Movie Review: Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood (2003)

Synopsis: After a priest steals his gold to finance a Los Angeles youth center, a leprechaun confronts the man of the cloth in the center's construction zone and is defeated with holy water containing four-leaf clovers, but not before the priest is also killed. A year later, while holding a barbecue at the now-abandoned site, Emily Woodrow falls through a hole and finds the gold. She and her friends immediately begin spending it only to find themselves stalked by the resurrected leprechaun.

Who's in it? The movie stars Warwick Davis, Tangi Miller, Laz Alonso, Page Kennedy and Sherrie Jackson.

Review: After mostly negative feelings following the first five Leprechaun movies (especially the sequels), I hadn't planned on watching Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood. However, the movie my wife and I wanted to watch yesterday evening turned out to be unavailable and since we had no other readily available alternatives, I decided to bite the bullet and finish up the movie series (at least the films with Warwick Davis). The movie was mostly what I thought it would be but also surprisingly turned out to be better than expected.

I think the thing I liked best about this movie versus the other sequels is it didn't try to do too much. It was a very simple plot involving a group of unsuspecting friends thinking they came into an unexpected fortune only to find out the money is owned by the Leprechaun (Davis). It took a little while to get going but once it did, the various characters were in almost non-stop danger.

I also loved how the movie made it clear from the start it was going to be more of a comedy than horror film rather than pretend to be something it wasn't. There were plenty of times when this movie reminded me a lot of the horror spoof Scary Movie. This was especially true early on, with the Leprechaun getting high and creating some very funny physical comedy as a result. In fact, the Leprechaun gets beaten up quite a bit in this film, usually to comedic effect.

In fact, one of my only real complaints about the movie (other than it would have been nice to see the Leprechaun do a little more magic) is I think it would have been better had it been told from the Leprechaun's point of view rather than the people he was stalking, as a bumbling character who still somehow manages to get the job done (at least for the most part). It probably wouldn't have made much of a difference, but I think some of the jokes would have been a bit funnier and maybe result in a few more surprises.

Final Opinion: As is the case with every other sequel, there is basically nothing that connects this movie to any of the others from a plot standpoint. As a result, if you really want to watch a sequel, you could easily skip the first four and enjoy this one even more.

My Grade: B-

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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2003:

Movie Review: Arachnia (2003)

Movie Review: Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Movie Review: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)