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Delta Burke and Jon Huffman as Suzanne Sugarbaker and “Policeman” Designing Women (1986–1993) S03E21 · “The Last Humorously Dressed Bellboy in America”

Leprechaun In the Hood (2000)

After enduring Leprechaun 4: In Space I knew I had nothing left to fear. There was no way the rest of the series could be as atrocious as that sci-fi abortion. I was right. Does that mean that Leprechaun 5 a.k.a. Leprechaun In the Hood is good? Not at all but it is a step up for the franchise.

As is par for the course by this point, this film has nothing to do with any of the previous chapters. When three aspiring young rap artists: "Postmaster P." (Anthony Montgomery), "Stray Bullet" (Rashaan Nall) and "Butch" (Red Grant) find themselves hard on cash on the eve of a big rap competition, they decide to burglarize the house of rich pimp Mack Daddy O’Nassas (Ice-T). In the process, they awaken the Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) and steal his magical flute. Armed with fly zombie women, vaguely established powers and a penchant for marijuana, the spawn of hell begins a killing spree that can only end when his treasure is given back to him.

At first, I was amused. While we're dealing with rappers, pimps and the same stereotypes as always, I can’t remember the last time I saw what is essentially an all-black cast in a horror movie. While I wouldn’t shine a spotlight on anyone's acting skills the performances are more than sufficient (and that extends to some of the supporting cast like Ice-T) considering this is Leprechaun 5. There may have actually been some mild amount of ambition when the project began!

This is nevertheless a shoddy creation. The editing and camera work is terrible. Large chunks of dialogue are obviously dubbed, probably due to lackluster first takes which were never reshot. This would explain the footage from previous scenes used to try and smooth over transitions and dialogue exchanged between actors I'm not convinced were actually in the same room at the time. Even these numerous editing tricks barely make the story coherent.

I hate how there’s absolutely no consistency in the series. The Leprechaun’s powers change every single time and when someone doesn’t explain to us the rules, every plot point feels like it comes out of nowhere. When the Leprechaun boasted that he was going to send his army of fly zombie ladies to help get his magic flute back... I assumed that he meant like half-insect, half-human decaying corpses. Something like the monster from #4. Turns out he meant “fly” as in “hot” and “zombie” means “possessed via magic”. Whatever.

This film’s conclusion makes no sense. Scenes cut off to imply one thing, and then the opposite happens. People discover very specific facts or objects (including 4-leaf clovers, which are supposed to be really rare) willy-nilly so the plot can keep moving. I couldn’t believe how they decided to end this movie. What were they thinking? That it would be funny?

Committing my thoughts to paper really makes me question things. And to think, there's more coming? What am I doing with my life? Let’s conclude by saying that on top of the weak special effects, we’ve got a lot of happening with no rhyme or reason, bad writing, groan-inducing singing/rapping, awkward jokes that are aimed at an audience that doesn’t exist and some bad writing. Yes, I'm including this criticism twice. I’m talking overall story, and the dialogue, particularly the rhymes delivered by the Leprechaun, which are horrendous. Even the rap numbers usually just feature 2-3 lines simply repeated over and over, as if the ones we got were so good that it would excuse no subsequent material.

The best thing I can say about Leprechaun In The Hood is that it isn’t the worst to date. It’s a gimmicky horror comedy with a crappy gimmick and even ironically, I can’t imagine anyone truly having a good time with it. (Letterboxed version on DVD, June 24, 2015)