The Leprechaun franchise changed studios in between the fifth and sixth installments. The Leprechaun moved over to the wonderful hands of the Lions Gate studios. Lions Gate has always been good to horror films, especially after they picked up Eli Roth's Cabin Fever.
Leprechaun Back 2 Tha Hood amazingly brings back suspense to a franchise that had it missing entirely from the previous two installments. Originally a spring break Leprechaun movie was pitched. That would have fit the style of the franchise more than this because up to this point in time it had always changed settings, but it is what it is.
As always we begin with the trailer. I'm actually quite impressed with the trailer. It's fast paced, it has a lot of energy to it and it knows what it's selling. This is Leprechaun 6 after all. The tagline is stupid though: Evil has a whole new rap! I don't think he rapped this time round.
The opening of the movie yet again creates an entirely new mythology for our franchise. The book opens to chapter 6, and considering this is the sixth installment, I thought that was a great touch.
Our heroine is the strongest female character in the entire series. Emily falls under the spell of the gold after she first finds it. She lives in a lavish lifestyle afterwards, but quickly realizes her mistake as her greed from the gold haunts and follows her and her friends. By the end she kicks the leprechaun off the building to his doom.
This is the first movie where we see the Leprechaun's feet. They are nasty, just the way they should be. It's helpful to have the same make up artist throughout the entire series.
There are two really memorable death sequences in the movie. One involves a character with a bong. The bong gets shoved in his stomach and his blood fills the bong up. The other one involves a character who melted a gold coin down to a tooth. The leprechaun, like in Leprechaun 2, pulls the tooth out, but he pulls out her entire jaw in doing so...only the tooth was from the top set of teeth. This added bloody jaw shot doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, this death is memorable because it's bad.
The leprechaun has a new look with a new coat and overall dress. He's greener this time round and that's not really a welcome change on my part. They had been consistent with his dress for the first five entries and all of a sudden they decide to change it. No, BAD MOVIE! You are Leprechaun 6, you don't have a rite to change the look of the Leprechaun.
Like the first film, a four leaf clover is used in killing the Leprechaun. This time they have it spread over bullets. The Leprechaun is more powerful this time round having him regenerate even after being shot. He ultimately dies by sinking into cement.
Lastly, I must add that they took another jab at Christianity. The priest, knowing that the gold was evil still took it so he could have money to do the good things he wanted to do. That is such a bad expression of Christianity and it saddens me deeply to see how poorly it's represented in my favorite genre.
Leprechaun Back 2 Tha Hood was released straight to DVD on December 30, 2003. The film was panned, considered number 3 on an Entertainment Weekly list of the worst sequels of all time. I thought after the second one this was the best sequel. Currently, the original series has been laid to rest, but a remake with someone other than Warwick is planned by Lions Gate.
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