I love movies that are unintentionally hilarious – at once both undeniably bad and entertaining. Troll 2 has recently gotten some buzz as the worst movie of all time”, largely because of Best Worst Movie, a 2009 documentary about how horrible and funny Troll 2 is. It may not be the worst, but Troll 2 belongs in the conversation and has earned a place in my Bad Movie Festival.
A white bread suburban family vacations in the mountain village of Nilbog (“Goblin” spelled backwards, get it?) in which all the locals are vegetarian predator goblins who can take the form of regular humans. The goblins are able to turn humans into vegetative matter (a green slime) that the goblins can ingest.
The movie was made with very primitive production values by a non-English speaking Italian crew and a non-Italian speaking Z-list American cast. Inept acting and directing aside, the screenplay is probably the source of the most laughs. There’s the dead grandpa Seth who keeps appearing to the boy, the boy’s saving his family by urinating on the family dinner, the make out scene so “hot” that it pops popcorn and so much more. Another of the funny aspects of Troll 2 is that it is completely unrelated to the movie Troll and has no trolls in it.
Troll 2 is available on Netflix Streaming. You can see some of the finer bits of Troll 2 by doing a YouTube search for “You can’t piss on hospitality” and “Troll 2 O my God”. Here’s the trailer.
As to Best Worst Movie, it’s very entertaining. There are some squirmy scenes with cast members whose mental health issues have since worsened. The Italian director is a jerk who, although happy to bask in Troll 2‘s new found cult status, is narcissistically unwilling to acknowledge its badness. But the goodhearted goofiness of star George Hardy, a cast of good sports and Troll 2‘s cult following dominates, and Best Worst Movie is fun to watch. Best Worst Move is available on DVD.
