Troll
Dir: John Carl Buechler
1986
***
Troll 2 seems to get spoken about far more than the original film, which is far more interesting. Both are bad films but there is something quite beautiful about John Carl Buechler's 1986 original. Firstly, Sony Bono turns into a forest. What other film can claim that? Not only does Cher's ex bloom out of existence, but Dr. Maureen Robinson from Lost in Space talks to a giant Mushroom face and enchanted sprites (who have taken over an apartment block) sing to their hearts content in one of the best musical numbers (sort of) of all time. It's low budget horror/fantasy that I love the 80's for. I also love it when SFX and make-up artists being film directors, they're films are consistently awful but always brilliant. 1982's Poltergeist is famous for young Heather O'Rouke's performance but Jenny Beck is almost as good as the little girl possessed by the Troll. Interestingly, both the father and son of the main family are called Harry Potter, and I've always wondered if J.K. Rowling was a fan. Troll also represents the acting debut of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, she's quite good too but she's often shied away from talking about on talk shows and obviously isn't too fond of it. I've seen some bad films, this is one of them but it is definitely of the 'So bad it's good' variety. Often in low budget films, particularly in horror, creativity undoes negativity and this is a good example of this. Unlike Troll 2 which is absolute crap.