The Potter family (Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Noah Hathaway, Jenny Beck) move into an apartment building filled with eccentric characters, including a witch (Anne Lockhart), a swinger (Sonny Bono), a right-wing survivalist (Gary Sandy), an English professor dwarf (Phil Fondacaro), and a partying actress (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), on the day when supernatural creatures walk freely. A troll abducts Wendy Potter and takes her place, using her form as he transforms the building into the realm of faerie. Only her brother, Harry, and the witch see what is happening and can stop it.
This is B-movie heaven. There’s witty, cynical dialog, excellent makeup, plenty of sock puppet mayhem, a pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus running about clad only in a few leaves, Sonny Bono being beaten by a troll, an ex-Charlie’s Angel playing mother, monsters, and magic. It’s all fun and not to be taken seriously.
I loved this movie from the first moment I saw it. OK, it’s not a 4
love, but this is a B-movie, so 3s is about as good as it gets, since we’re talking home-wrapped-in-a-blanket-on-the-couch-in-the-afternoon viewing, not night-out-at-the-cinema viewing. Now you have to be a fan of evil sock puppets, but then who isn’t?
Strangely, my favorite moments don’t involve malevolent critters turning people into foliage, but rather conversations between young Harry and Eunice St. Clair, the witch.
Harry: “Can I come in? I think I’m going to throw up.”
Eunice: “How can I resist an offer like that?”
Harry isn’t the usually movie teen, but is actually a kid I wouldn’t mind meeting. And Lockhart is a riot. If she didn’t have a good time making this, I’d be shocked. There’s nothing better than seeing Lassie’s mom casting spells. Troll also uses an ingenious, budget-conscious method of transforming St. Clair into her younger, sexier self—the filmmakers hired her look-a-like daughter, Anne.
The rest of the cast is a notch up from normal low-budget fare, with everyone going for colorful characters rather than realism. No one is pretending this is drama, so instead of truth, you get character’s you’ll remember.
When I first saw Troll, I found nothing strange about the characters’ names, primarily because there wasn’t anything strange about them. But there is now. Notice that Troll is the story of the young Harry Potter, who learns of a world of magic all around him, and must fight off the denizens of evil. Sound familiar? It should. And keep in mind, Troll came out several years before J.K. Rowling published her first Harry Potter book. I wonder what movie she was watching late at night.
Troll takes a beating from horror fans for its lack of frights. But criticizing Troll for not being scary is much like attacking Schindler’s List for having weak musical numbers. Troll isn’t a horror film. Nor is it Film Noir, a Swashbuckler, pornography, or a musical. It is a magical fantasy film, and for what it is, it works nicely.