Troll * (1986, Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Sonny Bono, June Lockhart, Noah Hathaway) – Classic Movie Review 7474

Director John Carl Buechler’s 1986 horror film Troll is fondly remembered but it is unconvincing and ridiculous throughout. It is bad, but unfortunately it is not quite in the so-bad-it’s good category. It is just quite bad. It is written by Ed Naha.

In this risible, low-budget horror flick, Harry Potter and his family have recently moved into a rented apartment in San Francisco. Michael Moriarty stars as Harry Potter Sr, Noah Hathaway plays his teenage son Harry Potter Jr, Shelley Hack plays Harry Sr’s wife Anne Potter and Jenny Beck plays the family’s young daughter Wendy Anne Potter.

Phil Fondacaro plays Malcolm Mallory and Torok the evil Troll who uses his magic ring to possess a San Francisco family’s young daughter Wendy Anne, and uses her form to give birth to a race of trolls. Harry Potter Jr seeks help from the good witch Eunice St Clair who lives in the family’s apartment building.

Also in the cast are Sonny Bono as Peter Dickinson, June Lockhart as the good witch Eunice St Clair, Anne Lockhart as Young Eunice St Clair, Brad Hall as William Daniels, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Jeanette Cooper and Gary Sandy as Barry Tabor. Frank Welker is the voice of Torok the Troll.

It was filmed by Empire Pictures and Altar Productions in Technicolor for $1,100,000 in Rome at the Stabilimenti Cinematografici Pontini. It is shot by Romano Albani, scored by Richard Band and produced by Charles Band of Empire Pictures.

Nevertheless, despite bad reviews, the film earned $2,595,054 on its opening weekend of 19 January 1986, took $5.5 million overall, and went on to become a minor cult classic.

One was quite enough but the totally unrelated Troll 2 followed in 1990. It has a solid reputation as one of the worst films of all time.

Eureka Entertainment release TROLL: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION on Blu-ray as part of the Eureka Classics range on 8 October 2018.

RIP legendary horror director and special effects makeup artist John Carl Buechler, who died at 66 on 18 March 2019. He made movies like Hatchet, Deep Freeze, and Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988). Roger Corman called him ‘the best in the business’ as head of the makeup effects department at New World Pictures.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8262

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7474

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

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