It took me some time to get round to watching the 'Leprechaun' franchise, with so much going on in my vocal and operatic studies course and personal life and having a long watch and review list. Saw the films mainly for curiosity to see whether they would be guilty pleasures or deserving of their dubious reputation. Also have an appreciation for horror, and ones with splashes of comedy, and had gotten into watching a few horror franchises that had interested me for a long time.

The first 'Leprechaun', while understanding why people would find it a guilty pleasure, didn't do it for me. The second and third films was a marginal improvement but just as flawed with the same flaws, while the fourth and fifth films were very weak. Saw the sequels as a franchise completest (just in case why anybody is wondering why if the first film didn't it for me why the rest of the films were watched too). While it was still not a good film 'Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood' for me is one of the best sequels and one of the best of the series, better than the previous two films by far.

Davis is the best thing about 'Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood'n as with the previous films. He is both amusing and grotesquely creepy, doing the best he can, successfully, with an again goofy look, some terrible lines (though actually they are better than the ones he is given in the previous film) and less than tasteful horror which must have been hard to do and shows how conscientious and talented he is.

There are sporadically mildly amusing moments that don't come anywhere near enough. The second half does have entertaining moments and with a bigger budget than most of the sequels the film looks less cheap with a more expansive location and slicker photography, while still not being exactly high art because the effects are weak.

On the other hand, the rest of the cast is very poor, with insufferably bland leads and an assortment of irritating supporting roles. The characters display very little personality when they aren't being insufferably annoying with their dumb antics and illogical decision making.

'Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood' is still lacking in the story and script, like all the previous films. The dialogue is repetitive and childish, very little of it is amusing let alone funny, and the humour and whimsicality are forced. Having gratuitous gore was not enough to cover up for the complete lack of scares and suspense, nothing bit my nails, nothing made my heart pound or skip, nothing made my palms or forehead sweat, nothing made me jump. It's not just because it is so intelligence insultingly dumb, excessively predictable and unintentionally comical, but the story, while picking up a little in the second half, is very thin with a very dull first half. The kills are neither creative or scary, a few distasteful, and the direction is pretty leaden.

Summarising, mediocre but still manages to be one of the best of the series. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This was the final film in the original and very silly Leprechaun series, at least for the original star, most of the films have a reputation for being "so bad it's good", and it turned out that the fifth film, "in the Hood", was very popular, so the lead character did it again in the sixth straight-to-DVD entry in the franchise. Basically, it opens an animated prologue revealing the origins of leprechauns, they were summoned by a king to protect their gold. After the death of the king, all leprechauns returned to their places of origin, all except one (Warwick Davis),who over time became obsessed with gold. In the present, Father Jacob (Willie C. Carpenter) finds the leprechaun's gold, he manages to banish Lubdan the Leprechaun, demonic hands drag him underground, but Jacob dies from injuries inflicted by the leprechaun. One year later, friends Emily Woodrow (Tangi Miller) and Lisa Duncan (Sherrie Jackson) visit a fortune teller Esmeralda (Donzaleigh Abernathy) who warns them that they will gain great wealth soon, but it must be denied as it will summon a terrible evil. Lisa has an argument with her ex-boyfriend-turned-drug dealer Rory Jackson (Laz Alonso),she falls through a hole at the abandoned youth center construction site, where Jacob died. Lisa, Rory and their stoner friend Jamie Davis (Page Kennedy) find a chest full of gold coins, it is the Leprechaun's gold. Evenly splitting the gold, the friends use it to fulfil their fantasies, unaware that they have released the Leprechaun by taking his gold. The Leprechaun begins stalking the group to get his treasure back. Other people fall victim to his viciousness, including a man who is impaled with a bong, and regular customer Doria (Vickilyn Reynolds) who gets a massage and has her neck broken at the salon Emily works at. Emily barely escapes and warns Rory and Jamie, who rush to get to Lisa. In her house, Lisa is attacked by the Leprechaun and manages to fight him off, but she is killed when the Leprechaun claws her in the stomach, her friends find her dead body. While Emily and Jamie want to return the gold, Rory does not and takes off with it. Emily is attacked and chased outside by the Leprechaun but is saved when Rory has a change of heart and comes back for her. Searching for Rory, the Leprechaun kills his girlfriend Chanel (Keesha Sharp) by tearing out her jaw, reclaiming the gold she used to make a tooth. Rory and Emily are stopped and harassed by Officers Thompson (Beau Billingslea) and Whitaker (Chris Murray). The Leprechaun appears and kills the two officers, Emily and Rory escape and regroup with Jamie, only to be confronted by Rory's drug-dealing rivals, led by Watson (Shiek Mahmud-Bey) and Cedric (Sticky Fingaz),holding machine guns. The gang are all disposed of by the Leprechaun, while Emily, Rory and Jamie drive off in Watson's car and go looking for help from Esmeralda. The clairvoyant tells them four-leaf clovers can kill the Leprechaun, Jamie finds some in marijuana Rory has sold him earlier, he laces bullets for his gun with the clovers. When the Leprechaun arrives, Rory shoots him several times with the clover bullets, only for his gun to jam before he can finish the Leprechaun off. Rory and Emily get the chance to run with the gold, Jamie distracts him, he is wounded with a baseball bat to the leg, and Esmeralda dies in a magical duel with the Leprechaun. On the roof of the building, Rory fights the Leprechaun and is knocked out, but before the creature can kill him, Emily taunts him by throwing some of his gold into nearby wet concrete. She tosses his gold into a furnace before knocking the Leprechaun in with it. Emily and Rory believe the Leprechaun is dead, but he returns to attack again. Emily is knocked off the roof and hangs for her life, the Leprechaun taunts her, but is shot several times by Rory, before running out of bullets. But Emily finishes the Leprechaun off by hitting him with the chest of coins, he falls off the rooftop and into the wet concrete below, the Leprechaun sinks and becomes trapped with his gold. Emily, Rory and Jamie return to their normal lives, but an animated sequence reveals that the Leprechaun may dig himself out of the ground and return. Also starring Sonya Eddy as Yolanda, Beau Billingslea as Thompson and Christopher Murray as Whitaker. Davis as the mischievous Irish monster killing his way through the hood is alright, the other cast members are all about the same level of average, the story and script are dumb, the special effects are very cheap looking, this time there are almost no hip hop songs to distract you, there is only a little worthwhile violence, but there are attempts at humour, there was a small part of me that went along with it, otherwise it is just another daft comedy horror. Pretty poor!

This sequel is so much better than the others, for starters its much darker and the Leprechaun's costume is also much better in this movie. Gone are the stripy socks and bright red pants, instead we have a more 19th century dark, creepy looking Leprechaun. The humour is still there in this film, except that its not cringeworthy like it was in earlier outings and is actually funny. There are very few hokey special effects and the storyline is played out well. They have also brought back the four leaf clover to kill a leprechaun mythology from the first film. Will it win an Oscar? No, but it sure makes up for the last few sequels which completely ignored the fact its supposed to be in the horror genre and instead tried to be too much of a comedy. All the Leprechaun films are fun in their own way, but this one is far less hokey - there's hope for the series yet!