Best Worst Movie ( and Troll 2)

Last night I went to a double feature at Central Cinema which included a screening of the documentary Best Worst Movie and the film Troll 2.  Best Worst Movie iss about the making and/or the revival to cult status of Troll 2 - which for some time had 1 of 10 stars on IMDB's ratings (seems to have since moved up to 2 as I write) - though was beloved by many. Released in 1990 it went straight to video.  I hadn't seen the source film until tonight which was screened after Best Worst Movie

Well, if you haven't seen Troll 2 I would say it's quite an experience.  It truly is a bad movie.  Though I can also see why it'd become a cult classic.  If you're watching it to laugh at it it's a far more rewarding experience than if you expected a horror film (sort of like Splice).  It's hard to really explain why it's so bad with words alone. There's a bunch of entertaining quotes about it in the doc. One of them points out that it's rare to have a film fail on so many levels, acting, directing, script, music - but this one does. The odd part I guess is how earnest everyone in the film seems to be. Very few appear to be professional actors - most only acted in this one film. One of the best lines was about how there are bad movies made by people who don't really know how to make a movie, but this was made by people who clearly know how to make a movie, but just perhaps had received a recent blow to the head.

A better sense comes from watching parts of the film.  Here are some excerpts from it:







Now having seen Troll 2 I don't think it's going to get on my personal list of bad films that I'll watch no matter how many times I stumble across them on TV.  But I'm glad I got to see both films with a live audience who were clearly big fans of Troll 2 and totally dug Best Worst Movie.  That definitely enhanced the viewing experience for me, and I'd suggest that if you're interested in either you try to catch one of the remaining screenings at Central Cinema.

Some other facts I learned from watching the documentary and the film on which it was based - some of which are just amusing OR serve to explain some of the issues with Troll 2

• Troll 2 has absolutely no relationship with the film Troll.  In fact, technically there are no trolls in Troll 2.
• The script was written by the Italian wife of the Italian director both of whom appear to be characters in their own right. He didn't speak English very well in the present day interviews - it was mentioned by several of the actors that his English was "much better now" - apparently they didn't really understand him at all when they were making the film.
• Almost no one in the film seemed to understand the plot of the film they were making. Which isn't altogether surprising as there doesn't really appear to be more coherence there.
• It's an anti-vegetarian screed wherein the bad guys (who are goblins, there actually are no trolls for some reason) turn people into plants and then eat them. They're largely defeated by a little boy eating a "double bologna sandwich"
• One of the most famous scenes ends with the dad delivering the line "you can't piss on hospitality" (partially captured in the first clip above).  For context (what little there is) the lead in to this is the family about to eat food from the goblins (or townsfolk of Snilog - goblins backwards) which will turn them into plants. The goblins spend most of the film attempting to force feed the family as they for some reason need to turn them into plants so they can eat them.  Why they cannot eat food from the surrounding forest is entirely unclear.  The boy's dead grandfather (who is a main driver of the story for some reason) insists he do anything he needs to to get them to not eat the food laid out for them. So the boy decides to pee all over their food. Thankfully this is off screen.
• May be the only film in history to satisfy the under-served market of fetishists who fantasize about having sex in exploding popcorn.  If it's not then it's definitely the only one that unselfconsciously involves the exploding corn as a "reasonable" part of the plot. 
• At least one of the non professional actors played his role which on temporary leave from an inpatient mental health facility. Yet you can easily get the impression quite a few members of the cast had similar issues.

The doc itself centers mainly around the father in the story (played by George Hardy), who in real life seems like a pretty nice guy - and is one of the the most socially well adjusted of the bunch. He was a dentist before his role, and a dentist afterwards. So appears to be financially stable - though with regrets he didn't go into acting full time (not mentioned in the doc is his more recent role in Street Team Massacre). Since he's not really that good at the acting his limited career doesn't seem to be a loss for the universe).  He's definitely enjoying basking in the glow of the film's new found world wide cult status. A lot of the other "actors" in the film though don't necessarily seem as well adjusted. So part of the film is actually sad.

Then there's also an aspect to how people view their work in this type of situation as so different from the reality. The director of the film gets a good amount of screen time in the doc. Everyone from his team in Italy seems to be under the impression it's a masterpiece - with someone suggesting audiences are just now "getting it" thanks to the success of Harry Potter.  And there's a extended description of it from them being a parable for the bonds that bind a family together against the forces of the world that seek to destroy it - which is pretty hilarious once one sees the final product. Someone compares their performances to those of Casablanca too - though that could be one of the actors.  Oh, and the director is none too pleased when he realizes all the packed screenings he's invited to 20 years later involve people mostly laughing at the film. It's as if he made "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and then became agitated when folks didn't think it was Hamlet.

Overall I enjoyed Best Worst Movie.  I'm not sure it entirely lived up to the hype I've heard surrounding it but I had a good time even with heightened expectations.  It's funny and an interesting look at the cult success of a movie I really wasn't aware of before watching it.  It does leave some unanswered questions - most of which for me were around what the economics of even making a film like Troll 2 are all about.  It's worth taking a look for this film, but if you can see it with a group of super-fans in a theater that's definitely the way to go.  In the case of the screening at Central Cinema, George Hardy even made a live appearance via Skype before the screening for a brief Q&A which was a big hit.  The photo directly above and to the left shows Clinton McClung of the theater getting the crowd revved up before the show.