Review of Troll (1986) by Colin O — 07 Jun 2010

The first Troll film is a gentle horror set in an apartment block that has some dark secrets. The Potter family moves into the building only to find that little Wendy's not quite herself anymore, losing her ball in the basement and accidentally getting possessed by one of the trolls. She's having tantrums, she's picking on her big brother, real devilish stuff. Her older brother makes friends with the creepy old lady upstairs, and maybe she can offer some answers to all the strange goings-on in the building.

Wendy seems to have took on the dual personality of a little girl and an evil little troll, and it's not long before she decides to visit the neighbours, turning them all into odd plant life and little creatures starting with their gigolo upstairs neighbour (played by Sonny Bono).

The biggest curiosity factor from this film is the name of its main character, Harry Potter. Predating JK Rowling's book by about a decade, she's had to answer some odd questions about whether she took inspiration from this obscure little movie. For Seinfeld fans it's also the film debut of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, showing her transformed into a glamourous nymph by the troll.

When Harry realises he needs to help Wendy now or she may be lost forever, crazy old Eunice from upstairs tells him how to help her. It turns out Eunice is a witch, and there's a massive turf war going on between her and a Troll wizard named Torok. Can they team up and stop Torok before the whole apartment block turns into a new home for the fairy kingdom?

The main problem TROLL has is that it's not remotely scary, and i'm not just saying that from my 21st Century viewpoint. The make-up on the main Troll is quite effective, so it's a shame that all the others look crap; I can't imagine anyone ever being frightened by these little creatures. Fantastic advances have been made in make-up and creature design since 1986 but even so, these Trolls are nothing more than cute.

Maybe i'm getting away from the point of the movie. It's meant to be a cheap fantasy horror with a few laughs, and it certainly isn't more than that. It's a slight film that involves magic rings, elves and witches, kind of like Batteries Not Included but with more short people.

There's been talk by director John Carl Buechler of a remake of this film, and that's surprising as i'm pretty certain this would have been completely forgotten about if it wasn't for a couple of factors; the main character being called Harry Potter Jr, and the fact it was followed up Troll 2.