Review of Troll (1986) by Kobal M — 10 Feb 2010

It's amazing that a film that was conceived and executed separately from the disaster that was Troll 2, still managed to be nearly as terrible. Starring Noah Hathaway and Sonny Bono, this film was meant to be a sort of kiddie/horror/fantasy film, what it wound up being, was a disaster. Its only saving grace, is that the puppetry and costumes in the film aren't THAT bad at times. They're bad, but they're not the potato sacks and rubber masks that Troll 2 used so ineffectively.

I suppose the story wasn't executed too terribly, but the main fault with Troll is that the story was terrible to begin with. A family moves into an apartment building that is the gateway to some sort of fairy kingdom for a reason that is never thoroughly explained. Minutes after arriving, their young daughter Wendy is kidnapped by a troll and the troll assumes her identity. The masquerade doesn't convince Wendy's older brother, and he together with another tenant who happens to be an ancient fairy queen (yeah, this is a pretty special apartment building apparently), work together to stop the troll from turning the building into his own personal fairy kingdom.

Who in the name of heck came up with a story like that and thought it was worthy of making into a movie? We may never know. All I know is that Troll is frickin' horrible. Still not as horrible as Troll 2, but I won't be re-watching it anytime soon.