Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)
It’s finally come to this: Leprechaun 6: Back 2 tha Hood. It’s better than 4: In Space but nowhere near as much fun as the "best" ones. Once again, there is no continuity between any of these stories, despite the title's implication.
When a group of young adults discovers the Leprechaun’s gold, they spend it on gold teeth, marijuana, fast cars, and fancy clothes. Only Emily (Tangi Miller) worries what the treasure's rightful owner (Warwick Davis) might pose when he inevitably reappears to claim what's his.
This movie is… racially insensitive. Other than Emily, everyone in this movie is a stereotype. All of the men are thugs or potheads who want big booty ho's and care only about "tha streetz", all the women believe that getting an education is a waste of time and worry more about their hair than anything of substance. You'd feel a lot better about this horror-comedy if it was actually funny or took advantage of its potential (you hardly ever saw horror films with primarily black casts in the 2000s) rather than emphasize goofy, broad stoner material.
There’s no real horror to speak of, the main reason being the Leprechaun's inherent un-scaryness. It spends most of its time toking up, getting beaten up by everyone it encounters and only kills a few people… using such ridiculous methods as impaling someone with a bong. I can’t emphasize enough how much the Leprechaun sucks in this movie. It gets beaten up or badly injured in every single scene it appears in.
The ending is foreshadowed in the clumsiest, laziest fashion. I’m not going to tell you what it is exactly, but it’d be like the characters in a werewolf movie happening upon a century-old abandoned silver mine as the plot began and them casually mentioning it like it was nothing to their friends. Even with the clumsy set up, I’m not entirely convinced it makes any sense in the end.
If I have anything to praise something, it’ll be the animated intro. I like the backstory given for the Leprechaun and the way the pot of gold is handled in the beginning is pretty clever. Despite all its flaws, I suppose if you want a stoner horror film, this one is also more competently put together than Evil Bong, so that’s something right?
Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood isn’t even as funny as you might expect it to be. It's not even close to being unwatchable like In Space but there's no one I could ever recommend this film to. The morbidly curious will leave feeling like they wasted their time. If you do watch it though, stick around for the end credits and read them carefully to see a joke hidden in there. (On DVD, June 28, 2015)
