Trolls 2 - Best Worst Movie!

Best Worst Movie is a documentary about the making of Troll 2, a low - budget monster flicker from 1990. Troll 2 was originally called Goblins, but when it was marketed in these United States the producers jumped on the back of a 1986 light-hearted monster movie titled Troll. The two movies are unrelated save for the titles, but that doesn't mean there are parallels. Best Worst Movie was produced in 2009 and follows up on the people involved in Troll 2, which by that time had become a notorious cult film with avid followers. But let me start with Troll. 

Troll is a pretty entertaining and mildly scary movie which follows a family as they move into a new apartment. We have the Dad (Michael Moriarty), the Mom (Shelley Hack) and two kids named Harry Potter Jr.(Noah Hathaway) and Wendy (Jenny Beck). Wendy is snatched almost immediately, and her place is taken by a scruffy looking troll who then proceeds to pull pranks and worse on the family and other dwellers in the building. His ultimate goal is to open a window to another dimension for his own purposes. He is opposed by a sorceress who lives in the building for just this purpose. She and Harry Jr. join forces. 

It's pretty straight-forward and not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. The movie is well cast and the story snaps right along. One might be confused by some suggested scenes, but overall, I enjoyed it. Getting to look at a lithesome Julia Louis Dreyfuss not the least of the pleasures. June Lockhart was particularly good. Others in the movie are Sonny Bono and Gary Sandy. 

Troll 2 is a glorious disaster. Remember it was supposed to be called Goblins, so when a hapless family ends up in a small town named Nilbog you can get the joke. The Waits family has been tricked to come to town to be eaten by the Goblins there, but since the Goblins are vegetarians, the family and other victims must be transformed to plant life. This is done by a witch named Creedence Leonore Gielgud. It falls to the young son of the family to try to save them all as they don't see the threat. There are some teenage boys who actually catch most of the damage wrought by the "Trolls" so that we can watch mayhem and yet keep our main cast intact. 

Troll 2 is a badly made movie, one of those so bad it's good kind of films that many (me included) enjoy with gusto. I love watching earnest filmmakers try their best and fail, not out of sadism on my part, but because it's wildly funny. A movie like Troll 2 is only possible when it is created with total sincerity. That fans will latch onto it later and revel in its awful oddness is unpredictable at best, but when they do movies like this get a new life. 

Best Worst Movie revisits the actor and producers of the movie. The documentary was made by Michael Stephenson, who played the young boy in the movie. All grown up, he is able to see the ludicrous aspects of the movie. The star of Best Worst Movie is George Hardy, the father in Troll 2, a happy man who has a successful career as a dentist in a small town and seems to be one of those guys most people like. Things grow a bit darker when the team try to visit Margo Prey who is caring for her elderly mother. The director of Troll 2 was Claudio Fragosso who with is wife Rosella Drudi wrote the movie as well. Fragosso is invited to a screening of Troll 2, one in which its fans are mocking it with loving glee and fails utterly to get the point. 

These are not great movies, but then that's the point. 

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