With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, it is time to delve into horror that isn’t about falling face-first into a pool of your own green-beer enticed vomit. Instead, we will be breaking down horror movies based on the Irish. Our sequel breakdown goes to the hood to really stray to the slapstick comedy side of horror with the 6th film, Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood.
Movie: Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (2003)
Plot: After fighting a priest and being banished to hell, Lubdan the Leprechaun (the first named leprechaun in the series) returns a year later when a group of kids fresh out of high school find Lubdan’s bottomless gold chest. Of course, horrifying hijinks ensue.
Killer: The Leprechaun, for one final romp in the shoes of Warwick Davis.
Critique: Let’s be serious for a minute. If you’ve gone this deep in the Leprechaun franchise, you probably don’t care what anyone has to say about any of these films. Even the first Leprechaun came out of the gate swinging its slapstick shillelagh just enough to make sure the audience was in on the joke that the movie even existed. From there, the entire series did its best to follow along with the Nation Lampoon “vacation” movies, replacing European Vacation with Leprechaun 4: different locations, with gags that showcased those locations overshadowing the plot. The Leprechaun franchise just happens to be a lot more bloody.
So now the Leprechaun is back in the “hood” in this 6th film of the franchise after just being in the “hood” during the previous sequel, and its not the worst thing in the world. I actually like it a little better than Leprechaun 5. It just feels more natural. The acting is miles above the previous film, even when its just Jamie (played by Page Kennedy) acting like a goofball stoner. Warwick Davis sure laid a perfectly thick glaze on his character. Maybe he knew Leprechaun 6 was going to be the last one for him (at least for awhile) and wanted to make it as memorable as possible. The jokes are less on the nose, so there was less eye-rolling and more legitimate laughter. Even the plot felt more grounded, which can be hard to accomplish when you have a fortune-teller firing bolts of magic at a demonic leprechaun, but it beats the music industry.
But let’s be clear: being the best of two turds isn’t a great accomplishment, and I really only found some things to give Leprechaun 6 a hat-tip for after watching it four times and really drilling it down.
Scene of Awesomeness: I’m going to cheat and use two scenes. The first is when the leprechaun the leprechaun is taking hits off a bong at Jamie’s party after stating, “I haven’t smoked a good pipe in a long time.”. The second is when the leprechaun is high and stumbling around the kitchen while Jamie is satisfying his own munchies. They’re simple, but effective comedy bits.
Scene of Ridiculousness: The whole movies can be classified as ridiculous, but when that fortune-teller starts throwing out balls of energy in a battle of magic with the leprechaun, the movie jumps the shark in an unexpected way.
Body Count: 9 confirmed, 3 implied
1 lame death by leprechaun mauling and being old
1 bong impalement ( Awesomely Overkill Award )
1 strangulation
1 disemboweling
1 jaw yanked out
1 flashlight impalement
1 leg ripped off
1 heart ripped out
3 unknown, but implied
1 throat slashed open
No breasts
Actors/Actresses of Note: This is Warwick Davis’s final foray into the buckled shoes and bloodied shillelagh for the foreseeable future. We also have Tangi Miller, who seemed to have a decent role in the television show Felicity, Laz Alonso, who we’ve recently seen as Mother’s Milk in Amazon Prime’s The Boys, and Sticky Fingaz from the rap group Onyx.
Quote: “I haven’t smoked a good pipe in a long time.” – the leprechaun
Grade: D+