Review #517: 'Troll' (1986)

Perhaps more famous now because of its 'sequel' Troll 2 (1990) - an unrelated cash-in that is frequented with the 'worst movie ever' tag - Troll continued the popular trend in the 1980's of giving a darker edge to children's movies and fantastical stories. After moving in to an apartment complex full of colourful, eccentric characters, the Potter families' daughter Wendy (Jenny Beck) is attacked in their basement by a troll, who possesses her. Soon enough, the troll is breeding many other fairytale monsters. Wendy's brother Harry (Noah Hathaway) notices her strange behaviour and alerts resident Eunice St. Clair (June Lockhart), who just so happens to be a powerful witch.

The story is ludicrous and the execution is generally confused in terms of tone and target audience, but Troll does manage to muster a certain charm through its puppet design, designed by director John Carl Buechler. There is a bizarre moment at around the half way mark where the troll and his creatures burst into a macabre sing-a-long, and single-handedly manages to rescue the film from complete disaster. Add to that the intense watchability of the great Michael Moriarty, whose hangdog face and impeccable comic timing always raises a laugh, and you have a shit film, rather than a very shit one.

It's confusing as to what it is trying to be, whether a twisted take on familiar fairytale conventions, a creepy kids film, or a horror-comedy. It manages to be all of these, but they are thrown together to create a huge mess of a film. The plot is far too incoherent to make any real sense of, and the film babbles its way to a silly, yet colourful climax. It's one of those films that would be a laugh if watched with friends and many beers, but watched alone stone cold sober, it's a drag. Possibly the only interesting fact that comes from Troll is its involvement in a legal battle with J.K. Rowling, due to similarities with the character names (Moriarty and Hathaway are name Harry Potter Sr. and Jr.) and magical aspects, but it seems a bit far-fetched to me. Worth a watch for fans of 80's puppet horror, and for a young and very beautiful Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but otherwise this is destined for bargain-bin obscurity.


Directed by: John Carl Buechler
Starring: Noah Hathaway, Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Jenny Beck, June Lockhart, Sonny Bono
Country: USA/Italy

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie