Review:Best Worst Movie

Last Updated on July 26, 2021

Plot: This documentary follows the amazing cult success of TROLL 2, a film wildly considered to be one of the worst films ever made.

Review: I’m new to the TROLL 2 phenomenon. While I’ve seen the youtube clips (“You don’t piss on hospitality!”), I’ve never actually sat down and watched the film. I know that for the last few years, this forgotten film has picked up an underground cult following (like THE ROOM)- but the idea of a documentary feature chronicling the phenomenon seemed like something best suited to a special edition DVD, and not something I’d want to spend money seeing.

Of course, I was dead wrong, as BEST WORST MOVIE is probably one of the best films, documentary or otherwise, that I’ve seen so far this year. The doc was put together by Michael Stephenson, who played the precocious child lead in TROLL 2. He’s managed to track down pretty much everyone involved in the production of this much maligned film- and they make for an extremely compelling cast of characters.

There’s the director, Italian schlockmeister Claudio Fragasso, who can’t quite bring himself to admit TROLL 2 is anything short of a masterpiece. There’s also the leading lady, Margo Prey- who’s become an eccentric recluse, and even a former mental patient, Don Packard- who had a small role in the film.

As compelling as these folks are, none are as memorable as TROLL 2’s leading man- George Hardy, who, the doc explains, was (and still is) a dentist in Alabama, who dabbled in acting- with TROLL 2 being his lone credit. Hardy is an extremely likable guy, with no delusions of grandeur relating to his place in cinema history. After wrapping TROLL 2, he was perfectly content to return to his dental practice, and live a simple, and extremely fulfilling life. However- once the film took off and became an underground phenomenon, he was swept away by his fifteen minutes of fame, and this documentary is a fascinating look as how a regular guy like Hardy could totally get swept up in this ultimately fleeting phenomenon.

As for Stephenson himself, I was surprised by the fact that, a few scenes aside- he mostly keeps himself OUT of the documentary. In a way, that’s maybe a good thing, as the film has a bit of a broader scope this way, and avoids coming off like an ego trip in the way some other docs (SUPER SIZE ME for example) end up being. This really is George Hardy’s story, and not Stephenson, and it’s a credit to his skill as a documentarian that he was able to see that.

If BEST WORST MOVIE ends up picking up wide distribution, I could easily see it catching on in a big way, as it’s one of those indelible documentaries, like CAPTURING THE FREIDMANS, or SPELLBOUND, that truly are stranger than fiction- and deserve to be seen by as broad an audience as possible.

See it!

Grade: 9.5/10