Troll 2 is, by all accounts, a bad movie. The acting is bad. The story is bad. The effects are bad, even for the eighties. And people absolutely love it. Best Worst Movie (2009) is a documentary about the making of Troll 2, and how, twenty years after it was made, it found a following and became a cult classic. It was made by Michael Stephenson, who played the child lead in Troll 2. He conducts interviews with the cast, director, writer and fans of Troll 2.
Overall, I think Best Worst Movie is pretty decent. Not the best documentary I've ever seen, but not the worst either. And it does have some really interesting elements. The parts I found most interesting were the interviews with the people involved who didn't realize that they were making a bad movie. For example, there's this woman:
That's Margo Prey, who played Diana Waits, the mother, in Troll 2. In that same interview, she goes on to compare Troll 2 to Casablanca. For reference, she's comparing this movie:
to this movie:
Call me crazy, but I don't see the similarity.
And then there's the director of Troll 2, Claudio Fragrasso, who still believes Troll 2 was a good movie, and doesn't seem to understand its cult value. To his credit, he also doesn't care that people call it the worst movie ever made. Another interesting character is Don Packard, the actor who played the creepy Nilbog Drugstore owner in Troll 2. Here's his interview in the film:
Another thing I liked about it was watching the fans' reactions to Troll 2. People go crazy for it: they share it with their friends, they throw viewing parties, they flock to theaters for midnight showings, they make t-shirts and masks. It's great. It really demonstrates, and celebrates, how a film, even a bad one, can have a lasting impact of people's lives.
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