Best Worst Movie
Here’s the thing about “Troll 2.” Yes, it’s dreadful cinema- the acting is horrid, the premise is ridiculous, and the story is (to put it lightly) more than a little crazy. And did I mention there are no actual trolls in it?
But underneath that, it’s compulsively watchable precisely because of those factors. Like the cinema of Ed Wood, it achieves a sort of “so bad it’s good” vibe that endears people to it, but unlike most bad movies, you really believe the people behind it tried the best they could.
It’s this kind of culty affection for the movie that Michael Stephenson- who played young Joshua in the film- captures in his warm, weird, and highly entertaining documentary about the film, and the “cult classic” status it’s achieved in the 20 years since it’s release. Along the way, he reunites with much of the main cast, tracks down the director in Italy, and follows George Hardy, the dentist (now living in Alabama) who played his father, as he revels in the cult popularity the film has bestowed upon him. A couple of years they came to Atlanta with “Troll 2” and to take questions from the rabid midnight crowd; how thrilled am I to admit I was in that crowd.
Like the film it chronicles, the documentary is hard to explain in words- you just kind of have to see it and go with it. And I honestly don’t think a film about “Troll 2” would have worked so well were it not directed by someone from the film- Stephenson isn’t afraid to acknowledge the film’s badness, and the way it dashed his dreams of being the “next child star” along the way.
He also gets the actors and filmmakers to reveal things they otherwise wouldn’t. Connie Young (who played his sister) admits to leaving it off her resume (who wouldn’t?). Don Packard (the drugstore owner) was a mental patient at the time of filming on leave, explaining a lot about his performance; even now he seems a bit off his medication, if you’ll pardon the phrase. Margo Prey (who was the mother), is a bit off herself, with the same weird, open-eyed look she had in the film, while also looking at her performance as “good” and the film itself as comparable to the classics starring Bogart and Hepburn. Only Robert Ormsby (who played Grandpa Seth) can accept the film as it is- a bad movie people enjoy- and he appreciates it for that.
Still, no one seems quite as bizarre as Claudio Fragasso, the Italian director who along with his wife Rossella Drudi were responsible for the film (originally title “Goblins,” but changed by the producers to cash in on the original “Troll,” which trust me, is a step up in quality, albeit not much of one). He’s genuinely dismayed to discover that his film is appreciated as terrible, claiming that he aimed high, felt like he succeeded, and even led the way for films like the “Harry Potter” series. Wow. He even has a new film in the works- “Troll 2: Part 2.” Now that would have to be interesting…
…unfortunately, you can’t make a cult classic like “Troll 2.” You can make the movie, but without an audience that accepts it for the craziness it is, and discovers it themselves, it’ll just be a bad movie. “Troll 2” earned its’ cult status by not looking for it. And “Best Worst Movie” is an affectionate (even touching) look at the 20 year journey it’s taken to accomplish it, and the lives it touched (and scarred, for lack of a better word) along the way.
