I had first been introduced to Troll 2 a few years ago by my older sibling. Let me say, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into by agreeing to watch it, and even now years later I can’t decide if it was the best or worst decision of my life.
The story follows a boy named Joshua Waits and his family as they go on a vacation to a town called Nilbog. Following t
he death of his grandfather, Grandpa Seth, Joshua continues to be visited by the old man’s spirit as he warns Joshua about the dangers of Nilbog. The family, with the aid of Grandpa Seth, have to surv
ive a town filled with goblins disguised as residents who want to turn them into green goo to devour.
No that is not an error, the family faces off against goblins, not trolls as the title may suggest. In fact, the movie does not mention trolls once throughout the 90 minute film.
The horror/comedy movie directed by Claudio Fragasso was released on October 12, 1990 and only had around $100,000 for its budget for about three weeks of shooting, according to Vice. Fragasso would later go on to create movies such as “Teste Rasate” and “Palermo Milano Solo Andata”, two of his more successful films. However, whether or not Troll 2 can be called successful depends on if one would call the movie good.
In the movie, the goblins act as the main antagonists. Their main method of killing is to make people eat green goop to turn people into plant paste to be eaten, as the goblins find meat disgusting. When a character named Drew goes
into Nilbog looking for some food, he goes into a little store and when asking for bacon and eggs, the employee gags and expresses his distaste for it, saying that “We’re vegetarians here in Nilbog”, but then is given a jug of milk instead.
If the story its
elf doesn’t give a
good idea on how the movie was received, it has a 5% on Rotten Tomatoes and is often referred to as one of the worst movies to be directed and created, although in my opinion, it’s one of those movies that is so atrociously bad it’s good.
In one of the more infamous scenes, a boy named Arnold and an unnamed girl are captured by the mother of the goblins (who is a normal–although witchy–human). She gives them green broth, and the girl starts flailing around while crying out in supposed pain, but she somehow is able to climb up the stairs and lay down on the second floor balcony without any issue. While on the floor, she turns into the green paste and is eaten by the goblins who live in the woman’s witch house. Arnold, being frozen to the spot, infamously says, “They’re eating her, and then they’re going to eat me,” as the frame goes to the goblins eating, then back to him screaming, “OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD!” with a completely straight and emotionless face. It may seem exaggerated, but that’s exactly how it sounds in the movie.
There are many other ridiculous scenes that completely take away from the horror, if it can even be called that. For example, there is another moment closer to the start when the family makes it to Nilbog and the goblins leave food behind that would turn them into green paste, and to avoid it happening to his family, it is heavily hinted at that Joshua urinates on the food. Even the scenes that are meant to be ‘scary’ completely fall flat, either because of the writing or the actors inability to show fear. At no point was I scared, but I was curled over laughing for a good portion of it.
This is definitely one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The special effects are cheap, the costumes of the goblins are obvious, as the masks are just that, masks that don’t move and they’re more funny than scary. The cast all have little to no prior acting experience, so many scenes fail or sound completely off because of it, and the writing doesn’t help in that regard either. However, I will forever recommend this movie purely due to how ridiculous and frankly hilarious it is.