Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha' Hood

`. . . he's the man behind the mask!' Oh wait, that's the song from F13pt6. Nevermind.

Here we are on another visit to the land of horror, where the monsters never die and no two sequels explain the title character the same way, but this is a given for anyone remotely familiar with franchise horror. No, you don't get a cookie for guessing that other than the title character and on-screen references, this film has no narrative connection to its predecessors.

In reviewing Leprechaun 5, I expressed my overall disappointment, but stated that `Leprechaun still has enough moments to get my rental at least for one more film.' Well, the Lep's second trip to the hood is far more entertaining than the first. The humor is fresher, more precisely delivered, with plenty of little nudges at the Leprechaun's height which I found the funniest – especially coming from Warwick, himself, with quite a bit of enthusiasm so it's all in good humor. Okay, that and an ancient creature discovering our technology and customs is interesting (and not painfully done as in the first ‘Hood' Leprechaun movie).

The script/characters are more intelligent than some previous films (don't get your hopes up; it's not saying much) . . . overall it's one of the more entertaining Leprechaun sequels (again, that's not saying much.)

I dunno ‘bout other fans of the series, but Warwick Davis is my interest in the Leprechaun films and anything else that isn't hideous is a bonus. Other than typical complaints and shortcomings that all horror sequels showcase, I didn't have much to gripe about . . . so the sixth Lep outing satisfied my expectations.

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).

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.

I suppose one could begin by saying that it was well acted; it was, but pornos can be well acted also. The plot is a whole different matter.

The writer seems to have totally abandoned the comical limericks that are the lep's modus operandi. In fact we see Warwick taking on very few lines and taking on more lethal damage in this one flick than in all of the other lep movies combined.

Overall it was pretty good, certainly better than Warwick Davis' dabble in space travel. But really, did my Pot of Gore need to become obsolete for this?

The hairdresser Emily Woodrow (Tangi Miller) finds a fortune in golden coins and she shares the amount with her close friends. However, the owner is the evil Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) that returns from Hell to get his treasure back, killing each member of the greedy group.

"Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood" is silly, but funny in some moments. The problem is that the pothead and drug-dealer characters are non-likable and extremely ambitious, with the exception of Emily and Lisa; therefore the devilish Leprechaun becomes not as bad as he should be. The scene with the leg of the policeman is hilarious. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Duende Perverso" ("The Wicked Leprechaun")