One of the more interesting slasher movie franchises is Leprechaun, even if it isn't the luckiest one. Though never critically beloved, the series has gained a fanbase over the years that loves the humorous and homicidal antics of Lubdan and his quest for his gold. Due to this endearing popularity, the Leprechaun series is getting a reboot, though there's one element that definitely needs to stay.
Though other classic slasher franchises have become known for their jokes, Leprechaun is the epitome of a laughable slasher. This mix of comedy and horror has become particularly successful in the modern day, with 2023 seeing several such combinations doing well at the box office. Instead of toning down the jokes and making them into something spookier, the Leprechaun reboot should continue the series' usual trend of getting high on low-brow humor.
Leprechaun Is Easily the Funniest Slasher Movie Series
In the case of the Nightmare On Elm Street movies, they only reached their zenith (or nadir, depending on who's asked) of campy comedy as the series went on. While Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger is now known for his wisecracks and one-liners, he began as a far more solemn force. Conversely, Wes Craven's other horror franchise, Scream, had tons of meta-commentary on the genre, but it was still mostly straight-faced. That wasn't the case with the Leprechaun films, which reveled in the fact that the central supernatural killer was a member of that usually lovable Irish wee folk. A supernatural creature with a paranormal level of avarice, central leprechaun Lubdan kills anyone who gets in the way of his goal, which is usually also his gold. This results in all manner of cartoonish lunacy, such as his being egged on to drink by fellow leprechauns or falling under the influence of something as green as his attire.
This was capped off in stories where he ventured forth to "da hood" and even ended up in space, showing that not even gravity could contain the titular leprechaun's greed. The movies themselves weren't good by any stretch of the imagination, but they were incredibly entertaining and quite humorous in ways that most horror movies never were. Likewise, as the genre was reborn in the 2000s, Lubdan's hilarity especially stood out amidst the darker antics of the first entries in the Saw series and others such as The Grudge. Horror movies have changed a lot since then, and the genre is currently one of the most easily profitable when it comes to the box office. Strangely enough, it'd only make sense for Leprechaun to continue treading its horror/comedy path, given some of the most recent hits in theaters.
M3GAN and Cocaine Bear Paved the Way for the Leprechaun Reboot
As mentioned, 2023 is no stranger to horror movies with a slightly comedic or satirical edge, the likes of which have been fairly successful. Science fiction allegory M3GAN started the year off by dancing to TikTok and box office victory. Cocaine Bear made a similar killing, sniffing up a win for its director and turning death in nature into a "high-minded" thriller. These movies were in no way super serious, with both having various elements that were almost campy. More straightforward horror is still popular, but there's definitely a nice niche slashed out for these types of movies. Since those movies were able to pull this off with their concepts alone, Leprechaun can easily do even more by drawing on its laughable legacy and its lethal style of not-so-lucky charm.
It's worth noting that the 2014 movie Leprechaun: Origins, which was a much darker entry in the series, was criticized for getting rid of the humorous, campy tone the movies were known for. The classic tone was what set the films apart, and returning to this particular pot of gold could do the same in the modern day, even amid similar hack-and-laughs. In fact, leaning into M3GAN's success with a viral video of Lubdan "smoking a good pipe" or other ridiculous antics will only send the movie into the box office stratosphere. It might run the risk of veering into "fellow kids" territory, but this level of killer comedy is exactly what Leprechaun is known for. If the reboot hopes to achieve the same heights and even lows of the old movies, there's a fortune of silly gold that needs to be uncovered.