After they’re dropped by record producer Mack Daddy O’Nasses (Ice-T), three aspiring rappers get their revenge by breaking into Mack Daddy’s office. When Mack Daddy shows up unexpectedly, Postmaster P (Antony Montgomery) panics and shoots him. Thinking that Mack Daddy is dead, Postmaster P steals the small golden flute that he always carries with him. One of Postmaster P’s partners removes a medallion from a statue of the Leprechaun, bringing the Leprechaun back to life. Now, Postmaster P and his friends find themselves being pursued by both the Leprechaun and Mack Daddy (who, it turns out, was not dead).

To give some credit where it is due, Leprechaun in the Hood gets off to a good start with a flashback to a young Mack Daddy, complete with platform shoes and a giant afro, first finding the statue and the golden flute. The opening had the right amount of humor and style, and it also had Ice-T and Warwick Davis acting opposite each other. If the movie had stayed in the 70s and if Ice-T had been the star instead of just a supporting character, Leprechaun in the Hood could have been a classic mix of blaxploitation style and campy horror. But then the movie jumps into the present with Postmaster P and his boring friends, and an uneasy mix of gore and mean-spirited humor.

Given the Leprechaun’s love for rhymes, an eventual hip-hop Leprechaun movie was probably the next logical step in the franchise, and it does make slightly more sense to find him here than in outer space. I have to wonder how, if the Leprechaun spent nearly twenty years as a statue in Ice-T’s office, he was also able to be in North Dakota and Las Vegas at the same time. I guess you don’t need continuity when you’ve got a pot of gold.