Troll 2 is a Trash Masterpiece [So Bad it’s Great]

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Feb 18, 2022
Troll 2

Welcome to So Bad It’s Great. This recurring segment will champion films that may not be good in the conventional sense that had their heart in the right place. The titles featured here will be overly earnest, unintentionally silly, and undeniably fun. 

In this installment, we’ll be taking a look back at the inexcusably bad sequel in name only, Troll 2. 

Troll 2 is the Citizen Kane of bad films. How so? Well, to start, it’s a follow-up to a film with which it has no connection, aside from its moniker. Moreover, Troll 2 isn’t even about trolls but features goblins as the primary nemeses. The performances are overzealous, the dialogue is trash, and the nonsensical plot is intended to serve as a scathing indictment of vegetarians. But everything wrong with this film converges to make it the perfect flick to put on at a bad movie night with a group of friends and a fridge filled with brewskies. 

The flick sees Michael Waits (George Hardy) and his family arrange a home swap with a family from a desolate town called Nilbog (Yes, that is goblin spelled backwards). But shortly after arriving in Nilbog, the Waits family learns something sinister is afoot in the seemingly idyllic community. The residents are actually monsters planning to turn them into human plants!   

Many of the film’s problems stem from a truly horrendous screenplay. Among those challenges is the ridiculous nature of the dialogue, which is always clunky and unnatural. One such instance is this exchange: “What’s wrong with having friends?” Which receives the retort: “Nothing, if you want to remain a virgin for life; you take them to bed with you too and I don’t believe in group sex”. The film is full of similar exchanges that are quite quotable but never land in the way they were intended.  

Further, when the patriarch of the Waits family is listing off their home’s amenities to the family with whom they are swapping houses, he includes the fact that their home has a refrigerator as a selling point, as if its something newfangled and luxurious. An isolated incident like that might not be enough to spoil the film. But Troll 2 is a series of inexplicable and bizarre encounters just like that. As such, this flick is great fun to lampoon while watching with like-minded friends. But all of its entertainment value stems from its gross ineptitude.  

Part of what keeps me coming back to this beautiful disaster is the insistence of its creators that it’s actually a good movie. The documentary Best Worst Movie might just make for a perfect double bill should you feel like taking this trash masterpiece for a test drive. Director Claudio Fragasso maintains that he made a quality film. He even goes so far as to vehemently defend his wife, Rossella Drudi’s, train wreck of a screenplay, getting increasingly agitated at the suggestion that anything about the picture is misguided or lacking in quality. Drudi has even referred to Troll 2 as “a ferocious analysis of today’s society”.

Troll 2 is not for anyone looking for depth, meaning, believable performances, or a cohesive narrative. But if it’s mirror monologues, ghostly grandfathers with supernatural abilities, gratuitous overacting, seductive dancing involving an ear of corn, and anti-vegetarian propaganda you seek, Troll 2 speaks your language. If you have yet to experience this trash masterpiece, you can check it out for free (with ads) on Pluto! 

Stay tuned to the site for future installments of So Bad it’s Great and in the meantime, let us know your thoughts on Troll 2 on  Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

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