead made its story a direct
continuation of the first films
normally like with halloween that'd be a
bigger deal
but continuity was never a priority for
this franchise
so it's fine that this one renders the
space one non-canonical it's leprechaun
canon
it doesn't matter i didn't have high
hopes for a modern day movie made by
sci-fi
but let returns was a pleasant surprise
in large part due to its tone
it's a bit more dark and scary similar
to the first film
even though it's got some of the
funniest moments out of any leprechaun
movie
no uh it goes ozzy i can't do that it
strikes a similar balance of horror and
comedy when it comes to the kills which
are the bloodiest of the franchise but
still managed to include some humor
that's why this movie didn't get a dull
machete
i liked all the kills too much this
version of the leprechaun is played by
lyndon porco a phenomenal successor to
work davis's lappy boy
he nails the specific quality that makes
leprechauns so great his ability to be
silly
almost friendly at certain points in
time only to quickly turn around and be
a sadistic
mofo the next minute unfortunately
porco's speech
sounds inhibited by the prosthetics i'm
looking for something and if you tell me
where it is
i won't rip you to shreds but i'd love
for them to iron out the makeup kinks
and bring him back for another film
he's great aside from the two
forgettable dudes the other characters
are animated and lively
and leading lady taylor sprightling
gives a seriously hilarious performance
her scenes with a returning mark holton
as ozzie are especially full of great
comedic beats
are you irish no no no
just a fan of the culture not at all
there are stupid moments here and there
that expose the seams of the
screenwriting
try to ignore how often the characters
separate for no reason but leprechaun
returns
successfully updates the franchise for
the modern age i sincerely hope to have
more
number two at number two i have many
people's number one
leprechaun 3 from 1995. even if it's not
my particular favorite right now
leprechaun 3 is the best and purest
version of a leprechaun movie
its setting of las vegas is perfect for
the greedy little shit
and three movies in the character had
been perfected by both work davis with
his performance
and gabe bartalos with his makeup though
it had a real low budget
being the first leprechaun movie with a
direct video release
that never stops it from being fun and
everyone on screen seems to be in on the
joke i especially love the almost
definitely gay gangsters arden tony
and of course the franchise's greatest
human villains
fazio and loretta plus
the kills are the pinnacle of lep's
creative bloodshed
exploding boobs murderous sex robots
were a far cry from breaking a cop's
neck in the woods
just like leprechaun in space there's a
lot going on in this movie and although
it may not be as outrageous
as burlesque dancing android sergeants i
think it's telling that the main
character turning into a leprechaun
is only the 5th or sixth most memorable
thing from the movie
my complaints are few and minor i don't
love that leps locked in a pawn shop for
act one the leads are once again
pretty boring and there are way too many
blurry shots
but god dammit the leprechaun is running
around fremont street posing with the
king and throwing dice at a craps table
this movie's fun and games are the most
fun of the franchise
so even though it's not a perfect movie
it's still close to a perfect leprechaun
movie
number one but sitting at the top of
this gold mound is leprechaun in the
hood
from 2000. like all leprechaun movies
this one has
its strengths and weaknesses but it wins
the top spot
mainly because of one thing it's
characters and acting which are hands
down the best out of any leprechaun
movie
leprechaun in the hood might be the most
famous title of the franchise and a lot
of people make fun of it
because to be fair it sounds ridiculous
but postmaster
p stray bullet and butch are some of the
few human characters who are as
interesting to watch as the leprechaun
himself they're genuine dudes who share
a goal and differ in how they want to
pursue it but they don't let that stop
them from being close
and even saying that they love each
other i love you man
love you man that unironic depiction of
healthy masculinity is
dope to see in a movie made in 2000 and
because of how real they are to each
other
you buy in and care about them more than
just how lep will kill them
speaking of which there is no death in
the franchise more emotionally impactful
than stray bullets
like it actually made me feel things and
yet the film's still able to have a lot
of goofy fun
and not come off as saccharine like when
lep went back to the hood
it's a difficult balancing act to
achieve but thanks to its talented cast
lepen the hood succeeds
of course even though it's my favorite
i've gotta fess up to
its weaknesses it's chock full of
stereotypes
now we're moving on up to the east side
has a couple of characters who are
insensitively portrayed
and dear god i don't think a movie could
look lower budget if it tried
those photoshop effects to show the leps
transformation are bad enough
but when you literally see the top of
the set they're filming in
that's real bad man structurally it
could use a little more connective
tissue
since it sometimes feels like it
randomly jumps from scene to scene
and there are too many lengthy
performances of middling rap songs that
aren't anything to write to spotify
about
but man i just don't care leprechaun
smokes weed in a bathroom with iced tea
that's worth a thousand film set
ceilings to me and t
is not just there in a cameo like coolio
he puts in the work and delivers some
damn fine acting here the scene in his
office where he discusses a potential
deal with the guys
could have just as easily come from a
well-regarded network drama
even as i finish this video i'm not a
hundred percent
certain about the order of my top three
picks all of them are great
and bad in totally different ways but
for now
i'll say that my favorite is the one
that has the best characters the one
that makes me feel the most the one that
sticks with me long after the credits
and that no doubt is leprechaun in the
hood hope my wishy-washy rankings make
sense to you
if not maybe in three years i'll
reevaluate again
i won't i don't want to have to watch
these fucking movies again i'll try to
do more
franchise ranking videos this year but
until next time i'm james agenese
this has been a deadmeat production
thanks for watching this ranking video
for the leprechaun franchise
i always loved doing the set deck for
leprechaun videos especially now that i
have this awesome leprechaun figure
it came from at horror handmade on
instagram check them out if you like it
it is beautiful handcrafted work i also
bought a valik from him that i don't
know
where it went since the move thanks
everyone be good people