2009 documentaryRating: 15/20
Plot: A look at Troll 2 and its cult following as a so-bad-that-it's-good-although-it's-in-no-way-really-good film. Michael Stephenson, the boy who pisses on hospitality in Troll 2, assembles most of the talent (Note: I'm using that word liberally here.) and the Italian director, explores the phenomenon of cult cinema, and returns to Nilbog (It's Goblin backwards!) for an often awkward reunion.
OK, I'm not seeing anything on imdb about Claudio Fragasso making a sequel called Trolls 2: Part 2, and I can't decide if I'm disappointed or relieved. I'm not sure this is magic you can just recreate.
I avoided watching this as I was afraid it would yank the Wizard's curtain away and reveal something that would somehow ruin the experience of Troll 2, but it really doesn't do that at all. It's comforting to know that everybody involved in this had every intention to make a movie that was actually good. Fragasso at least claims that he's almost insulted by people referring to this as a bad movie (he almost gives himself away during a screening where he's caught laughing) and the delusional actress who played the mom compared Troll 2 to Casablanca. My favorite scene involves her, by the way. George Hardy (the dad) and Michael Stephenson (the son and guy who put this documentary together) are at her house trying to talk her into showing up at some reunion thing. She nervously refuses and then describes noises she's hearing at night, presumably from Troll 2 fans. Hardy asks what kind of noise she's hearing and she unleashes this hellish scream. The looks on the faces of Hardy and Stephenson are classic. The rest of the principals seemed a little embarrassed or confused by their involvement in this. George Hardy's at the center of all this as the dentist with acting aspirations. The guy's enthusiasm is infectious, but things get a little sad when he starts forcing that "You can't piss on hospitality!" line on people at horror conventions who have never even heard of his movie. Also sad: the look in Robert Ormsby's (Grandpa Seth) eyes when he says, "I guess you could say I've wasted my life." I really enjoyed the antics of Don Packard, the guy who played the shop owner in Nilbog who had spent time in an asylum just prior to the filming of Troll 2.
Yeah, this is a movie about one particular movie and how it's because famous in unexpected ways, but it does a good job exploring the fandom with cult movies in general and, a lot like Winnebago Man, showing how the love people have for the stars of these kinds of oddball phenomena is genuine.
I might try to convince my family to make Troll 2 a Christmas Eve tradition.
wow some of these people are insane! that is so satisfying!
ReplyDeleteWhere is Cory's comment? It was emailed to me, but it's not here...do I need to copy and paste and put it here?
ReplyDeleteYes, please. I have no idea what happened, but I wasn't up to spending another 15 minutes recreating it. Thanks if you can copy it here.
ReplyDeleteYeah, weird. Here's Cory's comment from a couple days ago:
ReplyDeleteThe mistake I made with this was starting it so late that I won't have a chance to watch "Troll 2" tonight. The doc had me feeling a lot of different emotions and I'm not sure what to do with them.
First, I was very pleased to live in a country or world where people are varied enough, and have a lighthearted, ironic sense of humor, so that there is a niche of people that appreciate something like this...or appreciate almost anything else, for that matter.
Then I really was pleased for the eminently likeable Hardy and his cohorts getting their 15 minutes of fame.
Then I was disturbed by the literally evil-looking director and his associates who were culturally ill-equipped to be in on the joke...and were quite resentful when they started to figure it out.
Then I was more uncomfortable when we meet nutjob no.1 Packard (who wanted to literally kill the boy lead), and then nutjob no.2...the crazy-eyed actress who just wants to be left alone, and I mean really left alone. By the way, I intensely disagree with your judgement about the funniest moment in the film...it is a tie between the moment at the end of the film when we find out that Packard spends some of his time volunteering at a children's hospital, and the moment the camera pans to crazy-eyes' nearly gone mom after the painful rendition of "Row-Row-Row Your Boat" (most painful rendition since Scorpio on the bus in "Dirty Harry", by the way). The look in that woman's eyes as she holds her head was horrifying and hilarious at the same time, and said more than any words could say.
Then things get worse. Hardy starts to resent his dad and chosen profession...no one shows in London...Hardy gets depressed about pimping himself...Hardy starts to judge other fans, even though they are exactly the types of people who made it possible for him to taste his frankly undeserved fame.
I guess it all turns out all right. The fad passes. Hardy realizes he has a good life, and he gets the slight local notoriety he has earned. And I don't have to see any updates about Fragasso making a "film" where he punishes "dog" actors, but for real; and where Packard actually kills children because he hates their voices; and where crazy-eyes kill her partially disabled mom and then herself with a vine from a plant. I also give this a 15. Now I, Nilbog, have nothing more to say about the movie- or anything else, and am going to bed.
I felt bad for Hardy when he was at the festival or whatever and nobody had any idea who he was.
ReplyDeleteA couple weeks ago, when I was really depressed, I almost watched 'Troll 2' again. Then, I was too depressed to even make that happen.
Still waiting for 'Troll 2: Part 2,' too!