Since its release 35 years ago, Troll 2 has probably awoken more food-based phobias than any other low-budget B-movie of its era. The Italian-produced, Utah-shot, so-bad-it’s-good hall of famer is less about goblins (not a single troll, and especially not the one from 1986’s Troll, appears in the film) and more about icky food dyed in sickly green colors. In the film, these gross foodstuffs are the poisoned creation of a witch and her flock of vegetarian goblins to trap innocent humans and turn them into plants, and only young Joshua Waits (Michael Stephenson) knows of its danger when his family arrives in the rural town Nilbog for a house-swap vacation. But take one look at the artificial, unappealing array of green food and you’ll be permanently dissuaded from thinking of them as tasty, tempting treats.
Far from being scary, all the scenes featuring food — and the visceral, sticky transformations that follow — make you feel nauseous. When paired an ensemble of universally clueless and wooden performers, Troll 2 is as baffling as it is icky, channeling its anti-vegetarian satire into a simulation of adolescent-friendly American horror like Gremlins, The Gate, and The Monster Squad, revealing through its defects how those beloved films rely on carefully assembled charm and heart.
