The Horror Comedy Cult Classic On Streaming So Insane You Need To See It Right Now

In order to fully understand what makes Troll 2 such an iconic feat of filmmaking, we need first talk about its conception and troubled production. The goblins portrayed in the film were inspired by Italian writer and director Claudio Fragasso’s wife, who was annoyed by how all of her friends suddenly became vegetarians. The Goblins in the film nourish themselves by turning their subjects into plants before they can feast on a form of entrails that are now in line with their preferred way of eating.

You read that correctly … Troll 2 was made out of spite in order to make fun of vegetarians, which should tell you everything you need to know.

As for casting and production, a majority of the actors in Troll 2 weren’t actually actors before signing on to work on the movie. In fact, most of them replied to a casting call hoping to be extras, unaware that they were about to receive top billing. Before taking on one of the more significant speaking roles in the movie, George Hardy, who plays the father in Troll 2, worked as a dentist and had no prior acting experience.

To make matters more interesting, Fragasso didn’t have a fluent command of the English language, and neither did his co-writer, Rosella Drudi. While most of the actors starring in Troll 2 offered to help clean up the screenplay’s grammar and syntax, Fragasso insisted that they read their lines, which they only received scene-by-scene, as written. Fragrasso has since dismissed these claims, and more insight into the film’s production was uncovered in the 2009 documentary Best Worst Movie.

Production conundrums aside, Troll 2 tells a story about the Waits family, who decides to move to the rural town of Nilbog (“goblin” spelled backward). Wanting to live a simpler life, Michael Waits (George Hardy) settles down with his family, but his son, Joshua (Michael Stephenson), is plagued by visions of his deceased grandfather, Seth, who warns him about the dangers they will soon face. As the Waits family gets acclimated to their new lifestyle, the townsfolk are eager to feed them a suspicious spread of food that will turn them into the vegetation that they so desperately crave.

Meanwhile, Holly Waits’ (Connie McFarland) boyfriend, Elliot, and his group of friends follow the Waits family to Nilbog in an RV because Elliot wants to spend time with Holly. The boys are tormented by a druid witch named Creedence Leonore Gielgud, who wants to transform them into trees and shrubs. Slowly but surely, Elliot’s friends succumb to the shrubbery and are systematically eaten by the goblins (or drowned in popcorn).

Unsurprisingly, Troll 2 was not well-received by critics and currently sits in single-digit territory on Rotten Tomatoes with a critical score of five percent. The critical consensus on the review aggregation site simply says, “oh my god,” which is a callback to one of the poorly acted scenes in which Elliot’s friend, Arnold, gets turned into a tree and screams with such a lack of urgency that you wonder how the scene ever made it into the final cut. Now celebrated as a cult classic, Troll 2 has a more favorable yet still abysmal audience score of 45 percent.

If you think that we’re just making this up, we don’t blame you. Troll 2 is, in fact, a real movie that can be streamed on Tubi right now if you have your doubts. To enhance your viewing experience, we recommend that you have a nice tall glass of Nilbog milk by your side.