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| Images courtesy of MVD Rewind Collection |
The late John Carl Buechler who passed away in 2019 was a
renowned special effects makeup artist who largely worked with directors like
Charles Band, Jack Hill and Stuart Gordon.
A mainstay at Empire Pictures who did the effects for Forbidden World,
Re-Animator and the first two Ghoulies films, Buechler made his
debut as a writer-director on the anthology horror film The Dungeonmaster. The same year that film came out, Warner
Brothers produced and released Joe Dante’s creature feature horror-comedy Gremlins
with it seemed to spawn an entire subgenre of movies about little monsters that
overrun and terrorize the human populace including but not limited to the
aforementioned Ghoulies or Hobgoblins or the Critters films. Also released that same year was The
NeverEnding Story whose leading actor Noah Hathaway caught the attention of
Buechler who was formulating his first feature film response to the
creature-feature craze with today’s MVD Rewind Collection exclusive Troll
on Blu-ray disc.
A goofy low budget monster movie with elements of fantasy
adventure stemming from the slew of like-minded Hollywood fantasy epics of its
day, the film itself is largely overshadowed by its bastard cousin sequel of
sorts Troll 2, otherwise known as The Best Worst Movie. Though bearing no relation to each other
chronologically or in terms of competence, the so-bad-it’s-good stench wafting
from Troll 2 seemed to obscure the Charles Band Empire Pictures lo-fi
virtues Troll had to offer.
Featuring a wildly overqualified cast including Sonny Bono, June
Lockhart, recurring Larry Cohen stalwart Michael Moriarty who has gleeful
obnoxious fun here and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in her screen debut she’s still
embarrassed about to this day, Troll in stark contrast to its
half-sister is for all of the lo-fi Bandiness a vastly superior film
technically and narratively. Sure it has
some nonsensical sequences of rubber troll puppets singing unintelligible
musical numbers and a lot of green slime and a bedroom that is transformed into
a forest via stop motion animated effects, but it also features child demonic troll
possession, Julia Louis-Dreyfus frolicking around half-naked as a forest nymph and
the main character is literally named Harry Potter.
Shot in five weeks with Richard Band’s trademark synthesized
score and cinematography by recurring Dario Argento collaborator Romano Albani
from Inferno and Phenomena, the look and sound of Troll is
pretty solid and the director himself works in a sneaky cameo in June Lockhart’s
home in a painting of a forest king holding a baby troll. While Troll 2 remains bizarre,
incoherent and inept, the predecessor is an entirely different animal who knows
full well the limitations and expectations of an Empire Pictures production. There’s some meta casting with June Lockhart
and daughter Anne Lockhart playing a younger version of herself. Phil Fondacaro as dwarf neighbor Malcolm Mallory
and the titular Torok the Troll himself in a detailed heavy body suit and
costume is fantastic and manages with his eyes underneath all that makeup to
convey a sinister intent. Second to the
Lockharts and Michael Moriarty, young child actress Jenny Beck as Wendy Potter
who becomes possessed by the troll gives a wild, Linda Blair-like performance
and manages to catch the adult characters off guard. Noah Hathaway had just come off of The
NeverEnding Story as Atreyu and likewise makes a strong lead here as Harry
Potter determined to track down and save his sister before the trolls take over
the whole house.
Released in January of 1986, a usual sign of the dumping
ground timeframe, Troll all things considered did pretty well
commercially. Budgeted around $2.5 million,
the film raked in $5.5 million and later became a cult hit on home video. Reviews were mixed with some critics getting
the tongue-in-cheek sensibility while others wrote it off as dull dreck. Then two years later came Claudio Fragasso’s
much discussed and oddly celebrated “sequel” film Troll 2 which obscured
pretty much any and all dialogue to be had about the first. For awhile on DVD and later Blu-ray, it was
paired up with Troll 2 despite having no other relation than a quick title
change to cash in on Troll’s success.
There’s also, to this day, ongoing debate as to whether or not a certain
J.K. Rowling who created a literary empire with her Harry Potter series
stole the name from Troll which conceptually shares many fantastical
similarities.
Following Eureka Entertainment’s 2018 Region B locked disc
of both Troll movies and the documentary The Best Worst Movie, in
2026 boutique label Vinegar Syndrome put together a deluxe comprehensive 4K UHD
box of Troll 2, canonizing the so-bad-it’s-good legacy of the film. Naturally, the first far better Troll movie
still overshadowed by the bad sequel had to follow suit in getting a
restoration and standalone rerelease of some kind. With this, MVD Rewind Collection have put
together a webstore exclusive release featuring a making-of documentary,
behind-the-scenes photos, a collectible mini poster and limited slipcover. The reversible sleeve art includes the
original poster art and the slipcover art with faux VHS rental stickers affixed
to the cover. For what its worth, Troll
was fun and is very much an Empire Pictures kind of movie meritorious of
investigation on its own terms and not to be confused with the ghastly
companion piece more people talk about and watch over this nifty little
creature feature.
--Andrew Kotwicki
