Leprechaun Returns

Leprechaun: Returns is an 2018 horror comedy directed by Steven Kostanski and written by Suzanne Keilly.

Plot
Twenty-five years ago, a young woman and her friends stopped an evil Leprechaun by shoving a four-leaf clover down its mouth and watching its melting body fall into a well in North Dakota. What happened to his pot of gold is anyone’s guess.

25 years later, New Larimore University student Lila Jenkins arrives by bus in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Lila accepts a ride from local handyman Ozzie Jones to a remote off-campus house that she plans to turn into a green living residence with her environmentally conscious Alpha Upsilon sorority sisters. On the drive, Ozzie learns that Lila is the daughter of Tory Reding, with whom he battled Lubdan the leprechaun 25 years earlier.

After Ozzie drops her off with a cryptic warning, Lila meets her sorority sisters Katie and Rose. The girls discuss renovation projects that include installing solar panels and fixing the disused well, where Lubdan remains secretly imprisoned, for water. Fourth sister Meredith arrives with Katie’s ex-boyfriend Andy and Andy’s aspiring filmmaker friend Matt.

Ozzie returns to the property to look for the cellphone he dropped earlier. While investigating sounds from the well, water sprays upward that Ozzie inadvertently swallows.

Ozzie drives away in a panic. Ozzie stops in a forest and gurgles up the four-leaf clover used to originally defeat the leprechaun. Lubdan gorily bursts out of Ozzie’s belly holding the gold coin Ozzie swallowed years ago.

Lila, Katie, Rose, and Meredith eat pizza with Matt and Andy. Lila confesses to everyone that her mother, who died a year earlier from cancer, was thought to be crazy and never left their house because she was afraid of a monster.

Lila wakes the next morning from a nightmare of Ozzie’s bloody ghost. Lila also finds the basement flooded as Lubdan stalks around the house.

Having had sex the night before, Katie and Andy get into an argument while installing solar panels on the house’s roof. Rose admonishes Meredith for being irresponsibly hungover.

Lubdan spies Lila and Matt working together in a barn. Lubdan tries using his magic to propel a pitchfork at the pair, but realizes he is weak from being away from his gold for too long. Lubdan resolves to commit more murders to regain his powers.

Lila has another haunting vision of Ozzie’s ghost. Lubdan murders a mailman.

That night, Lubdan confronts Lila in her bedroom. Lila realizes Lubdan is the creature her mother was afraid of. Lubdan explains that he wants his gold back. Lubdan’s hand burns when he tries taking Lila’s gold necklace, which her mother gave her for protection. Lila tries to attack the leprechaun when the power sudden goes out.

Lubdan knocks over Matt in the dark to escape. Lila tries to explain that they need to find the others and leave the house.

Katie and Andy hook up again while trying to fix the fuses. Lubdan confronts Meredith while she is drunk.

Lila and Matt find Rose outside and tell her about the leprechaun. Meredith joins them to corroborate Lila’s claim.

Rose returns to the house. Lila, Matt, Meredith, and Katie watch as Andy fights the leprechaun outside. Lubdan uses his magic to slice Andy in half with a fallen solar panel.

Everyone returns to the house to recover Meredith’s car keys and regroup with Rose. Having previously made a deal with the leprechaun, Meredith locks Lila in the basement.

Meredith tells the others that the leprechaun killed Lila. Meredith, Rose, Katie, and Matt find Lubdan in Meredith’s car, but kick him out before frantically driving away.

Lila sees Ozzie’s ghost in the basement. Ozzie leads Lila to a hidden hole in the wall where she finds a map to Lubdan’s gold along with tips on how to combat him. Specifically that his weakness is a four leaf clover.

A struggle ensues when Rose deduces that Meredith lied about Lila’s fate. Lubdan races alongside the car by riding Matt’s camera drone. Lubdan ends up impaled by a tree branch while Meredith crashes her vehicle near Ozzie’s truck.

Lubdan recovers to confront Katie, Rose, Matt, and Meredith. Everyone but Meredith flees. Lubdan uses his magic to murder Meredith with detached sprinkler heads, after telling her about the loophole in their deal. That he promised not to touch her, but not to kill her.

Katie and Rose continue ahead while Matt stays behind to distract Lubdan with the drone. However, Lubdan takes control of the drone and uses it to decapitate Matt.

Lila finds Katie and Rose in the forest. The three of them follow the map to Lubdan’s pot of gold, but discover most of the coins are missing. Rose confesses that she found the gold weeks ago and used it to finance the house renovation project. Rose explains that the missing gold is now at a ‘Cash for Gold’ exchange in Bismarck.

Katie observes that Lila’s protective necklace is actually made from iron pyrite, not real gold. Since they are unable to return his gold, the three women look for more iron as an alternate means of defeating the leprechaun.

Lila, Katie, and Rose stage an argument to lure Lubdan back to the house. Lila gives Lubdan the pot of gold, which he discovers is stuffed with tampons. The three ladies trap Lubdan within a circle of iron objects, stuff a hose in his mouth, and pump him full of clover juice from their organic liquid supply in the basement. The leprechaun explodes.

While Rose sweeps up bits of Lubdan’s body, Lila and Katie go outside to collect wood for burning the leprechaun’s remains. The bits of Lubdan’s body morph into miniature leprechauns that after a struggle end up impaling Rose’s face on a golden trowel trophy.

Hearing Rose screaming, Lila and Katie come back inside the house and discover her corpse. The miniature leprechauns begin to reconstitute into Lubdan. Realizing that gold conducts electricity, the two women electrify the gold coins strewn at Lubdan’s feet, causing a fire that begins burning the leprechaun as well as the house.

Lila and Katie leave Lubdan behind as they escape the house before it explodes. Katie trips onto a piece of wood that pierces her chest, but she survives. As the house explodes, a geyser of green slime drenches both women. Ozzie’s ghost appears one last time and passes on, but not before being thanked by Lila. A Larimore University advisor arrives at the scene and escorts Lila and Katie away.

In daylight, Lubdan hitchhikes to Bismarck on a chicken truck to find the remainder of his gold.

Cast

 * Linden Porco as The Leprechaun
 * Taylor Spreitler as Lila Jenkins
 * Mark Holton as Ozzie Jones
 * Pepi Sonuga as Katie
 * Sai Bennett as Rose
 * Ben McGregor as Andy
 * Emily Reid as Meredith
 * Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins as Matt
 * Leon Clingman as University Advisor
 * Heather McDonald as Tory Reding
 * Pete Spiros as Mailman

Trivia

 * Direct sequel to the original film and ignores all of the sequels and the remake.
 * The second film in the series in which Warwick Davis does not play the Leprechaun.
 * Lionsgate initially tried to contact Jennifer Aniston to resume her character from Tory Reding, however the production company clarified that an economic agreement was not reached with the actress so she ended up being replaced.
 * Filmed in Cape Town, South Africa.
 * The skin of the Lubdan duende resembles ash during almost the entire film, this is a reference to the alleged death of Lubdan in the 1993 film.
 * It is the only film in the franchise where Lubdan has heterochromia, that is, eyes of different colors.
 * The outfit used by the Leprechaun in this film, is inspired by the outfits that this character used in the third and fourth films.
 * Jennifer Aniston congratulated Steven Kostanski for continuing the original story of Leprechaun, She reported that for none of the previous sequels she and her former co-workers were not contacted.
 * Just like Leprechaun in the Hood the Leprechaun doesn't die.