Best Worst Movie (2009)

George Hardy is a happy dentist beloved by everyone including his ex-wife. In 1989, he acted in a small budget horror in Utah. It is Troll 2, and by everybody's opinion, it is one of the worst movies of all times. This documentary interviews various actors involved in the movie and even they agree with its poor quality. However, the movie has since garnered a cult following who love the poor quality but also the sincere artistic effort. The movie lovers start showing it in festivals and cheered on by Hardy. Then there is the movie's Italian director Claudio Fragasso who insists on its artistic merits. There is an unadulterated joy of movies in this documentary. There are also great characters just like any fictional movies. There is a minor concern as the movie struggles to find a specific ending. Claudio seeing the film print is probably a solid climax. This is directed by Michael Stephenson who was the child actor lead in the original Troll 2.

A documentary about the infamous "Troll 2", this is a very entertaining look at the film's legacy and the nature of fandom in general. It is directed by Michael Stephenson, who played the lead role of Joshua Waits. He explains that he first saw the film when he received a copy of it on VHS for Christmas 1991 and that it was pretty soul destroying experience since it was just so awful. He spent years trying to forget that it even existed but he eventually decided to embrace it, which is why he made the documentary. However, the fact that he is behind the camera for most of the film means that this is about as much as we learn about the film's impact on his life, which is a shame. The documentary interviews some of the most die-hard fans of "Troll 2" and there are a few excellent descriptions of the film and its appeal. One fan claims that it is as if an alien picked up broadcasts of Earth films and then tried to make one of their own. Another fan compares it to a religion which keeps growing as more and more people introduce their friends to the film. The horror film journalist M.J. Simpson says that the reason that people love the film so much is that it may be complete trash but the filmmakers were honestly trying to make it good, comparing the complete lack of cynicism on display to Ed Wood's films. I think that this is a pretty apt description.The main focus of the documentary is Stephenson's on screen father George Hardy, a dentist in Alexander City, Utah. He is an extremely nice man who is basically beloved by everyone. Even his ex-wife Merry says that she could not imagine anyone disliking him. Although he harboured dreams of becoming an actor, he did not pursue them as his parents convinced him that it was not exactly a stable income. His mother thought that "Troll 2" was so dreadful that she left halfway through the screening! The film shows Hardy attending a good 10 or 15 screenings of the film all over the US where he is treated like a rock star by the fans. He really laps it up! There is a very bittersweet moment though when he and several other castmembers go to a convention in Birmingham and the Q&A panel is only attended by seven or eight people, some of whom I am convinced were there by mistake from their expressions. From what we see in the documentary, no one went to the signing. This would not have been so bad if it were the comparatively close Birmingham in Alabama but, no, it was the rather more distant Birmingham in England. Hardly anyone there has even heard of "Troll 2". John Schneider says that he has but I am convinced that he was just being polite. Hardy finds it hilarious that they have come so far and no one is interested but another castmember Darren Ewing (of "Oh my GOOOOOOOOOODDDD!" fame) is clearly furious to have wasted so much of his time. It later shows them at a horror convention in Dallas but there is only slightly more interest there. In an extremely funny moment, Hardy comments that many of the attendees have gingivitis and estimates that only 5% floss regularly.In contrast to Hardy, however, the director Claudio Fragasso does not come across very well. He is short-tempered, incredibly rude and aggressive, often referring to the actors as "dogs." There were a few times where I would have thought that he was going to hit someone if I hadn't already seen the documentary about five years ago. He attends several of the screenings but he resents the fact that "Troll 2" is considered by many people to be the worst film ever made. On the other hand, he also thinks that it is almost as big a compliment to be the director of the worst film ever made as it is to be the director of the best film ever made. None of the castmembers really have a kind word to say about him and he is clearly not enamoured of them either. His English is far from fluent but it is seemingly much better than it was when they made "Troll 2" in 1989. His wife Rossella Drudi explains that they made the goblins vegetarians as the fact that so many of her friends were vegetarians made her angry (for some reason). She describes the film as a "ferocious examination of today's society." Right...Connie Young (formerly Connie McFarland) probably had the most negative reaction to the film of any of the castmembers since she realised that her performance as Holly was abysmal from the moment that she saw it. She is still working as an actress, albeit with limited success, and "Troll 2" does not have pride of her place on her résumé. Imagine that. She says that several times people have recognised her from the film at auditions and she knew that her name would be crossed off the list the moment that she left the room. She also admits that she does not understand the fascination that people have with "Troll 2". Don Packard, who played the Nilbog store owner, tells us that he was institutionalised due to serious psychological problems in the late 1980s and he was released for several days in order to work on the film. When he finally saw it after almost 20 years, he said that he was seriously troubled at the time as opposed to acting as if he were troubled as the store owner.Overall, this is a great documentary on the impact that cult films can have on people's lives, for better and for worse.

As documentaries go, BEST WORST MOVIE is an unpolished gem unto itself. Having spent many years trying to convince people who had absolutely no aspirations to fame or fortune to star in some of my camcorder classics, I can sympathize with the director of TROLL 2. I can also sympathize with some of the people who ended up in TROLL 2: there are at least TWO people in this documentary who probably had no business at all being allowed to walk the streets unsupervised, much less being recruited for a feature film (one man admits to being almost unable to distinguish between Reality and the Fantasy that was TROLL 2)... In my own case, I often had to settle for casting KIDS, because none of the adults I knew were interested in my movie-making attempts. As for TROLL 2 being "the best worst movie" ever made, consider this: I was working at a video rental joint one night and a man walked in, came up to me, and said he wanted "to see the worst movie ever made." I swept my arm toward the New Release wall. "Take your pick," I told him. "No," he argued: "I mean THE HOWLING 5." I laughed, because I'd laughed when I saw THE HOWLING 5. "What makes you so sure THE HOWLING 5 is the worst movie ever made?" "Because I directed it," he told me. I looked up his account and, sure enough, he HAD directed it. It's all subjective, I guess, but it's hard to argue with the Director... My favorite scene in the documentary: when the filmmaker asks to be directed to the section of a video store where they have TROLL 2 and he's guided to the "HOLY F***ING S***!" section...

Oh, "Troll 2", how I love thee! Yes, the 1990 "horror" film that doesn't even have trolls in it is widely considered to be one of the worst films ever created. (Even holding the #1 worst spot on this site at one time) It's one of those "so-bad-that-it's-good" movies- the film is just so fundamentally flawed in every way that it becomes strangely watchable and enjoyable. It ranks up there with "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "The Room" as some of the Best-Worst movies. (Hence, this hilarious documentary's title.)"Best Worst Movie" is directed by the child "star" of "Troll 2", Michael Stephenson, as he analyzes the impact the film has made, and gives us glimpses at the lives of the principal actors involved.And it is a heart-felt, nostalgic ride, filled with great real-life "characters" and some touching moments. We mainly follow George Hardy, who played Stephenson's father in the film. He is a decent, divorced father with a teenaged daughter, a nice house and a successful dentist office. He's your small-town, friendly guy. Everyone loves him- even his ex-wife, who appears in the movie to speak on his behalf. We also meet a good portion of the other actors, and learn about the troubled production of "Troll 2" (including shooting with a foreign crew that didn't speak English, and working with a director whom doesn't seem too open to criticism or suggestions), and how many of the actors tried to forget about it. Of course, films like these never die, and the film became a cult classic for its unintentional awfulness and hilarious acting. The YouTube generation especially has made it into a sort of Holy Bible of Bad Movies.So we follow George and the others, as they slowly reclaim "Troll 2", and enjoy the success it has found. It's a lot of fun seeing George in particular, who you can tell actually enjoys acting, running around and giddily telling people about how he was in the "worst movie ever" with a smile. He's so happy to have been part in something so notable, and it's quite touching how much joy he can make out of it, when such a thing would jade most other people.There isn't a whole lot that happens in this documentary, to be honest. No real underlying theme or message, per say. But it is still a fun analysis of a pop-culture, cult icon, and those involved with it. There is also some extremely unexpected emotion in a few key scenes, including a sequence where Stephenson and George track down the actress who portrayed the mother in the film- only to learn that she has become reclusive, delusional and is clearly "out of touch." It added a weight to the film that I quite admired.I really enjoyed this. It's not the strongest documentary, but it's one of the "funnest" (I know that's not a word), and is a joy to watch. I give it a great 9 out of 10.