Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood

That Leprechaun hood movie must have done well enough because three years later they did another one.  It’s still completely its own thing though not associated with anything else.  This time we begin with the Leprechaun being defeated by a priest who throws holy water on him at a construction site for an upcoming youth center in LA.  A year later a group of friends have a bbq on the still unfinished site (funding ran out) and one of them falls through a hole.  She discovers a small chest of gold and divides it up between her and her friends.  They use it to splurge on clothing, cars and (I’m not kidding) large black trash bags full of weed.  The theft brings the Leprechaun back to life and he hunts down the gang.

Unfortunately there are lots of problems here.  The story and characters are your run of the mill late teens/early twenty somethings for this type of picture looking to break free from their downtrodden lives.  One works for a shitty boss at a hair salon, one slings drugs, one does nothing but goof around and get high and one goes to school.  Nothing interesting is done with this setup.  The discovery of the gold is a game changer that could provide a better future but they don’t have it long enough to where we see a true impact on their lives.  They only get as far as buying frivolous stuff for themselves.

The pacing is off.  There’s a long stretch in the beginning where the Leprechaun isn’t in the film for like thirty mins.  The opening with the priest battling the Leprechaun must have been tacked on later to address this.  And then once he starts to show up he’s kind of inserted randomly into scenes.  Finally in about the second half we do get the typical Leprechaun chasing after his targets routine from the other installments.  This ramp up is sluggish and the dull characters and story aren’t sufficient in holding your attention.

Continuity and editing are some of the biggest issues.  Clothing and hairstyles will match in scenes that are supposed to take place on different days, one character gets arrested for possessing pounds of marijuana (something that carries a sentence of years or even decades of prison) but a short time later he’s among his friends and the situation is never brought up again, several different scene transition swipes are used arbitrarily (sometimes within the same scene) and a psychic with Leprechaun knowledge sardonically dismisses someone’s suggestion that a cross could harm him yet the very first scene depicts a priest conquering the Leprechaun with holy water meaning at least some Christian trappings have an effect (further evidence the opener was an afterthought to hastily stick more Leprechaun in the film).

Out of all this shit though maybe the aspect that annoys me the most is the Leprechaun’s teleporting ability.  We’ve seen this power in other entries and he uses it quite a bit in this one.  But of course he doesn’t use it all the time which I don’t get.  There are moments when he gets temporarily stopped by a door when he could teleport in or out.  I mean the sonuvabitch could easily escape any circumstance and kill whoever at the drop of a hat but just doesn’t.  It could be that it’s too much of a strain on his energy but that’s never established.

To end on a positive note I do like the updated look they give the Leprechaun’s outfit.  He sports a darker, dirtier green velvet suit.  Gone are the striped stockings, buckles on the shoes and hat.  It’s a more menacing look that matches his other grotesque features almost like he’s a rotting corpse that rose up from a grave.  Although I guess that sorta accurately describes what happens to him.

And the filmmakers deliver a few good hood related gags that mostly one up the previous film.  Like the Leprechaun rips a bunch of bong hits and gets giggly high and he gets blasted by a whole gang of thugs with machine guns.  The most original hood-related idea is placing the Leprechaun underneath a lowrider so as the protagonists are trying to race away from him they hop the car up and down while zooming along the road to try to smash him.