Don't piss on Troll 2

BEST WORST MOVIE (2009)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Never before has a movie gone directly to video (with only the barest of theatrical showings), get slammed by critics and then get revitalized as some sort of cult film. In addition, it is a sequel and in-name only. That is the story of "Troll 2," a movie championed by comedians Patton Oswalt and Conan O'Brien and once you see it, you can't forget it. It is ashamedly awful but not purposely, and that is part of its charm. And now a documentary on this film pops up, "Best Worst Movie," and it shows how "Troll 2" had in fact changed the lives of everyone involved in it.

George Hardy ("A rich man's Craig T. Nelson") is an Alabaman dentist, a good-natured, jolly fellow who can tell when you have gingivitis. He played the family man in "Troll 2" who tried to rescue the family from goblins, not trolls, who want to eat them and turn them into vegetables! Hardy admits he was a bad actor giving a bad performance, but he always had that dream of acting. He gave it up out of respect to his father and became a dentist with a string of patients, and helps poor kids for free. He is loved in the community and dresses up as a tooth fairy annually but he is not loved for being in "Troll 2." Eventually, a fundraiser screening is held in town. Hardy's past as a jolly male cheerleader, however, may lead to some chuckles.

Director Michael Paul Stephenson (who played the young Joshua in "Troll 2") spends most of the film focusing on George Hardy. We also get tidbits on a sage actor who played the grandfather specter and feels he has wasted most of his life; Margo, who played the mother in the family, is now a delusional woman taking care of her sickly mother, and claims that the film's quality is closest to "Casablanca" (!); and there is the actor who played the shopkeeper in the film, who suffers from mental illness and has no recollection of what he did in the film.

Claudio Fragasso comes off the worst. He is the Italian director who helmed "Troll 2" and thought he was making a masterpiece, a film that is allegedly anti-vegetarian. Yet he scoffs and berates his cast at Q & A's, telling them that they have a poor memory about the film's production. Truthfully, at the time of production, he couldn't speak a lick of English and neither could do the crew. Claudio is amazed and angered that people laugh at the film - is he kidding?

"Best Worst Movie" takes us through sold-out U.S. screenings of "Troll 2" and the legions of fans who declare it the best movie ever. We also see the reality of an unintentionally funny horror flick that can barely muster enthusiasm at U.K. conventions. When there is a Q & A, few people are in attendance. The horror fans rather see the Nightmare on Elm Street ensemble. This documentary is mostly bittersweet about a film that was a failure and somehow found an audience, but it did change the lives of those involved. The actors who thought they would never work again after making "Troll 2," found work after the film got a cult following (and one actress would still rather keep it off her resume). At least we can say that the cast is now in one film that is a good/bad movie and another that is actually quite good.