Troll Review (1986) Worth Watching?

It's about a kid who has to save his apartment building from a bunch of vegetarian trolls.

Troll was directed by John Carl Buechler (Friday the 13th part 7, Cellar Dweller, Ghoulies 3, The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde) and stars Michael Moriarty (The Stuff, It's Alive 3: Island of the Alive and A Return to Salem's Lot), Noah Hathaway (The Chair) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Worlds of Magic, Mystery and Menace.

Troll is a PG-13 fantasy horror comedy that came out two years after Gremlins which is clearly pulled quite a bit of inspiration from. You have one little mutant troll who reproduces after it eats and reproduces more after they eat. And these trolls have many different personalities, some aggressive, some cute. Sound familiar? The trolls are like little shape-shifting leprechauns without the funny clothes, they reminded me a lot of the little demons in Ghoulies.

The movie starts off with a family who just moved into a new apartment in San Francisco. You have a dad, a mom, a young daughter and older son. The dad is a goofy guy named Harry Potter who is always cracking cheesy dad jokes. He's played by the same guy who played the charismatic "Mo" in The Stuff. In addition to the family, the movie is chock-full of wacky characters who live in the building, a lot like all the wacky characters who lived in the motel in Basket Case. And just like Basket Case there's some sick low budget stop motion action. In Basket Case it was used when Belial was freaking out and in Troll it was used when the trolls turned people into plants.

And speaking of people turning into plants, that's what the trolls did. They attacked people and turned them into little jungles that would spawn new trolls. After they do this to a couple of people in the building the boy wises up and solicits the help of another woman in the building who happens to be a princess in disguise and who also happens to keep a cute troll as a pet. The boy and the woman team up to battle the trolls before they get out of hand.

It honestly felt awkward watching a fantasy movie about trolls, princesses and a kid who had to save the day without the help of his bumbling parents. I mean, I'm a grown man and was watching it all by myself. But after reading Jessica Gomez's raving review of Troll 2 how could I not? At least the movie had way more horror than Gremlins did.

Worth Watching?

I'd pass on this one. Watching this before the more popular Troll 2 isn't necessary since Troll 2 has absolutely nothing to do with Troll 1. And unless you're watching this with kids you might just end up feeling as awkward as I did.

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