Troll 2 (1990)

They're eating her! And then they're going to eat me! Oh my gaaaaaawwwwddd!

Yup, that's just one of the many legendary lines from the infamous cult-classic known to mankind as Troll 2.

A young child is terrified to discover that a planned family trip is to be haunted by vile plant-eating monsters out of his worst nightmare. His attempt to save his beloved family is assisted by the spectre of his deceased grandfather.

Obviously Troll 2 is known to be one of those movies that's so bad it's good. I'm not about to deny that's the case. Overall the acting is absolutely TERRIBLE (though it has to be said that George Hardy is absolutely magnificent in this movie, often dressed in ultra manly PJ's) and the trolls, including plastic masks, can't be taken serious for a second. Troll 2 does distinguish itself from the absolutely TERRIBLE movies out there though. Stuff like camerawork, lightning, audio and music score are all done relitively well, which thankfully makes it very pleasant to watch this pulp-fest. 

Every now and then you do wonder what the hell Claudio Fragasso was thinking. There's for example a scene featuring tons of popcorn, you'll immediately know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie, that's just completely ridiculous and doesn't make sense (even for a movie of the standards Troll 2 has). 

 It wouldn't have hurt if the movie's running time was a little shorter. After about 75 minutes I'd pretty much seen it. Still Troll 2 absolutely deserves its status and makes for some absolute great fun. Also I just can't hate on the acting, no matter how bad it is, when it's done with so much fun by the actors.

On a more critical note, it's absolutely sad that after all those years Claudio Fragasso still thinks his movie was really good, and that we're all just blind idiots who don't see the obvious qualities of this movie.

Fun Facts (Source: IMDB)

In Best Worst Movie (2009), Don Packard, said that he was in-and-out of a mental hospital during filming. When he watched it later, he realized he wasn't acting in his scenes; he really was as disturbed as his character. 

 

Director Claudio Fragasso is still angry about the film's poor reception. He crashed a cast reunion Q&A. After he was escorted out of the room, he heckled the cast from the hallway, calling them "liars" and "dogs" as they answered fan questions.  

For George Hardy's audition, all he did was act out his now famous line "You can't piss on hospitality!" in front of nine smoking Italians, none of whom understood English. George was told that he got the role partially because the Italians loved the energy he put into it. 

 

In fall 2007, during a special screening in New York, the cast members said that during production, they had serious doubts about how the movie would work. The entire crew spoke only Italian, except for the costume designer, who translated the director's directions to the actors.