Troll 2 (1990)

Troll 2 is what happens when you try to set out to make a silly horror comedy without any good jokes or a cast that lacks any degree of comedic timing or talent on a shoestring budget. You get a movie that does end up being humorous, but for all the wrong reasons.

First, viewers should know that Troll 2 engages in a deceptive bit of false advertising. If you are thinking that a movie called Troll 2 should feature a Troll or maybe two Trolls, then you will be in for a grave disappointment. Because I will let you know up front that Troll 2 is about Goblins. Yes, that is right... Goblins. I have no idea why Troll 2 features Goblins, but I can only imagine that the script for this movie was simply tacked onto this project when the studio decided to make a sequel, and nobody either bothered or cared enough to make the changes necessary.

Troll 2 begins as an innocent young family engages in a house switching program with a Amish family in the rural town of Nilbog. When they arrive at the community they soon discover that things are not normal in this community thanks in part to their psychic son Joshua. Joshua has a completely inexplicable ability to communicate with his dead grandpa Seth, who for some reason can appear to him through mirrors and warns Joshua that his family must leave the town of Nilbog as soon as possible.

Apparently Goblins have taken control of the small city and brainwashed its denizens by using a strange green vegetable slime implanted in their food. Joshua tries to warn his family of the Goblin danger by hilariously peeing on his families food before they can become poisoned. Of course, his family refuses to believe him and his claims about Goblins and contact with grandpa Seth. Most of the middle portion of the film consists of completely random scenes as the Waits family blindly stumbles into the goblins clutches while Joshua tries to warn them. Eventually, Joshua figures out that Nilbog is actually Goblin spelled backwards, but by then his family has been captured by goblins.

Troll 2 is simply a mess from start to finish. You can tell that director director Claudio Fargasso was trying to create a clever, but tense and creepy film somewhere along the line of a cross between Gremlins and the Ghoulies, but you can tell that the cast of this film is made almost completely of amateur actors, and the script feels almost unfinished as there is no internal logic to the film at all. Sometimes Granpa Seth can appear to Joshua and other times he can't. It is also never very clear what the Goblins goal is other than being Goblins and enslaving this family.

Which reminds me, the goblins and special effects for this movie look like complete shit. The goblins themselves are actually nothing more than guys in pajamas and cheap Halloween masks.

Troll 2 has become legendary for how bad it is, so keep this in mind when you are watching this and you might have a good time.

1/10