(Editor's note: This review first ran in March 2009 during the South by Southwest Film Festival.)
"Troll 2" — it's as bad as it sounds. The 1989 straight-to-VHS creature feature is a blundering fiesta of rubber masks and arthritic acting, the "Citizen Lame" of no-budget goblin pictures.
Yet, in the dubious post-modern practice of enshrining fetid pop culture with a wink and a poke, "Troll 2" has been rescued from oblivion by geeky fans who revel in its howling ineptitude. They throw watching parties, recite lines, act out scenes, peddle T-shirts.
Michael Paul Stephenson, one of "Troll 2's" stars, directed "Best Worst Movie," a fitting, good-natured documentary tribute to what many delight in calling the worst movie ever made. Stephenson rounds up other cast members, including wild-eyed George Hardy, now a popular Alabama dentist, and documents sold-out screenings across the country.
The Alamo Drafthouse, Austin's sanctuary for cinematic detritus, of course plays a pivotal role in the revival, taking the movie on the road. Fans scream, get autographs, dress up as trolls.
The only one excluded from the joke is its Italian director, who flinches when audiences laugh at the wrong parts. He's unaware that he almost outdid Ed Wood in the degree of sincerity (and delusion) he invested in an enterprise wholly unencumbered by talent. (It brings to mind such latter-day movie gaffes as "The Room" and "Birdemic.")
"Best Worst Movie" is a rich experience. As fun as it is, it reverberates with cultural and psychological complexities you wouldn't expect.
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