My 100 Worst Movies of the 90's - 03 - Troll 2 (1990)

Troll 2 (1990; Filmarage)

I have to say.  I rather liked Troll 2, but being an honest reviewer, I have to put it at number three.  It isn’t a good movie; not by any stretch of the imagination.  But it is a fun, bad movie.  The plot follows a boy named Josh who has a close connection to his deceased grandfather’s ghost.  His family, the Waits are all a bunch of morons, however.  They do a sort of trade of their home (or so they think) to vacation in a hole-in-the-wall named Nilbog.  However, the people of the town aren’t quite normal.  They have a tremendous fascination with plants, and are vegans (go figure).  A strange woman named Creedence (who looks like a Rocky Horror reject) seems to be running the creepy game in the background while this dude that looks like Bob Ross runs the town church.  There’s also a second group of people which includes the the Waits family daughter’s boyfriend that follow them there, but they are really just fodder for the kill scenes.  

Okay, there’s a lot to go through for this movie as the plot is needlessly convoluted and it never really works at any point, but I think that’s why this movie is special.  It lacks any regard for the norm both in the way it flows and feels and in the way the characters behave.  It’s utterly insane in the way that it really seems to have no understanding of normal human behavior.  It’s a lot like in The Room in that sense.  The characters, especially the father, are all strange and exceptionally dumb.

The overlying plot centers on members of the town constantly trying to feed the Waits’ family strange green food.  Unbeknownst to them, this food has the power to turn them into plants.  Fortunately, the youngest of the Waits’, Josh, has been receiving visits from his deceased grandfather who warns him about the dangerous food.  So, after the family discovers the attempts by the townsfolk of Nilbog to poison them, they uncover the town’s cult, led by that Bob Ross guy and the psychotic Creedence.  

So, where do the trolls come in?  Well, there are no trolls in Troll 2.  Not one.  Instead, there are goblins.  See, this film’s original title was Goblins, but the producers, in an attempt to help it give it a recognizable title by making it a sequel to Troll (probably an even worse movie).  As a result of this change, there was some editing done to line up closer to the original’s events and this created a number of continuity issues and plot holes.  

Now, that said, Troll 2 is hilarious.  It is one of the most famous So-Bad-It’s-Good movies primarily because of the amateurishly executed dialogue and the strange actions many of the characters make throughout the film.  Like the Room, Birdemic and Plan 9 From Outer Space, this is a special type of bad movie.  There is a lot of history to this movie that came as a result of its terrible execution, including the delayed release of the film by publisher, and those sorts of legends just make bad movies that much more fun.  In fact, this one barely qualifies for this list as it was intended to be released in the 80’s, it was just a twist of fate and some bad business that delayed it enough for me to be able to add it (joyfully, mind you) to this list.  

This film is filled with rumors and hints about its failure.  There is director Claudio Fragasso’s outrage regarding the overall negative reception of his film, his default reaction for every bad review he gets.  Then there’s the “Oh my gooooooood!” meme that has become somewhat infamous on YouTube and other video hosting sites lifted right out of the film.  There are lots of stories of misadventures and problems during filming and after too.  There was actually so much post-release drama surrounding this film that in 2009, a documentary entitled Best Worst Movie was released that chronicles the stars, where they are today, and has a large segment focused on an annual viewing of the movie by fans of the schlock fest that is Troll 2.