Sometime last summer I was at the Alamo Drafthouse enjoying the pre-show and a cold frosty when the strangest promo for an upcoming Rolling Roadshow I'd ever seen appeared on the screen. Usually a Rolling Roadshow consists of a well-known movie screening at an iconic location that figures prominently in the film - The Searchers at Monument Valley, Close Encounters at Devil's Tower, that sort of thing. This particular Rolling Roadshow preview promised a screening of Troll 2 in Nilbog, Utah. At the time, this didn't sound like an event that could possibly appeal to...well, anyone, really, but a friend sitting next to me insisted that no, actually, Troll 2 had developed quite a cult following.
The extent of that following becomes clear in Best Worst Movie, a new documentary by the star of Troll 2, Michael Paul Stephenson. In 1989, at the age of 11, Stephenson played Joshua Waits, a boy forced to do battle with vegetarian goblins bent on turning his family into edible plant people. (For further plot details - and believe me, the preceding description doesn't begin to scratch the surface of this demented tale - check out the latest installment of the Unwatchable series, which just so happens to be Troll 2.) The movie was never released in theaters, and when Stephenson finally got a look at Troll 2 on VHS, he was mortified. It was quite possibly the worst movie ever made.
Stephenson was not alone in his disappointment. His co-star George Hardy, an Alabama dentist who played his father in the movie, had hoped Troll 2 would launch him to stardom. It was not to be - at least, not in the way that he imagined. But a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity, as Stephenson learned a few years ago when he was invited to a Troll 2 screening in New York. The film had accumulated a devoted fan base over the years, not because it was any sort of effective sequel to the immortal Sonny Bono vehicle Troll (in fact, it has nothing to do with the original), but because it was simply insane.
Stephenson and Hardy overcame their initial distaste for Troll 2 and learned to embrace it as the beloved cult object it became, but the same can't quite be said for the movie's director, Claudio Fragasso. Fluent in a sort of Italian-English-gibberish, Fragasso believes he has made an important eco-horror film, and while he is delighted to be invited to a screening - believing that, at long last, America has come to appreciate the nuances of his vision - he is shocked and disgusted to discover that his new fans regard his masterpiece as the worst movie ever made. (Not that this dissuades him from announcing plans to proceed with a sequel, to be called, naturally, Troll 2 Part 2.)
Best Worst Movie is a hilarious, affectionate tribute to the movie, the cult, and the cast, most notably Hardy, the world's most affable dentist. A beloved figure almost everywhere he goes (as he learns the hard way, the Troll 2 cult hasn't quite taken over the UK yet), the square-jawed, perpetually upbeat Hardy couldn't be more thrilled with all the newfound attention, and seemingly never tires of repeating his most famous line, "You can't piss on hospitality," even to people who have no idea what he's talking about.
Stephenson's documentary is unexpectedly moving at times, as when he and Hardy pay a visit to their long-lost co-star Margo Prey, now a frail, haunted recluse, or to a depressing Dallas horror convention littered with the dregs of B-movies past. Stephenson offers no definitive explanation for the fragile alchemy that transforms a forgotten no-budget horror sequel into a beloved cult object, mainly because there isn't one. In its own twisted way, Best Worst Movie is a joyous celebration of the continuing mystery and magic of movies.
