What can I say about this film? No really, what? Most of what I can come up with is a lot of stuttering half-sentences. I guess what I can say is, "That was weird."
I had seen this one before. While I do enjoy bad movies I don't normally find myself seeking them out. I like to think I have better things to do with my time. But somehow these movies find me. So months after having seen Best Worst Movie I found a VHS copy of Troll 2 in a Goodwill. It still had the video store stickers on it even. I had to have it! It's now my own little art piece, a tribute to the time of mom and pop video stores that has long since passed. And of course I watched it. Yeah, Troll 2 is bad. It's bad on a level that few have reached. I've found the best bad movies are ones where the filmmakers give it all they've got, but still manage to find a way to crash and burn. So you can see why Troll 2 is a rare film. Just about anyone, if they were giving it their all, could manage to make at least a mediocre film.
Now, while I felt the documentary about Troll 2 was well done, I still had problems watching it. Why? Well, in honesty out of fear. I know a number of filmmakers inside and out of HU. More than a few of them suffer from a condition I call, "quality blindness." It's the same as all those people who go on American Idol and get laughed at for their delusional belief that they can sing. These people I know make films and then sit back and rejoice at their own awesomeness. The rest of us in the real world tilt our heads and try to say something, ANYTHING, nice. "Yeah, that's some nice general color theory you got going there." And when someone does call them out for the ten pounds of manure they've packed into a five pound bag they get defensive. It's everyone else that doesn't know what they're talking about! People like this intrigue and humor me, but they also frighten me. Because who is to say that I'm not the one with quality blindness? I suppose the fact that I do worry about this would say I'm likely not suffering from it. But still...one wonders.
The other contributing factor to the fear I feel watching this is how a number of the people involved in the making of Troll 2 have, essentially, wasted their lives. A handful didn't. They went on to real jobs and in the case of George Hardy he became what you could call a pillar of his community. But at least one outright admitted that he has squandered his life. The others who didn't you can safely assume did. Sure, in more than one case it was due to mental illness, but a wasted life is a wasted life. I find the idea of dying alone, regretful, and clinging to mental health frightening.
I was very happy to see George Hardy come to the realization that he had better things to do than than live off his semi-fame for making a horrible movie. In fact, I felt like that was really the resolution of the film and that it continued on for just a little too long afterwards. We got it, fame and fortune don't make for a good life. Being able to wake up, go to work, and smile about it the way George does is what makes for a good life.
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