Main Cast: Noah Hathaway, Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Jenny Beck, Sonny Bono, June Lockhart
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
When a family moves into a San Francisco apartment, an opportunistic troll decides to make his move and take possession of little Wendy (Jenny Beck), thereby paving the way for new troll recruits, the first in his army that will take eventual control of the planet. As luck would have it, the building conveniently rests on a crease in the time-space continuum, so it isn't hard to open the door to trollworld, or whatever the troll would call it. But even the path to world domination begins with a single step, so the troll begins by disposing of each tenant with his pointy magical ring; each victim then turns into a fern (this may be the only existing film in which the late U.S. Representative Sonny Bono becomes a houseplant). Fortunately for the human race, the next door neighbor is a kindly old witch who has just the game plan to win back Wendy (now under the troll's influence as evidenced by her poor social skills and equally bad eating habits), vanquish the paranormal pest, and save the human race from imminent troll tyranny. The stage is then set for inevitable battle between the good witch and the evil troll for control of the world, but first she and the brave family must combat a twenty-foot tall ubertroll who looks akin to a Furby doll left in the sandbox over a long, hard Minnesota winter. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
Review
Many B-movies attempted to rip off the success of Gremlins during the mid-'80s but few were as inventive or oddly entertaining as Troll. Make no mistake, Troll is a B-movie: it's got some flat-footed attempts at comedy, more than a little overacting, hit-and-miss special effects, and has a general tone of goofiness to its proceedings. That said, Troll manages to be a lot of fun because it's imaginative and never takes itself too seriously. Ed Naha's script is unique in that it goes for fantasy instead of straight horror and offers a lot of bizarre set pieces involving fantasy creatures and magical plant life. Director John Carl Buechler isn't sly enough in his approach to pull off the film's humorous moments, but he handles the barrage of special effects with skill, giving them a comic-book style liveliness. It also helps that the film has a wonderful B-movie cast: Michael Moriarty is a hoot as the hero's oddball dad, Sonny Bono steals a few scenes as an obnoxious "swinger" neighbor, and June Lockhart gives a spirited turn as a grand dame with a lot of fighting spirit. In short, Troll is modest, Saturday-matinee-type fare, but it is inventive and bizarre enough to entertain B-movie fanatics. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Phil Fondacaro - Torok the Troll; Brad Hall - William Daniels; Anne Lockhart - Young Eunice St. Clair; Gary Sandy - Barry Tabor; Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Jeannette Cooper; Dale Wyatt - Dickinson's Girlfriend; Albert Band - Older Couple on TV; Charles Band - Young Couple on TV; Debra Dion - Young Couple on T.V.; Jacquelyn Band - Older Couple on T.V.; Jessie Carfora - Fairy; Viviana Giusti - Fairy; Robert Hathaway - First Policeman; Barbara Sciorilli - Fairy; James Beck - Policeman
Credit
Debra Dion - Associate Producer, Jill M. Ohanneson - Costume Designer, John Carl Buechler - Director, Lee Percy - Editor, Charles Band - Executive Producer, Richard H. Band - Composer (Music Score), Giovanni Natalucci - Production Designer, Romano Albani - Cinematographer, Albert Band - Producer, Gayle Simon - Set Designer, John Carl Buechler - Special Effects, Mechanical & Makup Imageries - Special Effects, Ed Naha - Screenwriter
The film begins with the Potter family moving into a new apartment complex. While unpacking, their young daughter Wendy is attacked by a grotesque little creature, who had long ago been transformed from a powerful wizard into a troll. Using an magic crystal green ring, it captures Wendy and possesses her form. After meeting the other eccentric tenants, the family notices Wendy's unusual behavior (roaring, biting, tossing people across rooms), but they attribute her behavior to the stress of the move. The only one that notices something is terribly wrong is Wendy's brother, Harry Potter Jr. (Noah Hathaway).
Frightened by his sister's sudden and violent changes, he seeks solace in the company of a mysterious old lady, named Eunice St. Clair (June Lockhart), who lives upstairs. When he tells her of the strange goings-on, she reveals to him her real profession: a witch. Harry asks Eunice to teach him magic, but she says that there isn't time. She does instruct him as to the ways of a hidden magical world, and tells him of her long history stretching back to a time of when she and a powerful wizard named Torok fell in love. However, the balance between the realms of magic and men was challenged by Dark wizard Torok in a great war, and he was transformed into a troll as punishment. Eunice stands guard, as she has for centuries, now in her apartment, waiting patiently for Torok to challenge the realms again, and that is what is going on now. The troll wizard has already begun his secret war, going from apartment to apartment, attacking the tenants and transforming them into mythical creatures according to their personalities, such as goblins, nymphs, an elf and a bugbear, and it transforms their rooms into lush fairy worlds.
Armed with magic staffs which shoot bolts of energy, Eunice and Harry launch a final attempt to stop Torok's hostile takeover of the world and enter the troll's magical alternative universe. Eunice is attacked by Torok and turned into a tree stump, and Harry finds his sister trapped in a coffin of glass à la Snow White. Suddenly Torok's great bat monster attacks and disables Harry. When it goes after Wendy, Torok kills it, destroying his carefully constructed fairy realm. As the magic world collapses around them, Harry and his family are given a chance to escape, leaving just as the police arrive. As the police investigate the house, one of them is drawn into a remaining fragment of the alternate fairy world.
Jenny Beck received a Young Artist Award nomination for Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress, Supporting Role in a Feature Film - Comedy, Fantasy or Drama in 1987 for her role in Troll.
In one of two interviews, producer Charles Band stated that 'there are certain scenes in [Troll], not to mention the name of the main character, and this of course predates the Harry Potter books by many, many years. So there's that strange connection."[1] In 2008, John Buechler's partner in the Troll remake, Peter Davy, said about Harry Potter: “In John's opinion, he created the first Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling says the idea just came to her. John doesn't think so.'[2]
