Director: Michael Stephenson
Year Released: 2009
Rating: 2.0
Director Stephenson, but a lad when he was cast in the supremely dreadful Troll 2, decides to revisit the cast members some twenty years later and scope out the bizarre cult now surrounding the movie, which had the distinction (for the longest time) of being rated the worst movie ever made (according to the 'tastemakers' who frequent the Internet Movie Database). Dr. George Hardy (dentist by trade, showman by nature), who played Stephenson's character's father, is a magnetic personality and the centerpiece of this documentary: though he has a stable career (and healthy eating habits), he's proud of his appearance in the movie and all too happy to act as cheerleader for it, going around with Stephenson to talk to other cast members who have either gone Full Crazy or drifted into other careers. But as a testament to a work of trash as having an 'emotional effect on people,' it's misguided: the real reason why people line up to re-watch Troll 2 is for kitsch value and to feel 'superior' to it (the 'fans' like it because it doesn't 'threaten' them as a valid, potent work of art and it doesn't challenge them). I'm sure there's something to the statement that it's difficult to make a movie as inept as Troll 2 - that you can't 'set out' to be 'that bad' - but honestly, so what? For the record: I detest Rocky Horror Picture Show too. Give me Jodorowsky any day.
