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In the summer of 1989, an Italian filmmaking team led by director Claudio Fragasso (left) set out to make a horror the film in the U.S. state of Utah. The film they created, Troll 2, has since been elevated into legend, though not for its cinematic merit.

Troll 2 is the story of the Waits family who visit the town of Nilbog (goblin spelt backwards) and end up being hunted by vegetarian goblins that turn people into plants before eating them. Among the many remarkable aspects about the film is that it has no connection whatsoever to the 1986 feature Troll, and it doesn't feature any trolls.

Also, despite the film's staggeringly bad production, acting and direction, a phenomenon has occurred as these faults became points of celebration for a new wave of fans. Thus, Troll 2 ascended to cult status, with legions of followers around the world coming together to dress up like its characters, eat green food and celebrate the remarkable awfulness.

For everyone directly involved with the production Troll 2 has been a rollercoaster journey that has ultimately changed their lives, and not least for Michael Stephenson, the film's fresh faced child star, who's excellent documentary Best Worst Movie tracks the underlying story behind Troll 2.

Stephenson was a ten-year-old aspiring actor living in Park City, Utah, when his agent sent him to audition for a part in an unnamed horror film. After impressing the enigmatic Fragasso, he got the part of Joshua Waits in Troll 2. Despite his father expressing concerns at the "really strange" script, Stephenson's eagerness to make it as an actor turned him round.

Blind ambition is a clear theme of Stephenson's documentary, which opens by profiling George Hardy, who plays his on-screen father Michael Waits. Hardy is a dentist and respected member of an Alabama community, but also an ever aspiring showman. He steps into Troll 2 cult adulation with eagerness and good grace for what people are actually celebrating about Troll 2; however, the more interesting player in the story is Fragasso himself who, comparison to Hardy's embracement of the best worst movie tag, was less inclined to deride his own work.

"After thinking about the documentary, I just that I had to do it. I knew there was a story here," according Stephenson, "but I immediately wondered what Claudia thinks about all of this. I have a lot of respect for him, but how do you tell someone that people love their movie because it's really bad? I had his phone number as I'd been in Europe previously. So I called him and said, 'do you know that there are kids holding Troll 2 parties in their basements where they dress up, eat green food and have fun?' There was this long pause and then he said, 'why after 18 years do they decide they like this movie?' So he had no idea what was going on."

Fragasso approached Troll 2 with full intention to make something not just good, but brilliant. Stephenson points to the courage it must have taken as an Italian director with limited English to travel to Utah and still come back with a feature film in the can.

But still, Fragasso remained not on page with the best worst movie tag.

"When he came over to L.A., we were eating dinner when one of his friends asked me, 'what's the title of your documentary?' I said Best Worst Movie," Stephenson explains.

"All of a sudden, Claudio stopped eating, looked at me and said, 'Worst, why worst?' So I replied, 'Well some people love your movie because it’s bad'. He just started eating his spaghetti again. Then I knew we had to get him to a screening."

Despite understandable trepidation, Stephenson was confident that the positive atmosphere fostered by Troll 2 devotees at screenings would transmit to Fragasso. Indeed, upon arriving at the L.A. theatre, and seeing the huge line around the corner, the Italian simply said, "Michael, we have to do a Troll 3".

Aside from being quite a scary thought, Stephenson believes that no one could ever replicate Troll 2 as it was one of those moments in time, a uniting of everything that is bad to create a piece of sheer brilliance, completely by accident.

"This whole journey has meant that I can't even tell you Troll 2 is a bad film," he said, laughing. "Its nuts and I don't even know why I'm saying this. Bad is relative. The reason why Troll 2 is so magical for so many people is because it's sincere. It's awful in a very genuine way. Nobody was trying to make a bad film; everybody was trying to make something good and failed miserably. That is the only way a movie like Troll 2 finds an audience, because it's trying for one thing, falls miserably short and eventually becomes a good film."

Screenings: 5 & 7November 2009 at Sheffield DocFest.

words: Andrew Laughlin

sheffdocfest.com