A notoriously bad movie is the subject of this crowd-pleasing documentary exploring the cult, fame, and making of Claudio Fragasso's hilariously inept Troll 2. Curious things can happen to movies when they hit both the home-rental and cable market -- for this 1990 sequel (in name only, since there's no other connection to John Carl Buechler's charming puppet-filled original), an obsession has organically popped up with select viewers across the world. Movie parties, dedicated websites, collectible posters, T-shirts -- you name it, Troll 2 has nearly cornered the market on bad-movie love, with its hardcore followers watching it incessantly and praising its many uniquely terrible qualities. Yet this isn't quite what the cast envisioned after they were first sent a VHS copy of this weird movie directed by that crazy Italian director who once barked orders at them.
It was more like heartbreak. Their performances were bad. The movie was bad. Years later it was deemed "the worst movie of all time." So the cast moved on with their lives. The lead teen actress continued in the profession, but was sure to leave Troll 2 off her resumé. Another teenaged actor turned to music, with others settling into life's normalities, far beyond this cinematic dark spot in their past. Yet Troll 2 wasn't done with them yet, as starring actor-turned-dentist George Hardy learned when his MySpace page blew up with adoration from fans he never knew he had. Thankfully for viewers, there's a lot of Hardy in the pic. He's a naturally affable and good-natured guy who's just as in love with experiencing the cheering crowds at various sold-out screenings around America as he is laughing it up with his small-town patients.
Hardy also finds a dark side to his newfound fame, which is where Best Worst Movie really gets its legs. As soon as the extremely likable Dr. Dentist heads out to crowds who aren't already converts to the Troll 2 bible, reality hits -- and it hits hard. Empty seats await him and the rest of the cast at a convention, and one whiff of the crowd and the has-been B-listers at a horror con sets Hardy off in a way that completely goes against his good-natured roots. In the meantime, Claudio, the director, is pulled into the bad-movie circuit and faces a public (along with his like-minded former cast) who poke fun at his work, which he still deems to be art. This all paves the way for some juicy confrontations as the former child star of Troll 2-turned-Best Worst Movie director, Michael Paul Stephenson, captures some truly cringe-worthy moments between Fragasso and his "actor dogs," as he likes to call them.
Stephenson covers a lot of ground, from the adoring crowds to the cast reunions (one of which is straight out of David Lynch territory). Yet there does seem to be something missing from the director's approach. When it's revealed early on in a confessional style that the bratty kid in the pic is actually the documentary's director, one assumes that there will likely be a bit more of a personal slant to the proceedings than there actually ends up being. Instead, the filmmaker takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to the rest of the documentary, saying very little about it all as he captures this whirlwind that swept him and his old peers up. Perhaps this was his intent.
Either way, if the newfound filmmaker has achieved anything it's that not only is his documentary a better-made film than that of its subject matter, but Best Worst Movie taps into the same delight that makes Troll 2 so irresistible. So, in a way, this is a best-of-both-worlds scenario -- it's well worth a look for the initiated as well as for virginal viewers looking to see what all of the Troll 2 hubbub is about. Best Worst Movie is a rare glimpse into what it's like to look back on moviemaking gone horribly -- and wonderfully -- wrong, both as an avid outside viewer, as well as from an insider's point-of-view. Therein lies the power of film -- for even at its worst, unspectacular cinema can still bring people together to realize that sometimes you have to celebrate a past failure in order to forgive yourself for it.
