The second sequel to Leprechaun, released in 1995 after Leprechaun 2.
In Las Vegas, a badly beaten man drops off a rather peculiar-looking statue at a pawn shop. He's willing to take whatever the shopkeeper will offer him but warns him that he must never remove the gold medallion that hangs around the statue's neck. As soon as he's gone, the shopkeeper does this. The statue comes to life, revealing the leprechaun, who kills him and sets out to reclaim his gold.
This film has examples of:
- Achilles' Heel:
- This time around, destroying the Leprechaun's pot of gold destroys the Leprechaun.
- The medallion doesn't kill the Leprechaun, but wearing it does leave him Taken for Granite. Even the mere sight of it causes severe pain in the Leprechaun and later a transforming Scott.
- An Aesop: The film basically gives the message that greed will get you in trouble.
- Affably Evil: Leprechaun briefly develops an Odd Friendship with an Elvis Impersonator in one scene.
- Agony of the Feet: Leprechaun bites off one of Gupta's toes.
- Asshole Victim: Mitch, Fazio and Loretta use their wishes for selfish reasons and are killed when the Leprechaun finds them and wants his coin back. Even the 2 motel owners Art and Tony count.
- Bait the Dog: Mitch doesn't seem so bad at first, outright forbidding a stunt Fazio had suggested that would've endangered Tammy's life. He soon proves to have a less than professional interest in the young lady.
- Birds of a Feather: Unsurprisingly Tammy and Scott fall in love with each other.
- Breast Expansion: Loretta wishes for a new, busty body on one of Leprechaun's gold coins. She enjoys the results until the Leprechaun finds her and demands his coin back. He makes her breasts (and hips and lips) grow out of control until they pop.
- Cassandra Truth: After being attacked by the Leprechaun and narrowly surviving, Scott calls casino security and tells them exactly what happened. They hang up almost immediately.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- Horny old guy Mitch ends up being electrocuted by a malfunctioning sexbot.
- Fazio the Magician winds up being killed after getting sawed in half by Lep after refusing to return his gold coin.
- Materialistic Loretta is killed after Lep expands her breasts, lips and butt until they explode in possibly the worst plastic surgery ever.
- Defiant to the End: Art and Tony, while being killed by the Leprechaun. Tony continues to try to fight, despite losing an eye and barely being able to stand. Art makes a short joke to annoy him before being finished off.
- Denser and Wackier: While the first two films had their comedic moments, this one is arguably the most comedic of the first three. Of course, Leprechaun 4: In Space would take the wackiness up to eleven...
- Dirty Old Man: Mitch openly lusts for Tammy. When he gets the coin, his wish is to sleep with her, which causes Tammy to hypnotically fall in love with him, but when the spell is broken and Tammy is left both confused and horrified upon seeing that she may have unintentionally done a striptease for him, Mitch fires her for not only cock-teasing him but also kneeing him in the nuts when he had tried to come onto her.
- Dumb Muscle: Tony is Art's muscle, being quite larger the man and also quite dumber. He was explicitly told to kill Mitch, if the owed money isn't provided.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Leprechaun is defeated, leaving a now-in-love Scott and Tammy free to head off into the night.
- Elvis Impersonator: The Leprechaun briefly runs into one, and develops an Odd Friendship with him before they part ways.
- Evil Counterpart: Inverted. Due to the Superhuman Transfusion, the Leprechaun accidentally turns Scott into a Good Counterpart. As a Leprechaun, Scott displays hammy and greedy moments, but he still retains enough of his old self to avoid killing people (injuring people attempting to restrain him, however, is a different matter). He instead actively defends Tammy and others against the Leprechaun.
- Eye Scream: Tony suffers this, courtesy of the Leprechaun's cane in Mitch's room.
- Fan Disservice: Loretta's transformation becomes this once her lips start expanding.
- Fanservice: In contrast to the above-mentioned, Tammy spends most of the film wearing her sexy stage getup and even performs a tantalizing striptease at one point.
- Fatal Method Acting: In-Universe, The Leprechaun kills Fazio by sawing him in half during his magic show. The audience believe it's all part of the act until they see the inside of the box and when Tammy tells them all to run.
- Greed: Scott just can't resist the casino and gambles away his tuition money. Luckily for him, his wish allows him to win it back with interest, much to the annoyance of Mitch and Loretta.
- Groin Attack: The sleazy owner of a casino, Mitch, forces his female employee/magician's assistant, Tammy, to do a striptease for him from inside his personal bedroom while she's under the hypnotic spell of the Leprechaun's magic coin. When the hypnosis wears off, Tammy is shocked to see that she may have somehow degraded herself in front of Mitch and as Mitch tells her that he wants an encore, Tammy gets angry by this and immediately knees him in the groin, making Mitch fall down upon his bed in a complete state of excruciating pain before Tammy leaves in a state of disgust and frustration.
- Hypocritical Humor: Mitch calls Loretta fat to her face. She gladly points out he's heavier than she is.
- Ignored Expert: Tammy cautioned Scott to just stay away from gambling because she's seen how it destroys people, especially out-of-towners like himself. He didn't listen and nearly lost everything.
- Innocent Innuendo: Scott and Tammy first meet when he stops to help her with her broken down car.Scott: Have you ever blown a rod before?
Tammy: I beg your pardon?
Scott: The engine, I meant. - It Only Works Once: The coin can only grant one wish to one person. Most don't even realize this, as they get their desired wish and then lose custody of the coin somehow. Fazio, however, still has it when confronted by the Leprechaun and thinks he's safe no matter what. To his horror, he realizes different when he makes a second wish and nothing happens.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: With Scott winning literally every time at Loretta's table no matter what trick she pulls, Mitch simply pulls the plug by claiming technical malfunctions have required shutting down this particular table.
- Lovely Assistant: Tammy wants to be a magician someday and is learning the ropes by working for Fazio. Much like everyone else, she has little regard for him.
- Make a Wish: The Leprechaun's coin can grant wishes, but only one to a person. Fazio doesn't learn this until right before he's killed.
- Morality Chain: Tammy serves as this for Scott post-transformation, constantly reminding him of what's important and to stand firm against the Leprechaun.
- Ms. Fanservice: Tammy in her magician's assistant outfit.
- Naïve Newcomer: A wide-eyed tourist like Scott is easily coaxed into gambling away all his money.
- Nice Girl: While she isn't above a dry remark here and there Tammy is a warm-hearted girl who shows the utmost compassion towards Scott when he begins transforming into a leprechaun himself, repeatedly prioritizing his well-being even before that.
- Nice Guy: Scott's a sweet, down-to-earth farmer's son kinda guy. Unfortunately, that leaves him vulnerable to the casino employees urging him to gamble.
- Noodle Incident: How the badly beaten man both came by the Leprechaun and managed to trap him.
- Official Couple: Scott and Tammy at the end.
- Pink Is Erotic: Mitch is the sleazy casino owner who unwittingly wishes to have sex with Tammy, who goes with him to his bedroom, which is decorated with a pink bed and pink chairs (the elevator also had pink lighting). Mitch is also killed by a robot that he hallucinates as a real woman who wants to have sex with him in the same bedroom.
- Rhymes on a Dime: As ever, the Leprechaun gladly indulges in this when delivering one-liners. It's apparently a species trait, as even Scott gets in on it over the course of his transformation (much to his own confusion at first).
- Saw a Woman in Half: Leprechaun kills Fazio the magician (in front of a live audience) by doing this 'trick' (except for real, guts and all).
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: The transformed Scott is admittedly tempted by the Leprechaun's offer of half the gold and wreaks havoc together, but his devotion to Tammy and inherent morality win out.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Mitch immediately suspected that Scott wasn't 21 and thus not allowed to be in the casino. He was fully prepared to kick him out, until he saw how much money was on the check that this novice wanted to cash.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The badly beaten man just wants enough money to get out of town and leave his Leprechaun troubles behind.
- Sealed with a Kiss: Relieved that Scott is back to normal Tammy gives him a sweet, tender peck on the lips, officiating their love.
- Shared Universe: Father Bob, from Night of the Demons 2, is seen at a craps table alongside Melissa/"Mouse" and Shirley Finnerty from that film. Both movies were directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. Considering that Father Bob dies in that film, one must assume that the events of Leprechaun 3 took place before those of that film.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Implied to be why Tammy ends up falling for Scott. Considering the two men she'd been regularly exposed to at work were a perverted manager and a snide asshole magician it's believable she'd be drawn to someone decent like Scott, him being easily susceptible to gambling aside.
- Superhuman Transfusion: Scott gets some of Leprechaun's blood in a wound, which causes him to begin mutating into a leprechaun, making him able to challenge him.
- Taken for Granite: If the gold medallion is put on Leprechaun again, he turns back to stone.
- This Cannot Be!: Scott's wish means he wins every single time, even when Loretta actually tries to cheat him. Loretta is left completely flummoxed.
- Token Good Teammate: Tammy is basically the only decent person we see working at Mitch's casino.
- Too Dumb to Live: Maybe you could forgive the shopkeeper for removing the gold medallion in the first place, but he later gets easily tricked into giving it up, despite learning firsthand that it was the only thing keeping the awakened Leprechaun at bay.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The shopkeeper removing the medallion gets the ball rolling.
- Villain Ball: While trying to tempt Scott to switch sides, the Leprechaun teleports his pot of gold (the one thing that could lead to his demise) onto the stage. The protagonists did find the pot's hiding place earlier, so they very well would've gotten to it eventually, but there's no reason other than the movie almost being over for the Leprechaun to bring it to the stage and not send it off to some other random location.
- Viva Las Vegas!: The Leprechaun winds up in Vegas for this film. Of course, there are many than enough people looking to get rich...
- Wasteful Wishing: Averted. Every wish is for something the characters were established to deeply want, specifically Loretta's younger-looking body and Fazio being the greatest magician in the world. Scott did luck in avoiding this trope, though; he didn't know the coin was magical when he wished to win at gambling and could've gotten something much different.
- We Can Rule Together: The Leprechaun tries to tempt Scott to "the green side" by offering him half the gold. It's pretty clear he's lying and just wants to keep his only real opposition off balance long enough to win out.
- What You Are in the Dark: After winning big in the casino, Scott fully intends to share his winnings with Tammy instead of keep it all for himself.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: Tammy invokes this trope when she's under the hypnotic spell of the Leprechaun's magic coin.
