The string of bad luck continues as the sixth film in the Leprechaun series & the last one to feature Warwick Davis felt like another tiresome rethread. The plot is mostly the same generic outline where the titular antagonist Lubgan (Warwick Davis) goes around killing people to reclaim his gold. Despite that it's a little less cringe worthy then the horny walking talking symbol of St. Patrick trying to bone somebody concept from 1994 movie 'Leprechaun 4' and 1997's flick 'Leprechaun 4: In Space'. I take this over that any day. Still the movie written and directed by Steven Ayromlooi doesn't add much of anything unique to stealing the pot concept. It sucks because 1995's film 'Leprechaun 3' & 2000 movie 'Leprechaun in the Hood' at least try to give new life to the franchise by introducing new urban locations and McGuffins such as the gold medallion that turn the walking talking symbol of St. Patrick Day into stone. Yet this movie abandoned that along with the talent given flute. For a flick that was billed as a sequel. It kinda of a sham there is no mention of those items nor the characters. Nevertheless, the movie should had been a prequel as it fit with the franchise's confusing timeline; regardless of this picture's billing number and under title. Yet again it might have been better if the same highly gimmicky settling was not undertaken at all even if this film used the hood location much better. Everything about this felt tiresome. To tell you the truth I kinda wish Lionsgate studio and the producers of this film went with their original choice of having the movie take place on a vacation island during Spring Break with Eartha Kitt as the fortune teller. Leprechaun's fairytale powers versus voodoo spells would had been more interesting and creative than we got here. Sadly, Lubgan barely use any of his unique magic besides that scene. Don't get me wrong he does jump around from place to place and use his healing factor. Yet the kills from him are not really that special. Most of the them are pretty standards with other cheaply below average badly made slasher films. The bloodless chokeholds and offscreen deaths to save money on effects like the jaw ripping moment was truly a letdown. Once in a while, the audience might be treated with a cheesy fake looking homage to the Friday the 13th movies with a visual heart or leg being rip out gore effect. However, the repetitive shots of the Leprechaun doing the gut stab really get annoying as the film goes on. The action scenes are disappointing unbalance as the Irish gnome's power level is all over the place. He has the power to rip body parts although struggles with a very thin woman on top of him. It's surreal that one four leaf clover could stop Lubgan in the first flick. Yet in this movie hollow point bullets full of them are powerfulness against him. While, the animation prologue in the beginning was well made, the film doesn't stick to the lore that the previous films and themselves established. How to kill the Leprechaun was all mess up. To add onto that, nothing against Warwick Davis's acting, but his performance here is weakest in the franchise. His character didn't have much cool rhythm or clever funny one-liners. Most of the dialogue is repetitive broken record whinny. The filmmakers pretty much wasted his talent here. Despite that the makeup effects for the creature were still top notch. Plus, the new wardrobe for Lubgan look pretty awesome with the gothic demonic style. As for the human characters; most of the victims were unlikeable one dimensional near offensive stereotypes not worth seeing. All of the silly street jargon and slangs were hard to listen to. Yet witnessing them die was somewhat of a joy. Kinda wish they add the forced unfunny comedy relief Jamie Davis (Page Kennedy) and horrible boyfriend material Rory Jackson (Laz Alonso) to the mix. If anything, I wouldn't mind the whole idea of Emily Woodrow (Tangi Miller) being the final girl. I would rather see her run off by herself in the sunset off to college rather than the horrible motorcycle riding with her abusive lover that we got. Hate that her schooling subplot dreams went nowhere. To add onto that, the terrible music that doesn't fit the mood of what is happening on scene. It's so jarring much in the same way Jamie is out of jailtime without any explaining. I hate that Steven Ayromlooi over exposition certain moments of the film like where the creature came from, yet leave other plot holes a mystery. It's bad writing. To make it worst, all the horrible editing makes the film really hard to figure out what is a flashback, dream or present. The comic page lift wipes effect that went along with most of the end of the cuts made it more confusing. Are we in a story within the story!? Who knows! Overall: These movies always struck me as a poor's man parody of the horror genre rather than a serious attempt at being a legit comedic horror film. They hardly laughable. If anything, they make me feel green around the gills. I think I'm going to toss this movie like a hot potato in the trash. After all, Lep in the Hood, come to do no good. That's true indeed.
Review of Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood
Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood
(2003 Video)
Unfortunately, this movie ain't worth looking under the hood for, my ninja. It has no gold standard.
18 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers