There are plenty of bad movies out there, but very few really bad movies. In the latter category stands Troll 2, one of those nuggets that make you wonder aloud how it ever got made. Originally released in 1990, this cheap-looking, cheap-feeling, poorly conceived, poorly acted attempt at a horror movie is widely considered one of the worst films of all time, becoming the most embraced clunker since Plan 9 from Outer Space. This odd case of lemons turning into lemonade is chronicled in Best Worst Movie, a consistently zippy ride for any fan of moviemaking, and one of the funniest, most entertaining documentaries of recent years.
Director Michael Stephenson, a child actor when he appeared in Troll 2, focuses his curious tale on a man named George Hardy. George is a smalltown Southern dentist with a big personality, a giant smile, and a very short, very forgettable movie career. His lead role in Troll 2 (he'd appear in one other film, in 2007) was once just storytelling fodder. But when cult cinema clubs and midnight movies rediscovered the movie, George was back in the spotlight. (Okay, he was never really in the spotlight, but you get the point.)
Choosing to make Best Worst Movie a version of The George Hardy Story is one of many fine decisions Stephenson makes. As a talkative, expressive, lovable guy, Hardy is the perfect documentary subject for a comic tale like this one. And his experiences reflect the entire Troll 2 world, from the confusing, ill-fated shoot to the shame of the film's release, to the bizarre fame bestowed on the movie and its cast in the late 2000s.
Beneath the surface, Best Worst Movie contains a hundred little stories that make up the Troll 2 folklore -- and symbolize a generation's worth of bad horror flicks and failed movie careers. An obvious attempt to capitalize on the growing VHS market, Troll 2 (no relation to Troll, by the way) was written and directed by a married Italian couple who, to this day, defend the movie as an insightful piece about man's existence. It's funny enough when director Claudio Fragasso expresses his conceit in public. But it's riotous when he heckles his own cast at a Q&A, nearly 20 years after the film's release. And he's being serious.
For Hardy, the new journey is a glorious magic carpet ride. We get the impression he already loved taking a big bite out of life (he is a dentist, after all), so the Troll 2 experience is simply an unexpected bonus. Hardy poses for pictures, quotes lines for fans -- inane, illogical lines, but lines nonetheless -- even recreates scenes when asked. He's a bundle of promotional fun. As Hardy and Stephenson travel to reconnect with their oddball castmates, Best Worst Movie offers us a cross-section of retired, unknown SAG actors, their mental health and life success ranging from stable to strange to sad.
When Troll 2 begins touring the famed independent movie houses across America, the excitement is infectious. As Stephenson shows, the horrid film that made the word "nilbog" famous (psst, it's "goblin" backwards) caught the crap-cult-cool zeitgeist at just the right time, filling theaters and making movie fans scream and laugh in childlike delight. Even if fame is fleeting for guys like George Hardy, Best Worst Movie shows us that, unlike lightning, it might strike twice.
Director Michael Stephenson, a child actor when he appeared in Troll 2, focuses his curious tale on a man named George Hardy. George is a smalltown Southern dentist with a big personality, a giant smile, and a very short, very forgettable movie career. His lead role in Troll 2 (he'd appear in one other film, in 2007) was once just storytelling fodder. But when cult cinema clubs and midnight movies rediscovered the movie, George was back in the spotlight. (Okay, he was never really in the spotlight, but you get the point.)
Choosing to make Best Worst Movie a version of The George Hardy Story is one of many fine decisions Stephenson makes. As a talkative, expressive, lovable guy, Hardy is the perfect documentary subject for a comic tale like this one. And his experiences reflect the entire Troll 2 world, from the confusing, ill-fated shoot to the shame of the film's release, to the bizarre fame bestowed on the movie and its cast in the late 2000s.
Beneath the surface, Best Worst Movie contains a hundred little stories that make up the Troll 2 folklore -- and symbolize a generation's worth of bad horror flicks and failed movie careers. An obvious attempt to capitalize on the growing VHS market, Troll 2 (no relation to Troll, by the way) was written and directed by a married Italian couple who, to this day, defend the movie as an insightful piece about man's existence. It's funny enough when director Claudio Fragasso expresses his conceit in public. But it's riotous when he heckles his own cast at a Q&A, nearly 20 years after the film's release. And he's being serious.
For Hardy, the new journey is a glorious magic carpet ride. We get the impression he already loved taking a big bite out of life (he is a dentist, after all), so the Troll 2 experience is simply an unexpected bonus. Hardy poses for pictures, quotes lines for fans -- inane, illogical lines, but lines nonetheless -- even recreates scenes when asked. He's a bundle of promotional fun. As Hardy and Stephenson travel to reconnect with their oddball castmates, Best Worst Movie offers us a cross-section of retired, unknown SAG actors, their mental health and life success ranging from stable to strange to sad.
When Troll 2 begins touring the famed independent movie houses across America, the excitement is infectious. As Stephenson shows, the horrid film that made the word "nilbog" famous (psst, it's "goblin" backwards) caught the crap-cult-cool zeitgeist at just the right time, filling theaters and making movie fans scream and laugh in childlike delight. Even if fame is fleeting for guys like George Hardy, Best Worst Movie shows us that, unlike lightning, it might strike twice.
