Troll (1986)

Pretty Good

Memorable, crazy movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Masterpiece!

Another great film the mind of Charles Band and Empire Pictures!SPOILERS AHEAD!The film Troll was made in 1986. The film is directed by well known effects maestro John Carl Beauchler. Beauchler is known for his work on other cult favorites like Re-Animator (1985), Ghoulies (1984), From beyond (1986), etc. Troll also isn't the only time Beauchler has dabbled in directing, he also directed genre favorites like Ghoulies go to College (1990) and Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood (1988).The film stars a very talented cast. Once child star Noah Hathaway of Never Ending Story fame. Hathaway plays young harry Potter Jr., a teenage boy obsessed with horror films and comic books. Then we have Michael Moriarty playing Harry Potter Sr., the father of Hathaway character. Moriarty is known as a genre favorite, he has been in such cult classics as Q: The Winged Serpent (1978) and The Stuff (1983). Then we have Shelley Hack as the mother, Anne Potter. Hack is well known for her work in Tales from the Crypt (TV-Show) and The Stepfather (1988). The film also stars young child actress Jenny Beck as harry's creepy young sister. Beck is known for her work on V: The Final Battle. We also have another genre alumni, Phil Fondacaro of Ghoulies and Meridian fame. He plays duel roles. Fondacaro plays a professor living in the films apartment complex and the title role, the troll. The film also features the late great Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher and surprisingly very young Julie Louis Dreyfus in her feature film debut.Along with a troop of great actors the film features some really good practical creature effects. The effects were accomplished by Magical Media Industries, a special effect company operated by the director John Carl Beauchler. The team included such legend as Gino Nonaligned, Bart Mixon, Cleve Hall, Gabe Bartalos, etc. The effects within the film are fantastic. The troll itself is a mix between animatronic and performer, the performer in the suit being Phil Fondacaro. The film is also full of other creatures and odd ghoulies. At one point there is a talking tree trunk! The effects in Troll are some of the best this reviewer has ever seen. If my word isn't good enough take this snippet form a review of the film by the Daily-News, "A Special Effects Pig Out!".Troll also features a wonderful orchestral score form legendary composer Richard Band. The score has a magical, almost childlike creepiness about. It rings Danny Elfman in many scenes. The score overall is great and very effective. The overall film is an underrated good time. I remember buying this film on double-feature DVD, the other film included was its awful, and i mean god awful not-so sequel Troll 2. I remember watching Troll and loving it. Its the perfect movie to start a child or small kid on. Its not too scary and its not too raunchy. It's PG-13, now wait i know what your thinking, "A PG-13 horror film, that isn't going to work!", well listen, this film does work on every silly and peculiar level. Its a wonderful movie that will always have a special place in my heart. Two-Claws Up!

A bizarre children's fantasy, produced by Charles Band, filmed in Italy and directed by special effects man John Carl Buechler. Now if that isn't a strange mixture then I don't know what is! TROLL follows in the footsteps of earlier '80s fantasy yarns like LABYRINTH or GREMLINS in mixing reality with a fantastic world hidden just beyond the boundaries of our own. Here, its accessed by a magic ring which emits a green light and can transform people and objects into other-worldly creatures.There isn't really much plot to speak of. It begins with Jenny Beck, our little blonde Heather O'Rourke wannabe, descending into the basement of her new apartment block and getting possessed by the spirit of Torok, an evil troll. The troll then goes around and transforms all of the weird neighbours into either plants or similarly slimy creatures. Only a young boy, Harry Potter (!) knows the secret of the troll and learns from a friendly old witch living upstairs about how to defeat him. Things predictably culminate in a battle between good and evil on which the fate of the world hangs. That's it.Well, this is a very weird film which has a higher budget than you might expect. Thus we get lots of cheesy '80s computer effects of magic beams and funny lights which invariably look dated in light of today's modern technology. The various creatures are cheap yet effectively slimy looking, and the troll itself is a commendably ugly little monster which looks impressive when you first see it (despite the fact it's just a dwarf in a suit). I did like the use of stop motion to animate some plant shoots, which pops up in the amazing scene in which Sonny Bono (!) is transformed into a plant. There's also a brief shot at the end of the movie of shoots waving out of the top of the apartment block which I liked.The cast is better than you might expect, and it's a surprise how many familiar faces pop up in it (unlike the sequel TROLL 2 which was populated by unknowns). Noah Hathaway is the non-irritating child lead, and isn't bad at all. His father is played by the ever-quirky Michael Moriarty who ends up embarrassing himself by doing a silly dance. Shelley Hack is the boring bad acting mother. June Lockhart (a veteran actress from Lassie) plays the wise old witch and her real life daughter, Anne, her younger self. The aforementioned Sonny Bono is a swinger (!) who doesn't last for very long. I like the way that Phil Fondacaro has the dual role of a neighbour and the troll itself, just to cut down on casting costs no doubt.The film is very strange and unpredictable. It's too silly to be successful but it's unlike anything else you will see. Lots of people are transformed into slimy creatures which are like those in GREMLINS. A young lady is transformed into a nymph and runs around naked only for ivy leaves. At the end of the film a giant unexplained monster pops up and wreaks havoc. This film made my head spin. Six years later an unrelated sequel appeared (directed by the Italians of all people!). It goes without saying that I'll be reviewing it shortly.

**THIS REVIEW COULD CONTAIN A LOT OF SPOILERS. I RECOMMEND TO THE READERS OF THIS REVIEW SHOULD VIEW THE FILM BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW. THANK YOU.** This movie gives you this childhood feel to it. I felt like I was around 12 years old again, and just gotten back from the video store with a scary movie. It definitely has that child corniness applied to it. The troll in the movie looks more playful and fun, rather than scary and evil. To go along with the films elementary feel, the story-line of magic applied in this film (provided by an old woman, that lives in the same apartment building as the little girl who becomes possessed later on) is very childlike. It's almost like it came right out of a Disney film.When the Troll emerges in the film, and takes over this boy's sister's physical form, the Troll lives with the family, and performs everyday functions with them. The only one who knows is her brother, who eventually turns to the old woman for help. She's also a witch. I don't know how the mother and father of these children didn't know this little girl was different when the Troll possessed her. That was kind of over-the-top, hence the little girl was acting like a total retard, born in 200 B.C. or some S**t. Yeah, it's crazy. The funniest part I've seen, and yes, sorry to spoil it for whoever reads this, is when the Troll sees a little-person outside (Troll is using little girls body by this time) it goes up to him and says "brother." I don't know why this was so funny. I cracked up though. Weird. The movie definitely does fit the 1980's cheesy magic and fantasy sector of film. That kind of filming was very popular during this time. Same thing with the use of muppets for some weird reason. Anyway, if you like a cheesy movie every now and then, there is no other movie than Troll to fulfill your delights. All in all, I say the acting was low-average, the story-line was okay-not the best, and the dialog was so-so. Like I said, only watch this movie if your looking for a cheesy and unrealistic movie.

(18%) Best known now as the trash J.K Rowling watched while/before writing the Harry Potter books. And lets be perfectly clear, this is trash, but it's still somewhat entertaining trash nevertheless. The characters are some of the most annoying examples of badly drawn "people" in any film ever, and it's little wonder why the troll, who has the ability to shape-shift, can go around undetected when everyone is so over-the-top and grating. Although why the troll thought it best to be so overly aggressive while disguised as the little Potter girl is questionable. A key draw to this is the practical effects of the many creatures featured that do manage to raise a chuckle, and the song they "sing" is oddly fun. But besides the rubber monsters everything else is too sub par to bother with.