Thursday, June 9, 2011

Best Worst Movie

This is a fun, likable movie, up to a point.

Best Worst Movie is a documentary about Troll 2, the 1990 horror film that is generally considered to be one of the worst films of all time and went on to achieve cult status... at least according to this movie, anyway. In terms of notoriety and camp fun, Troll 2 won't beat Plan 9 From Outer Space, but it's certainly a bad film, and this documentary was a neat look at the the production and the lives of the stars. George Hardy, the film's leading men, retired from "acting" after this film and currently works as a Dentist somewhere in Alabama. Hardy is a lovely guy and watching his anecdotes about filming a low budget horror film was great fun, as were the stories and anecdotes provided by the other members of the cast and crew.

However, the film spent way too much time talking with and about the "fans" who claim to worship this movie, all of whom are completely annoying, obnoxious, and off-putting. They talk about how this film transcends being a bad movie and turns into a kind of religion that will change your life (that's a real quote). Well, no it won't. It's just a movie. To be sure, it's a bad movie (I've seen it) and a lot of fun to watch, but no.... it's not going to change your life, and if you honestly watch Troll 2 every day, you probably need to get a life. There is a scene where they talk about this group that watches it all the time, and they referred to the newcomers who haven't seen it yet as "virgins," sticking them with post it notes that say "V" on them. I don't care who you are or where you came from but those people are just annoying.

So check out this movie if you want a fun, interesting look at how low budget films are made and impact the lives of those involved in the production, but skip through all the parts where they interview the fans. Ultimately, I found it lacking if only because Troll 2, despite what this film says, wasn't all that interesting or memorable enough to inspire an entire documentary. I would rather have watched a film about low d horror films in general, giving more time to more actors and filmmakers across the spectrum, and less time to the fans who over inflated this film to ridiculously high proportions. Then again, the director of this documentary was one of the actors from Troll 2, so I suppose I'll forgive him for being less than objective about the film's place in movie history.

1 comment:

Justin Garrett Blum said...

Those sound like the kind of nerds who give nerds a bad name.

But then again, I generally hate people.