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In the 1970’s the Leprechaun is found buried in an underground passage way by two guys with huge afros. After a violent encounter, only one of the men, Mack Daddy, survives, but the Leprechaun is trapped as a statue again. In the year 2000, the Leprechaun is reawakened by some aspiring rappers when they rob Mack Daddy. The plot thickens like sour milk when both the Leprechaun and Mack Daddy chase after the rappers in an attempt to regain a magical flute that can control people’s minds.
The opening scene with Ice-T as Mack Daddy with a giant afro is just awesome. He even pulls a bat out of his oversized fro at one point to combat the Leprechaun. Ice-T’s overall performance is just great. He portrays Mack Daddy as both menacing and slimy, which isn’t an easy thing to do. As well, he delivers some great lines. The scene of him yelling at someone on the phone was particularly funny. Just like in Leprechaun 3, one of the strengths of this movie is its wacky cast. Just about every character we encounter is quirky in some way, and although some of these characters are one dimensional, their quirkiness helps to make them more interesting than they should be. For example, the pawnbroker Chow is very funny as he tries to talk the main characters into giving him a role in their rap video and starts to dance for them. We get zero character development from Chow, but I was entertained when he was on the screen. Since I’m dwelling on performances here, I might as well comment on Warwick Davis’ work in Leprechaun in the Hood. This is the fifth Leprechaun movie and I have to say that I’ve never been disappointed with Davis in his role as the evil Leprechaun. You would think that by the time he was doing a fifth movie, that he would be bored with the role. However, I don’t see any evidence of such boredom in this film. I’d even say that it seems like Davis had a lot of fun in this movie. The character of Postmaster P actually does get some development as the movie progresses. He starts out as an idealist, wanting to rap about positive things. However, by the end of the movie it’s clear that he’s willing to do anything to succeed. By the end he loses everything, even his soul. His character progression is probably the one serious thing in the entire movie, and I thought it was well done. To me it didn’t seem forced like the love story we got in the previous movie, Leprechaun 4: In Space. I believed that Postmaster P wanted to do what was right, but he also desperately wanted a way out of Compton. These two goals end up clashing and the result is that he loses most of his idealism.
Okay that’s enough serious stuff, now let’s talk about the gore. I found that the gore effects in this movie were a thousand times better than what we got in Leprechaun 4: In Space. The Leprechaun blowing out the insides of people was terrific looking and when he stuck his hand through the Reverend Hamson, I was impressed with the effects.
Is it stereotypical to have three Black men trying to make it out of Compton as rappers? As wacky as the character of Chow is, is he just another walking stereotype? I could see people dismissing this movie as politically incorrect nonsense. I can’t really defend the movie from this viewpoint, but I can say that Leprechaun in the Hood is a lot of fun if you don’t take it too seriously. For Leprechaun and B movie fans, I think this movie is pure gold. What does the Leprechaun have against pawnbrokers? He kills two of them in this movie and at least another two in his previous movies. Is this some sort of twisted moral about money lending? Or are the writers of these movies just that hard up for characters? I don’t know, but I just thought it was a weird fact worth mentioning. Something strange in this movie is its lack of a strong female character. There is no female lead in Leprechaun in the Hood and most of the female characters are just there to look pretty. Again some people might be offended because this movie seems to be degrading towards women, but I don’t think it’s meant to be taken that seriously. Personally, I found the lack of a female lead to be strange more than anything else.
Finally, I have to comment on the cross dressing in this movie. There just seems like there’s a whole lot of it. First there’s the character of Fontaine Rivera, who the main characters hide out with for a bit. Why they thought hiding out with a cross dresser was a great way not to be found by Mack Daddy and the Leprechaun is something I just don’t understand at all. Then there’s the disturbing scene of the Leprechaun having sex/killing Fontaine... And finally, the character’s master plan to defeat the Leprechaun at the end of movie involves dressing themselves up like women. For a movie with no strong female lead and so much cross dressing, one just can’t help but wonder what was going through the film makers’ minds as they worked on this movie.
As I’ve already said, this movie will appeal to Leprechaun and B movie fans. Leprechaun in the Hood was actually the first Leprechaun movie I ever watched, and it made me a Leprechaun fan with its humor. As long as you don’t take horror movies too seriously, I would recommend this movie to any horror fan.
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