Director: Michael Stephenson
Cast: George Hardy, Michael Stephenson, Connie Young
Screenplay: Michael Stephenson
93 mins. Not Rated.

I’ve got a short piece for you today, something I don’t think I’ve really gotten into before. Yesterday, we talked about Troll 2, and after I was done discussing it, I decided to finally view the documentary Best Worst Movie, which is the doc that actually introduced me to Troll 2. I’d never heard of Claudio Fragasso’s cult classic until seeing the trailer for the documentary about it. So let’s discuss Best Worst Movie and the importance of movie documentaries.

Director Michael Stephenson (Girlfriend’s Day) was an actor before he directed. In fact, his big breakout role was the main character, Joshua, in Claudio Fragasso’s Troll 2. Now, years later, he’s revisiting the film that stopped his acting career before it even started. He teams up with dentist George Hardy, who played his father Michael in the movie, as they discuss their initial reaction to the film and the strange cult following that the film has acquired in the years since its release. What made this Worst Film Ever Made into the underground hit, selling out screenings across the nation?

Let me start out by saying that you will not enjoy Best Worst Movie without having seen Troll 2. So much the energy from this documentary comes from the ability to draw from Troll 2’s various moments. I’m glad I had just watched it so I could really feel that recently lived-in experience.

George Hardy is the true standout of the documentary. Tracing his trajectory from dentistry to working as an extra to being cast in a lead role in a horror movie and then finding himself quickly back in small-town dentistry was a wild enough story, but then his coming to the realization that he’s an underground legend and going on tour with Troll 2 was such a joyful and enlightening experience. Having Michael Stephenson as a director with his own background with the film was a clever way to make this a much more personal experience.

I enjoyed how the documentary examined the good, bad & ugly of association with such a film as Troll 2 was interesting. Seeing their reactions to seeing the film, on HBO of all things, was disheartening, and how Connie Young tried to distance her resume from the film spoke that pain.

I love these kinds of creative documentaries, and I quite enjoyed Troll 2 and Best Worst Movie, both for very different reasons. Best Worst Movie is a solid meditation on filmic perceptions, how audience reaction is an ever-evolving thing, and why it’s important to revisit these films across space and time, which is a tangential argument for the importance of film preservation. Watch Troll 2, and then go watch Best Worst Movie.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe