Review of Troll 2 (1990) by Michael B — 18 Jul 2013

Rivaling Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" for the best unintentional comedy ever comes Troll 2, a horrendously inept trainwreck of a movie that is as fascinating as it is bad. There's really not much that I can say that hasn't been said already, but here's a start:

The acting isn't nearly as consistently bad as The Room's, but certain key moments stand out when they become a spectacle of hilarity (see: "They're eating her...and now they're going to eat me! OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD!"). The storytelling is tremendously weak, and showcases tremendously obvious foreshadowing that any sane person could see. The writing is just plain awful, featuring lines such as "Nilgob! It's goblin spelled backwards!" and the immortal "You can't piss on hospitality!" And the plot? Oh yeah, don't even get me started. This is a movie about goblins (despite being called Troll 2) that feed people food that makes them sweat/bleed chlorophyll and turns them into half-plant, half-human hybrids, "the goblins' favorite food". Yeah. Not even joking.

What does elevate this movie to "so-bad-it's-good" status are any of the scenes that involve Grandpa Seth or the dad, played by Robery Ormsby and George Hardy, respectively. It's never really explained if Grandpa Seth is a figment of the kids imagination or not, and that just adds to the comedic factor in the movie. Also noteworthy is the horrifyingly creepy shopkeeper, who, if you've watched the documentary based on this film, "Best Worst Movie", was actually in a mental institution at the time of filming. Explains quite a bit.

If there's one person to blame for the astoundingly bad quality of this film, it's Italian director Claudio Fragrasso. If you look up some of the backstory to this film, you'll learn that he thought he knew more about American teenagers than the actual cast and crew, and also thought that he was pretty much the best director of all time. It's pretty clear that he had no clue what he was doing or what constitutes a good movie.

Though Troll 2 isn't nearly as hilariously bad as other unintentional comedies (see: The Room), you can find a lot to have fun with in this movie, even if sometimes it is just boring. I personally didn't think that this film was as notoriously bad as its reputation suggests, but there's still a lot to enjoy when watching Troll 2.

"They're eating her! Then they're going to eat me! Oh my gaaaaaaaawwwd!".