TROLL 2 (REVIEW)

Dir. Claudio Degrasso

Reviewer. Dan Cook

Claudio Degrasso’s disasterpiece ‘Troll 2’ is a true titan of terrible cinema, a testament to trash often lumped alongside Ed Wood’s ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’ (1959) and Tommy Wiseau’s The Room’ (2003) as one of the very worst motion pictures ever made. A sequel all but in name to John Carl Buechler’s 1986 horror comedy ‘Troll’, ‘Troll 2’ tells the story of a family whose vacation turns into a nightmare when they happen upon a group of vegetarian goblins who turn their victims insides into gloopy green sludge before consuming them.

With many of its most hilariously daft scenes serving as mainstays of meme culture and social media notoriety, ‘Troll 2’ has become something of an icon in the world of bad movies. Currently ranked at number 27 on the IMDB bottom 100 list and earning a whopping 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie’s dire reputation is far from a well-kept secret. In fact, the failure of the picture is so legendary that Michael Stephenson (the young actor who plays the hero of the film) would be inspired to direct the acclaimed 2009 documentary ‘Best Worst Movie’, a hugely entertaining trip down memory lane which lovingly chronicles the infamously troubled production of ‘Troll 2’ as well as exploring the strange cult following the movie has accrued since its 1990 release.

However, I must have indulged in too many truly awful pictures because this really isn’t as atrocious as I was expecting or hoping. Oh, it’s bad. It’s really, REALLY bad with terrible makeup and gore effects, a laughably inept script, cheap set and costume designs and performances that range from shockingly underplayed to ridiculously exaggerated - most memorably that of Deborah Reed whose deranged portrayal of the wide-eyed leader of the monsters easily qualifies as one the most over the top performances ever committed to celluloid.

But when compared to the many Z-rated creature features that are churned out by the Syfy channel, the cynical “mockbusters” released by The Asylum or even some of the most desperately boring features I’ve had to endure such as Sydney Pollack’s interminably dull Best Picture Winner ‘Out Of Africa’ (1985), ‘Troll 2’ isn’t even in contention for being the very worst film I’ve ever seen. Actually, for all of its many, many, many faults, I thoroughly enjoyed it’s campy tone, nonsensical dialogue, preposterous storytelling, awkward line deliveries and downright bizarre visuals and there is an almost inevitable possibility that this glorious gemstone of garbage could one day become something of a guilty pleasure. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD!