It took me a while to get round to watching the 'Leprechaun' franchise, with so much going on and having a long watch and review list. Saw the films mainly for curiosity to see whether they would be guilty pleasures or deserving of their dubious reputation. Also appreciate horror, and ones with splashes of comedy, and had gotten into watching a few horror franchises that had interested me for a long time.

Watching 'Leprechaun', while understanding why people would find it a guilty pleasure it didn't do it for me. The second film was a marginal improvement but just as flawed with the same flaws. Saw the sequels as a franchise completest (just in case why anybody is wondering why if the first film didn't it for me why the rest of the films were watched too). While it was still not a good film 'Leprechaun 3' for me up to this early stage of the franchise the best of the three films while containing pretty much all the faults that the previous two films had.

Davis is the best thing about the film. He is both amusing and creepy and does do the best he can, successfully, with an again goofy look, some terrible lines (though actually they are funnier and more twisted than in the first two films) and less than tasteful horror which must have been hard to do and shows how conscientious and talented he is.

There are sporadically mildly amusing moments that don't come anywhere near enough, the answer to the health insurance question did make me laugh. The second half does have entertaining moments and with a bigger budget the film looks less cheap than the first film with a more expansive location and slicker photography, while still not being exactly high art because the effects are weak.

On the other hand, the rest of the cast is very poor, with insufferably bland leads and an assortment of irritating supporting roles. The characters display very little personality when they aren't being insufferably annoying with their dumb antics and illogical decision making, the character of Scott being the worst example of both extremes.

'Leprechaun 3' is still lacking in the story and script. The dialogue is pure repetitive childishness, with an overload of cheese and nothing funny, and the humour and whimsicality are forced. Having gratuitous gruesome gore was not enough to cover up for the complete lack of scares and suspense, nothing bit my nails, nothing made my heart pound or skip, nothing made my palms or forehead sweat, nothing made me jump. It's not just because it is so intelligence insultingly dumb, excessively predictable and unintentionally comical, but the story, while picking up a little in the second half, is very thin with a very dull first half. The kills are neither creative or scary, a few distasteful, and the direction is pretty leaden.

Summarising, mediocre third instalment. 4/10 Bethany Cox

LEPRECHAUN 3 is a B-movie sequel that goes straight-to-video - unlike the first two instalments of this franchise - but it also happens to be the best so far. It's still below par compared to most mainstream films, of course, but in the hands of veteran cult director Brian Trenchard-Smith (whose 'classics' include THE MAN FROM HONG KONG and TURKEY SHOOT) it has more energy and vibrancy going for it. Warwick Davis returns as the wisecracking antagonist, one more speaking in rhymes and hunting for a missing gold coin. A bunch of non-entity characters find themselves up against them, the most amusing including a sleazy magician and poor Lee Armstrong, a halfway decent actress saddled in an extremely revealing costume for the entire running time; it's no surprise that this was her last film. Elsewhere, there's the usual gratuitous nudity from a shoehorned-in starlet, some schlocky gore and violence, lots of scheming and a few creative death sequences. It also has that glossy, mid '90s look and feel that reminded me of HELLRAISER 3: HELL ON EARTH, just before SE7EN came out and everything went grim and grungy instead.

This one is far campier than the first two movies and this makes for a more enjoyable film. One of the few movie series to actually improve with time. This one is so funny, I have a hard time categorizing it as a horror movie, but beware this still isn't something to show your young children.