Leprechaun 6 - Back 2 tha Hood

Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood

directed by

Steven Ayromlooi

After some very bad sequels, a Leprechaun film has been made which can happily conclude the Irish monster's saga. It might have a reference to the hood in the title, but hardly similar to the previous attempt. Here they have created a worthy sequel. There may still be the problems with some of the characters and their dialogue, as well as some obvious plot holes, but Lep 6 actually worked on building up the characters, as well as a back story for the Leprechaun. Speaking of Leprechaun, Davis also manages to finish of his Leprechaun story, with one of his best Lep performances.

Hairdresser from tha hood Emily Woodrow (Tangi Miller) and her ghetto pals discover a chest full of gold coins and, ignoring a warning from a psychic woman to deny their newfound wealth, find themselves threatened by a malevolent leprechaun.

What has made the Leprechaun sequels bearable thus far is their blatant silliness and camp characters, with the focus on twisted humour rather than genuine horror. Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood plays everything a little too straight for its own good, with not nearly enough in the way of knowingly dumb nonsense: the death scenes are forgettable, and with some of the least likable protagonists of the whole franchise (drug smoking, gun toting thugs with few redeeming qualities), Back 2 tha Hood proves to be quite the painful experience.

The funniest scene in the whole sorry mess is when Leprechaun (Warwick Davis, returning for the paycheck) smokes a bong, but we already saw the little guy get stoned in the previous film (which handled the whole 'G' thang with a lot more fun).

This was the sixth and final installment that starred Warwick Davis in the titular role.

As the title says, the movie partially recycles the plot from the previous film. A Los Angeles priest named Father Jacob engages Lubdan the Leprechaun in battle and then banishes him to hell before dying of his wounds. A year later, as par the course, the gold is discovered in a sinkhole by a group of four friends consisting of a drug dealing motorcyclist named Rory (Laz Alonso), his wimpy pot-head friend Jamie (Page Kennedy), Jamies girlfriend Lisa (Sherrie Jackson), and Rory's ex-girlfriend Emily, who ignored the previous warnings from a psychic named Esmeralda (Donzaleigh Abernathy). The four friends split the money and spend it recklessly, awakening Leprechaun once again and setting him on yet another rampage throughout Los Angeles to reclaim his gold.

Like the three protagonists in the last movie, the main cast isn't very likeable. Rory is a drug-dealer, Jamie is a dumb, whiny pothead, and Lisa seems like a gold-digger. Only Emily is sympathetic and wants to get out of the hood and go to college, but even she's far from a saint. The rest of the cast are just nasty, one-dimensional jerks and extras set up to be killed by the Leprechaun, like a couple of fat beauty salon customers who mock Emily's ambitions, and some gang members led by Watson (Shiek Mahmud-Bey), who lacks any of the charisma that Ice-T presented as Mack Daddy in the last movie.

As always, Warwick is a riot to watch as he supplies 90% of the films humor. This time around, he's surprisingly easygoing, usually only killing when he's angry. We see him happily smoke pot with some guy before he notices that he has one of his coins, and even politely asks Watson and a cop for his gold back before they provoke him into violence. He's way more likeable and sympathetic than the four protagonists.

The movie maintains its gory horror comedy genre; we see officer Whitaker get his leg ripped off by the Leprechaun and then weakly hopping over demanding it back before bleeding to death and the reused joke of the Leprechaun having his eye gouged out during a fight with Emily. Other than that, we got more cartoonish and ridiculous humor, like Leppy getting high off pot then getting hit in the face with a refrigerator door and then knocked into it while he's got the munchies.

Of course, the film is so silly and idiotic, you can't take it seriously. Even so, it's still funny as hell and not at all scary. I think it's a little better than the fifth movie, but that's not saying much. Still, if you're bored and a fan of cheesy, low-quality horror comedy, give this one a watch.

Saw this for the first time few months back while on a marathon of the series. The film is once again set in the hip hop area but nowhere connected with the earlier one. Here we get to see the origins of leprechauns in animation. In the present day we see a priest gets hold of the gold while managing to send off the leprechaun back to the hell pit before succumbing to his injuries. His intention of building a youth centre gets sidelined due to his untimely death. One year later few friends enjoying a barbecue at an abandoned youth centre discovers the leprechaun's gold and they use it to fulfill their fantasies unaware that none can enjoy the leprechaun's gold. Jokes n nudity is missing but it has some gore but nothing memorable. Stabbing by a bong, jaw gets removed, stabbing by a flashlight, a heart gets ripped off but the best is the ripping off the entire leg of a karate kicker. This time our leprechaun does get a beating, he gets kicked, he gets mowed down by a bike n later by a car, his eyeball gets removed, he gets shot by a shot gun, automatic machine guns n a pistol, he is punched, fried n concretised in a pool of cement.

Leprechaun Back 2 Tha Hood Written and Directed by: Steven Ayromlodi

Yep, everyone's favorite evil elf is back in the 6th installment in this classic horror series.

Parts 4 and 5 are universally viewed as two of the worst movies of all time (Despite them being two films I love, they are admittedly terrible) Steven Ayromlodi was still able to convince someone to give him the money to make a 6th movie.

This time the Lep comes back to the hood in search of his gold once again. This time it is discovered by some down and out friends in the ghetto. They spend their fortunes and have fun...until the little Irish monster shows up and starts killing off the people that took his gold.

Yeah, pretty cookie-cutter..but that's how the whole series is and you can't expect much more. But you gotta give director Ayromlodi credit for pulling out a couple of new turns, and making a solid entry into the series.

I still think 3 is my favorite of the series, but this is definitely an improvement on 4 and 5 in all aspects. Sure, the acting is a bit cheesy at times, and it lacks in the gore department and the kills are less creative, but overall I was satisfied with this movie, and can only hope for a 7th.

Definitely only for fans of the series though.

**/4