Best Worst Movie: Troll 2 remembered, re-lived, and…revered?

The Movie: Best Worst Movie

The Genre: Documentary

The Verdict: Find it. Watch it. Highly recommended!

The Reasoning: I’m a fool for documentaries and in this age of Netflix streaming (which finally arrived for the Wii), I’ve fed my addiction with frightening regularity. I’ve seen great ones, I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen some mind-achingly bad ones. So sending me a documentary and asking me to watch is an invitation for me to give you a pretty well-informed opinion as to the quality of the offering.

In addition to my documentary fixation, it should come as no surprise
that I love a good science fiction/fantasy culture or gaming doc.
Perhaps you do to? Perhaps that’s why were here on Suvudu talking about
these genres all the time? I think so. There are some examples of great
documentary filmmaking dealing with subjects near and dear to our
hearts: Darkon (LARPing), The
King of Kong (arcade gaming records), and Second Skin (MMO players)
spring instantly to mind. And even Trekkies
(uber-fan culture), a film I go back-and-forth on, is frequently
heralded as a high-water mark.

These films are great for two reason:

1. They don’t require you to have a
   pre-existing knowledge of their subject matter. So if you have no idea
   what LARPing is, you could still enjoy watching Darkon. But they
   aren’t poking fun of their subjects, they don’t have a built-in
   cynicism. It’s the difference between being “quirky” and being
   “satirical,” I think, but you end up understanding what the appeal is
   for people, what the phenomenon is, and all that.
2. If you do already have a working knowledge of the subject
   matter, you still have a documentary that investigates its topic
   thoughtfully and entertainingly. Maybe you learn something, and maybe
   you don’t, but you get characters and people with whom you can identify
   and root for.

Best Worst Movie is one of these; an example of a
great documentary handling a trickier subject than you might believe and
doing so with aplomb, heart, and a lot of good humor. But before we go
further into Best Worst Movie, I’d like to talk for a minute
about the topic of the film: another film by the name of Troll 2.

I know, I just finished saying that you don’t need to know about the subject before viewing, but this is more like sharing a fun, open secret. You see, Troll 2 is affectionately known, especially amongst its fans, as the worst horror movie ever made. While this might be a bit of hyperbole, it’s not far off the mark, either.

Troll 2 is the story of a family that goes on vacation to a town (Nilbog), populated with vegetarian goblins who attempt to turn them into plants and eat them. That’s it, in a nutshell (watch Troll 2 here). Despite being named “Troll 2,” there are no trolls. And the dialog in the film is nothing if not legendary for its awkwardness. So why has this movie generated a fan following?

For the same reasons Ed Wood still has a fan following. Make no mistake, Troll 2 is a terrible movie, but it retains a level of honesty and innocence. It’s strangely upbeat where really bad horror films are pessimistic and pretentious and as a result, it has a weird way of welcoming you in. So while Troll 2 is unequivocally one of the worst horror films ever made, it is also one of the best horror satires ever produced.

And this is where the fans and Best Worst Movie come in. The movie has built a following, mostly among the types of us who are out hunting B-movies and looking for a good laugh. It’s a special breed of folks, the kind who want to laugh at a movie while also embracing it as their own. This following, this Nilbog Brigade, if you will, has been gaining members, mostly through word-of-mouth for quite some time now.

Oddly, while the Troll 2 love has been building, it seemed to have forgotten to clue in the movie’s stars. Enter Michael Paul Stephenson, who starred in Troll 2 as Joshua Waits, and the man behind Best Worst Movie. Michael, having discovered the fans of the movie he had, to this point, spent so much time and effort running away from, wanted to investigate the growing cult status of the film while also looking back on just went so wrong.

From the first shot, the film focuses on one Troll 2 star in particular: Dr. George Hardy. This is a brilliant move. George Hardy is one of those people who is instantly likable–heck, even his ex-wife is on camera saying how much she likes George!–and his energy maintains Best Worst Movie even at it’s most difficult point. George was (and still is) a practicing dentist when he auditioned for his part in Troll 2 and viewed it as a way to feed his creative side (and possibly as a “break,” though that wouldn’t turn out to be quite what anyone was expecting) and has what might be the most memorable line in the Troll 2 (though you’ll have to watch these films to find out what it is…I’m not telling). We follow him as he takes a vacation from his successful Alabama dentistry practice to tour the world of Troll 2 screenings, fan groups, industry conventions, horror conventions, and cast reunions. And, save for one bit of the journey, it’s a great time.

Also appearing, though a little less affable, is Claudio Fragrasso, the director of Troll 2, who finds the whole experience a little less entertaining and gradually comes to terms with the fact that his film will never be known the way he would have wished. And there is a sense at the end, that he has begun, ever so slightly, to embrace the cult-classic status his movie is cultivating.

Finally, while most of the cast and crew have come away from Troll 2 relatively unscathed, there is one former member who is maybe not doing quite as well. Again, I’ll not mention who, but there is a short, uncomfortable moment when this cast member is pushed back in front of the camera. It’s brief and Best Wost Movie recovers its step quickly, but you should be ready for a slight dip.

I don’t want to discuss all the fantastic bits from this film, but I do want to give it my highest recommendation. I watched this documentary at the end of a day in which I was feeling, well, in less than a generous mood. It had been a bit of a rough one for me and yet, with my mood going against it, Best Worst Movie had me smiling and laughing throughout. It’s strange to admit that a film exploring a disastrous movie could feel so uplifting, but that’s exactly what you have here.

Best Worst Movie has recently picked up distribution and will be appearing across the US and an inevitable Netfix success seems also poised on the horizon. Seriously, if you love fun B-films, well made documentaries, and spending time with affable people who are in on the joke, then you owe it to yourself to see this film.

Join the Nilbog Brigade…but bring your double-decker bologna sandwich, just in case. Troll 2 may be one of the worst horror films ever made, but Best Worst Movie is one of the best documentaries of 2010. Don’t miss it.

Film School Rejects filmed an interview featuring the team behind Best Worst Movie and serves as a great “How did this all happen?” piece to set up the documentary. If you have about 25 minutes to spare, it’s well worth a watch.