This Documentary About the Worst Movie Ever Is Far Better Than the Film It’s About

6 days ago 14

Troll 2 cast members pose for photo with fans, holding a Nilgob vanity plate, in Best Worst Movie.

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There’s no shortage of opinions about what the worst movie ever made is. Some point to Ed Wood's infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space, with its flying saucers on strings and shoestring budget sets. Others would argue that The Room is worse, making a star of director/writer/producer/lead actor Tommy Wiseau, and bringing "Oh, hi Mark" into the lexicon. Collider suggests that over the last 50 years, Movie 43 lands at the top or bottom of that list, a list that somehow didn't include Battlefield Earth. But what these films have in common is their appeal as so-bad-they're-good movies, films that have achieved infamy as ones that need to be seen to be believed, a shared joke among aficionados of the same. What's interesting is that no one involved intended to make a bad movie; they just turned out that way. Ridiculous? You'd think, but such is one of the subjects addressed in Best Worst Movie, a documentary by filmmaker Michael Stephenson that focuses on the making of the god-awful Troll 2, and its resurgence as a cult classic. It's a fascinating look at the fandom that has made the 1990 film a cult classic phenomenon, and a glimpse into why, and how, a movie like Troll 2 gets made in the first place.

'Troll 2' Makes a Case for Being the 'Best Worst Movie'

It's bold to make a statement about a film being the "best worst movie ever" when there are so many contenders for the title, but damned if Troll 2 doesn't do its best to achieve such infamy. The movie, which has no trolls to speak of and bears no relation to Troll, released in 1986, stars Stephenson himself as 10-year-old Joshua Waits, whose family is readying for a home exchange vacation with a family in the rural farming community of Nilbog for a month. The film opens with Joshua listening to a horrifying story about goblins told by his grandfather, Seth (Robert Ormsby). It serves as a warning that vegetarian goblins are real, and they will transform him and his family into plants, through poisoned food or drink, to eat them. Oh, and Grandpa Seth is a ghost, a very tactile one at that, having died weeks before.

When they arrive at Nilbog, they meet the family with whom they are exchanging homes. They're strange, to say the least, but they've left a feast behind for their weary, hungry travelers. Seth reappears, telling Joshua he has to stop his family from eating the food. To that end, Seth stops time for 30 seconds, allowing Joshua a chance to ruin the food before it's eaten... by peeing on it all. Urine trouble now, Joshua, as his father marches him up to his room, but he has, at least for now, saved the day. Meanwhile, his sister Holly's (Connie McFarland) boyfriend Elliot (Jason Wright) and friends have commandeered an RV to also go to Nilbog, setting up just outside the town. One of his friends, Arnold (Darren Ewing), sees a girl being chased by goblins, who look like little people in ridiculous masks, probably because they are, and helps the girl escape by fleeing to a chapel. It's out of the frying pan and into the fire, though, as the chapel is the lair of the goblin queen, druid witch Creedence Leonore Gielgud (Deborah Reed), who brandishes the "Stonehenge Magic Stone" (say that three times fast) that gives the goblins power. She tricks them into drinking a potion that turns the girl into vegetable goo and slowly turns Arnold into a tree, leaving him unable to do anything more than watch as goblins chow down on the now-veggiefied girl.

And Troll 2 only gets worse from there. If someone isn't hamming it up, like Reed's over-the-top, exaggerated portrayal of Creedence, then they're just simply awful (Stephenson, for one, is arguably one of the worst child actors of all time). Seth appears, disappears, gets banished to Hell by a goblin guised as a priest, and is brought back by a séance held by the Waits and Elliot. The villagers host a dinner party for the Waits, who haven't eaten for days because, well, I guess when you've almost eaten pee-pee-infused sandwiches, you get pretty turned off, stopped only by the Molotov cocktail Seth throws at the priest outside before going to Hell. Like there's a worse Hell to be in than Troll 2. Death by popcorn. But Joshua saves them all by eating a double-decker bologna sandwich and touching the Stonehenge Magic Stone, killing the goblins. They return home, having put the town of Nilbog and its denizens in the rearview mirror... or have they? Oh, and speaking of rearview mirror, if you read the "Welcome to Nilbog" sign in one, you realize – gasp – that "Nilbog" is "Goblin" backwards! Dear God, man, the truth was there all along!

'Best Worst Movie' Explores Life After 'Troll 2'

Troll 2 is both laughably bad and laughable, chock-full of cheesy acting, quotes, ridiculous costuming and lots of green goo, and Best Worst Movie digs into how the film has brought people together at parties, annual screenings, and conventions. It's a bonding experience for many, getting together to laugh at the film's more ridiculous moments, yell out quotes from the film along with the characters, and gather to hear from the cast and crew of the film. While Best Worst Movie doesn't necessarily explain how a bad film manages to reemerge from obscurity, it does a great job of giving time to fans on why they embrace Troll 2 and all it has to offer, even if it leaves a worse taste than green veggiefied people.

Best Worst Movie sees Stephenson, the best worst actor in the best worst film, take viewers to some of those parties and screenings, but also follows his efforts in reassembling the movie's cast and crew, most of whom have largely left the industry altogether. He centers the documentary primarily on two of those people: George Hardy, who played patriarch Michael Waits; and director Claudio Fragasso. It's a savvy move by Stephenson to do so, with the two at opposite ends of how they look back on the film and their part in it. Hardy, now a dentist in Alabama, has embraced his role, giving self-deprecating interviews and basking in the spotlight of showing up at screenings and conventions, a man who's in on the joke and making the most of it. He also speaks for himself, and the cast as a whole, as to why anyone would appear in a film as bad as Troll 2 (and as "Edwin Gophercum" in Street Team Massacre). These people had dreams of being successful in the movie business, and even though they understood they were making a turkey of a film – at least one would hope they did – it was a foot in the door, a step that many actors have taken with only a token few being able to move past those roles to make a living in Hollywood.

Fragasso, on the other hand, offers a unique perspective, a look into how the creatives behind films like Troll 2 view their work. In Fragasso's case, he and screenwriter Rossella Drudi had a definitive vision for the film and executed it, and is happy that his film has a following. But he doesn't understand why fans laugh at scenes not meant to be funny. Legitimately doesn't understand, and in the documentary, he's quick to lash out at the cast and crew who mock the film and their part in it. It seems improbable that a director can't see the painfully obvious, but it's something that is heard over and over from directors about their own work, from Tommy Wiseau, Ed Wood, or even someone like Tom Six, who vigorously defends his Human Centipede films against all logic. If anything, Best Worst Movie is proof positive that no one intentionally goes in with the expectation of making a God-awful piece of shite like Troll 2, but when it goes south you can run from it, defend it, or, like Hardy, embrace it for what it is and join in the fun.

Best Worst Movie is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.