Leprechaun In The Hood

Today’s film is one of the most notorious horror sequels of all time: Leprechaun In The Hood, the fifth entry into the franchise.

Leprechaun In The Hood was directed, produced, and co-written by Rob Spera, who has worked extensively on the television shows Criminal Minds and Army Wives, as well as the films Bloody Murder 2: Closing Camp and Sexual Predator.

The cinematographer for the film was Mike Mickens, who was a camera operator on such films as Bats and The Apostate before shooting Leprechaun In The Hood.

The editor for Leprechaun In The Hood was JJ Jackson, who cut a number of episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County, along with an assortment of low-budget movies.

The team of producers for Leprechaun In The Hood included Bruce David Eisen (The Dentist 2, Trucks, Evolver, The Dentist), Ralph Cooper (Hugo Pool), Michael P. Flanagan (Pitch Perfect, 88 Minutes, The Black Dahlia), Darn Spillman (Blood Surf, Van Wilder: Freshman Year), and Mike Upton (John Wick, Black Christmas).

The effects work for the movie was provided by a team that included Gabe Bartalos (From Beyond, Dolls, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Leprechaun 3, Leprechaun), Terri Lynn (Saturday the 14th Strikes Back), Christian Boudman (Double Team, Men In Black 3), Tim Jacobsen (Mad Men, Lie To Me, Terriers), and Craig Kuehne (Fringe, Grimm).

The cast for Leprechaun In The Hood was made up of Ice-T (Tank Girl, Johnny Mnemonic), Warwick Davis (Leprechaun, Willow), Lobo Sebastian (Columbus Day, The Longest Yard), Dan Martin (Heat), Anthony Montgomery (Star Trek: Enterprise), and Rashaan Nall (Cuts, One on One).

Leprechaun In The Hood was the fifth film in the Leprechaun franchise, following Leprechaun 4: In Space. It was followed up by a direct sequel: Leprechaun: Back 2 The Hood, though it was a sequel in title only.

The Leprechaun series was recently rebooted in 2014 with the film Leprechaun: Origins, which was produced by WWE studios with the wrestler Dylan ‘Hornswoggle’ Postl taking over the titular role.

Though Leprechaun In The Hood has a definite ironic cult following now, it was certainly not well received at the time. It currently holds an abysmal 3.6 rating on IMDb, along with comparably low Rotten Tomatoes scores of 33% from critics and 31% from audiences.

Leprechaun In The Hood is packed full of poor attempts at humor throughout its run time, which mostly just come off as being offensive to a variety of people, and not necessarily even the ones you would expect. For example, this movie is graced with offensive portrayals of Asians and trans women, which is not something I expected from a movie about an Irish mythic figure invading Los Angeles.

The constant rhyming from the Warwick Davis’s Leprechaun is as grating as ever in Leprechaun In The Hood, but has the added dimension of being integrated into music in the movie. The infamous rap number that concludes the film is about as close the movie comes to having a real highlight.

Speaking of the rap number, the way the film is edited actually pulls the sequence out of the chronology of the story. The Leprechaun’s rap at the end of the film is shown to be how he possesses a number of women, who were used as his servants throughout most of the movie. Clearly, the rap number was intended for earlier in the film to establish his power of possession and the characters of his minions, but the film was re-cut at some point to move the sequence.

Overall, Leprechaun In The Hood is only about as entertaining as the premise can carry it. The writing tries a little too hard to be funny, and comes off as shitty and offensive instead. Personally, I think Leprechaun 3 is the most entertaining entry into the franchise, but there are plenty out there who swear by this one. For bad movie fans, it is essential watching regardless, but I think that it generally fails to live up to its potential.