Best Worst Movie

USA, 2009, 93 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Comedy, Cult, Documentary, Horror, Social Issues, Teen Flick
Programs: Documentary Films, The Watching Hour
Language: English

DIRECTOR: Michael Paul Stephenson
Producer: Michael Paul Stephenson, Lindsay Rowles Stephenson, Brad Klopman
Editor: Katie Graham, Andrew Matthews
Cinematographer: Katie Graham
US Distributor: Area 23A

Starz FilmCenter Exclusive August 27 - September 2
Digital presentation - Alabama dentist George Hardy’s brief flirtation with acting comes back to haunt him – playfully – in this documentary about Troll 2, the horrifyingly inept horror movie that popular movie website Rotten Tomatoes rates at zero. Not a sequel to Troll, the bad-enough 1986 Sonny Bono vehicle, it isn’t even actually about trolls but rather goblins – goblins in the town of Nilbog (get it?) who transform people into vegetables and then eat them. Made by an Italian crew with a loose grasp of English, it has spawned numerous fan clubs, effectively becoming The Rocky Horror Picture Show of a new generation – which loves it all the more for the fact that in its straight-faced sincerity, it seems actually to have been the creation of “people who knew how to make a film but had suffered quite a heavy blow to the head,” in the words of UK genre authority M. J. Simpson.
Director Michael Paul Stephenson, who was himself a child actor in Troll 2, charts the path the film has taken to cult status through midnight screenings, house parties, and even special engagements in Iraq. In the oddly uplifting course of events, Hardy becomes, once again, the star of the show – grappling with his sudden, weird celebrity as he is tracked by autograph hounds and cheered on like a comeback kid. Fortunately for audiences of both Troll 2 and Best Worst Movie, he has the gracious wit and levelheadedness to laugh at himself while enjoying his new moment in the sun.

Official Film Website