Before I start on Leprechaun, I think it’s best if I explain a few things. Jumping The Shark is a new series of articles I’m writing, about horror movie series that have ” Jumped the shark”. Just in case you don’t know, let’s turn to Wikipedia quickly for the definition of Jumping The Shark : “Jumping the shark is an idiom, first employed to describe a moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery.” Now while I’m talking about horror movies instead of television, I think the term works perfectly.

Let us begin.

The year’s 1993, no one’s heard of Jennifer Aniston, and I still thought Power Rangers had a deep and complex plot, when a little gem called Leprechaun gets released. It’s a half decent horror movie, about a Leprechaun from Ireland who just wants his gold back, and will terrorize anyone to get it. Pretty decent effects, simple yet fun story, it was quite good, and a sequel was right around the corner.

But a scant year later, we got what I personally would call the high-point of the series, Leprechaun 2. This one was a lot darker then the first, had nudity, bloodier deaths, and quite a few more tricks up the little buggers sleeve. It also had my favorite version of the Leprechaun, in this one he would take gold where ever he saw it, be it a ring on a finger, or a candy coin.

Then in 1995 we got Leprechaun 3, this time our green friend takes a trip to Vegas, a little out of place for a Leprechaun, but what’s a tiny mythological entity to do. Raise some hell in the casinos of course. By this point, the series started to go down hill, we were getting stupid deaths, worse acting, and it was starting to lose it’s charm.

But wait, this is only the third one, there’s always a chance it could bring it back again, they just need to learn from their mistakes, make another one on the same level as the second one, and everything will be good.

Nope, fuck that, we got Leprechaun 4: In Space. Two years after the third one, just when it seemed like there wouldn’t be another tale with our favorite green friend, he came back, weaker then ever. Here we have a movie that involves lightsabers, an  experimental enlargement ray,cyborgs, and so much more. There’s  even a character that mutates into a deformed spider thing, called  Mittenspider. The movie goes so low as to have one of the female characters pants ripped off, just so she can spend the rest of the movie in her panties, instead of , I don’t know, getting dressed?

This one had the weakest story, the dumbest characters, and everyone in the movie makes the worst possible choices, at every chance they get. I don’t know how it was green lit, and who would of put their name on it. But it wouldn’t be jumping the shark if the series was able to make a come back now would it?

Leprechaun 4 was followed by Leprechaun In The Hood. It’s set in Compton, Ice-T steals the leprechauns magic flute ( where did that come from, I don’t know continuity is fucked like a two dollar whore). Not to mention that our main characters are all wanna be rappers, and thefts.

Sorry, that’s just too far for me. Waiter, Check Please.