Awfully Good: Leprechaun in the Hood

Happy St. Patty's Day! Get in the mood with everyone's favorite lucky charm.

Leprechaun in the Hood (1996)

Director: Rob Spera
Stars: Warwick Davis, Ice-T, Anthony Montgomery

Is there a plot?

A Lep in the hood come to do no good!

What's the damage?

The original LEPRECHAUN was not a classic by any means, but it did have its charms, mainly a gleefully over-the-top Warwick Davis and a young Jennifer Aniston in tight jeans. With most horror franchises, by the time the later sequels roll around, things have taken a turn for the much, much worse. That's not entirely the case with the LEPRECHAUN series, which decided to shoot straight past "bad" and aim for "intriguingly weird."

LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD isn't just a case of somebody making a crappy movie. No, this is a filmmaker clearly messing with the audience on purpose, filling up his film with as many bizarre oddities and weird choices as possible—perhaps in order to confuse you so you don't notice how lame the script is or how embarrassing the actors are. Let's get specific, shall we?

Part-time pimp, full-time flautist.

The plot.
The fifth LEPRECHAUN movie is about many things. There's the main trio of young rappers trying to win a talent show and get their big break. There's Ice-T and his music mogul character's storied past using stolen Irish luck to build his empire. And then there's the thematic subplot of closeted homosexuality that runs rampant. (See the Cross-dressing section below.) But mainly, LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD is about the title character chasing and killing people in search of his magical flute that can control people's minds. This leads to many a scene where Ice-T says things like “Give me my motherf*cking flute, bitches!”

Still better than "Glee."

Ice-T.
The legendary rapper appears here as a record producer named Mack Daddy O'Nassass and it's probably the most embarrassing thing Ice has been associated with that's not named TANK GIRL. As if his acting wasn't bad enough on its own, the director pours salt in the wound by making him wear a giant afro wig during a flashback sequence and having the Lep refer to himself as the real "Original Gangster." And of course because he's black and this movie is racist, we get a scene where Ice-T and the Leprechaun smoke weed together.

JUWANNA MAN 2: BACK IN ACTION.

The main characters.
The three protagonists are young wannabe rappers from the hood, with the lead being called Postmaster P—because he delivers a positive message in his rhymes. The guys are stereotypical movie thugs; tough talking, hard walking and with a deep love for chemistry and the scientific metho…wait, what? No joke, for some reason they thought it would be cool to make the rappers randomly knowledgeable about ammonia compounds and chemical reactions, which leads to lines like, "That was some meta-f*cking-physical shit back there!" and some Macguyver-like stuff where nail polish and an electrical cord are used to build fire bombs.

Pimpin' ain't easy…especially when you look like a ginger burn victim.

Leprechaun
Warwick Davis is a champ and still gives it his all as the Leprechaun, but even his performance can't save what they've done to this character. His powers vary from the traditional supernatural strength (wait til you see him kill a guy with his own afro pick) and mind control, to random new abilities like turning hot women into green-eyed zombies and taking the physical form of other people. I'm not exactly sure what either of these adds to the story, but it does provide us with a scene where the Leprechaun pretends to be a man's dead wife and then makes out with him just to freak him out. The Lep also still speaks in rhymes, but as this takes place in the hood of course now he also raps. The film actually ends with the title character performing a full-on hip hop song while giving women spontaneous orgasms using his telekinesis.

At that moment Denise understood why he was the one they called "Tripod."

Cross-dressing .
For reasons I'll never understand, LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD has a lot to do about guys dressing up as girls. (Though it doesn't touch the homoeroticism of FREDDY'S REVENGE or SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO.) At one point, the kids are on the run from Ice-T and decide to stay with a drag queen to keep them safe, only for the Leprechaun to show up and have sex with him/her, I guess to really scare everybody. (It works!) And then in the end, the remaining survivors decide to finally kill the Lep (by giving him weed laced with four leaf clovers), but he's taken up refuge downtown and will only entertain his army of zombie hoes. So naturally the only way to get close to him is to dress as women. That’s right; the entire final climax of the film involves our heroes cross-dressing and fighting a green midget. And if that's not horrifying enough, the Leprechaun insists on making the main character go “downtown” to prove he’s really a woman.

"Call me a pilgrim one more time!"

Coolio.
At one point the guys are rapping in church about "Jesus and his hoes" and I'm positive there was split second cameo by Coolio standing in the crowd.

"Best" Line

There's something almost Shakespearean about lines like “I hope you had sex last night because I’m going to cut off your dick!” But I couldn't resist this scene where the Leprechaun puffs the chiba with Ice T and talks about being the bomb.