IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY (1974-1978) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY (1974-1978) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: May 15th 2018
Region Code: A
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen

For the first time on Blu-ray, and in a new, deluxe box set, the It’s Alive trilogy is reborn! On May 15, Scream Factory will release the It’s Alive Trilogy in a 3-disc set packed with bonus features, including new interviews, and new 2K scans of each film.

IT’S ALIVE (1974)

Rating: PG 
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell, James Dixon, Michael Ansara

Synopsis: It's newborn and … It's Alive … and murder is what it knows best! A proud couple's bundle of joy is really a newborn terror in filmmaker Larry Cohen's cautionary cult hit that tapped into environmental fears. The horror grows when multiple child monsters rampage in the first sequel It Lives Again as two brave parents try to stop them by becoming the bait for their spree. The now global mutants are rounded up and relocated to a far-flung island in It's Alive III: Island of the Alive. Will a parent's greatest nightmare become the world's gravest fear? Find out ... if you dare.

In Larry Cohen's 70's killer-kid classic we have L.A. couple Frank Davis (John Ryan, Runaway Train) and his wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell, The Premonition) expecting their second child, it was an unexpected pregnancy as she was on birth control, but they are happy nonetheless at the prospect of another kiddo around the house, as is their adolescent son Chris (Daniel Holzman) who will be a big brother. When she goes into labor they head to the hospital and as she begins to give birth while Frank sits in the lobby with the other expectant fathers, as was the tradition back in the day, not like now when father's are almost always in the delivery room. However, the birth is abnormal, and what emerges from his wife's womb is a toothy-mutant offspring that chews through it's own umbilical cord before slaughtering all the medical staff in the delivery room, the aftermath looking a bit like that scene fro Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 when Doctor Ock's sentient tentacles go ape-shit. The wife goes into hysterics as Frank wanders into he bloody aftermath, soon after a manhunt is launched for the ferocious killer-kid with Frank initially being on board with hunting it down and killing it, until his paternal instincts kick in. 

The film is a bit of a slow-mover by modern horror standards but I've always loved it, Cohen made a classic 70's monster movie here with early make-up effects by none other than Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) who sculpted quite a fearsome kid with a bulbous, vein-y head, fangs and clawed hands. Rightfully they keep the visuals of the kid to a minimum, showing it in fleeting glimpses and among the shadows. There are a lot of killer POV shots from the point of view of the homicidal baby, a double-vision image thing that worked pretty well. The film can be read in several different ways, informed by real issues like abortion, eugenics and the Thalidomide baby-deformities, with this one containing a corrupt drug company trying to erase evidence that their contraception pill which might be the root cause of the hideous mutation to begin with. 

John P. Ryan (Three O'Clock High) as the father really sells the expectant father part of the story as well as the conflicted post-hospital slaughter reality of the abnormal birth and ensuing man-hunt for the demon-toothed kid, he gives it some real depth and layers. While the film is a tiny bit slow and we don't see the killer-kid a bunch the film is very effective, plus it's well lensed with a sweeping score from Bernard Herrmann (Psycho) with loads of blood, particularly for a PG-rated horror film! I'm not totally convinced this will play all that well with a younger audience watching it for the first time, I grew up with it so it has some intrinsically nostalgic appeal, but I will say that my seventeen year old son enjoyed it quite a bit.  

This was Cohen's first time directing a horror film, it's a serious effort that's handled with a modicum of class, it's not quite as oddball and quirky as some of his later genre efforts, and I think that serious tone gives this monster-kid cult classic some legs.

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films featuring interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon and more… (18 min) HD 
- NEW It’s Alive at the Nuart: The 40th Anniversary Screening with Larry Cohen (13 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Radio Spots (2 min) HD 
- TV Spots (1 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (4 min) HD

IT LIVES AGAIN (1978)

Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, James Dixon, John Marley, Andrew Duggan, Eddie Constantine

Synopsis: Is it human? Is it a beast? Whatever it is, It Lives Again in this second film in cult filmmaker Larry Cohen’s Alive Trilogy. Once again, Cohen brings to the screen a hideous threesome of mutant baby monsters that are the evolutionary response to man’s polluted environment. These frightened creatures lash out with deadly claws at what they don’t understand. There are only three, but they could reproduce into uncontrollable millions if someone doesn’t destroy them. Fredric Forrest (Apocalypse Now) and Kathleen Lloyd (The Car) star as the loving parents of one of the monstrous creatures. Parental love, however, is no match for these hell-spawned mutants. Their wild blood binge must be stopped. Will the next stage of their evolution become our last?

After the success of the first film a sequel was hatched, picking up a few years after the original we have John P. Ryan returning as Frank Davis who has traveled to Tucson, AZ (love seeing my city back in the 70's) to warn a young couple, Jody (Kathleen Lloyd, The Car) and Eugene Scott (Frederic Forrest, The Conversation), that their soon-to-be-born kid will most likely be a mutant, which since that last film have been being born at an alarming rate around the country. At first they don't believe him but they come around when they meet a menacing guy named Malory (John Marley, Deathdream) who has put together a death-squad who travel around the country exterminating the mutant kids the moment they're born. With the help of John the couple escape the hospital and she gives birth to the beastly kid in a mobile birthing unit built into the back of a shipping truck, and are taken to a retreat run by a group of scientists,  Andrew Duggan (Doctor Detroit) and Eddie Constantin (Alphaville), who want to study the babies, believing them to be the next evolutionary step of humanity, a sort of underground railroad for mutant babies, where they're kid gets to mingle with two other deformed monster-kids. 

The sequel is a nice continuation of the story, it's not just a simple retread, and it's great to have John P. Ryan back as Davis. Also returning are the special make-up effects of Rick Baker plus we get another score from Bernard Herrmann. While I don't love the sequel they way I do the first it's a solid sequel that expands a bit on the story and we get more moving parts, including the Scott's being betrayed by the wife's mother, ending with the authorities showing up at the facility where the monster kids are being kept. There's a bit more gore this time around too, but not a bunch, so keep those expectations in check.

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (4 min) HD

IT’S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE (1987)

Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, Gerrit Graham, Neal Israel, James Dixon 

Synopsis: In It’s Alive III: Island Of The Alive, Michael Moriarty (Q: The Winged Serpent) and Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror) star as Stephen and Ellen Jarvis, the distraught parents of one of the new mutant children. They’ve watched in horror as government death squads roamed the earth, shooting the humanoids on sight. They’ve suffered through the court hearings that sentenced their child and other surviving mutants to a remote, uninhabited island. And their nightmare continues … because the abandoned creatures are now grown … and they are coming back home to the society that created and rejected them. And no one who stands in their way will live.

The second and final (so far, not counting the remake) sequel in the It's Alive trilogy throws seriousness right out the window in far or of a more humorous approach with the introduction of Cohen regular Michael Moriarty (The Stuff) as Jarvis, who opens the film in a courtroom fighting for the rights of his mutant born son to live, arguing for the death of his son is a lawyer played by Gerrit Graham (Phantom of the Paradise), the over-the-top trial ends with the killer baby busting out of it's steel cage with Jarvis managing to calm it down, showing the judge that it's not pure evil, and thus the judge (MacDonald Carey, End of the World) rules that the five surviving mutant kids known to exist are to be shipped away to an isolated island where they will no pose a danger to society.

The film moves ahead a few years and Moriarty's character has penned a tell-all book about the events, while his ex-wife Ellen (Karen Black, Burnt Offerings) wants nothing to do with him or the the damned kid, living her life out of the spotlight while Jarvis, a former TV commercial actor, has become an outcast of society. There's a great scene where the affection starved Jarvis meets a prostitute played by Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop) who beds him but goes ape-shit when she realizes why he looks so familiar, believing that the mutations gene can be passed by touch, sort of the ways the AIDS epidemic caused hysteria around the same time. 

Jarvis later is recruited to visit the island with a team to study the growth of the monster kids who have now grown into adulthood, and this is where I really started to miss the special effects work of Rick Baker who is not present here, instead we have men in rubber-suits that look real goofy, but there's also some fun Harryhausen-esque stop-motion animation which I enjoyed a bunch.

Jarvis and the team come under attack on the island by the mutants, who apparently miss home, they force him to pilot a ship back towards the U.S. mainland with his son saving his life by throwing him overboard when the other monsters - and their own monster kids - decide that Jarvis looks like a tasty piece of meat - stranding him in Cuba, where more off-kilter shenanigans take place. Eventually the deformed families arrive in Florida - where Ellen lives - and  the carnage begins with the mutants destroying a group of 80's punks down on the boardwalk before homing in on the whereabouts of Ellen, leading to a rooftop encounter/family reunion. 

This one is off-kilter and way more comedic than the first two entries, Cohen bringing in Moriarty guarantees plenty of hammed-up shenanigans which we get in spades, I love this guy, and even though it veers far away from the previous films, it's more akin to The Stuff than It's Alive, there's still plenty of low-budget horror and corny Cohen-Moriarty humor to make it a palatable straight-to-video sequel.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill (10 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Larry Cohen
- Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (3 min) HD 

Audio/Video: All three films arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from new 2K scans of the archival interpositive elements, the 2018 2K scans were performed by Warner Bros. and look great. The first film looks the best of the bunch with finely managed grain, saturated colors and deep inky blacks. There's a surprising amount of fine detail in those 70's textures and facial details. The sequels also look great, they lack some of the deep fine detail and clarity of the first film, but are solid. 

Each films sports an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 audio track with optional English subtitles, all are nicely balanced and clean without any hiss or distortion. The Bernard Herrmann score of the first film is certainly a highlight, if I was to niggle about an extra I would have appreciated it would have been an isolated music score for the films, particularly he first two which are scored by the legendary composer.  

Thankfully Scream Factory carryover all the Larry Cohen commentaries from Warner Bros. previous triple feature DVD set from 2009. New stuff begins with the 18-min 'Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films' which features interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon, cinematographer Daniel Pearl and historians John Burligame, FX Feeney. The main attraction here is Cohen who speaks volumes about the films, from the troubled beginning of It's Alive to the success when a visionary WB exec saw the merit of the film and gave t proper distribution, creating the opening credit sequences at his home (where much of the second films was shot), working with the cast and crew, Rick Bakers special effects, getting Bernard Herrmann to score the films. The cast and crew also reminiscence about shooting Island of the Alive, getting sea sick on the open sea, bit Larry using the sick crew as extras on the boat, posing as corpses, typical low-budget Larry Cohen workarounds. The talk here is moistly centered around the first and third film with the second getting short shrift in regard to content, but there's a lot of ground covered.

We also get a 13-min  Q/A from the 40th anniversary screening of the film at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles from 2014, the audio on this one is a bit choppy and wonky in [paces but it's good stuff, Cohen is a great storyteller and he doesn't disappoint here. 

The last of the new stuff is a 10-min interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill who worked on the third film, he speaks about getting ti know Rick Baker, who offered him the job on this film. He speaks about wanting to create a different type of look for the monsters, but Cohen wanted to go a different route, leading to the rubber-suited creatures which emulate the look of the baby monsters from the previous films, he also discussed Mark Williams sculpting of the masks, and the use of stop-motion animation. 

The first film has a selection of trailers, radio spots, and a gallery, the sequels get a trailer and a gallery minus the radio spots. Onto the packaging we get pretty much the same packaging style Scream Factory offered with The Amityville Horror Trilogy, all three films get their own keepcase wrapped in a flimsy card-stock slipcover. Both It's Alive and It Lives Again feature reversible artwork while Island of the Alive features an image from the film on the reverse side. The discs themselves feature the reversible artwork options, except Island of the Alive which features the home video artwork which also adorns the sleeve. 

The Larry Cohen love continues with this impressive looking three-disc set from Scream Factory, Cohen's made so many great cult-films through the years, it's great to see many of them getting new HD releases from Scream Factory with new extras, I hope this is a trend that continues. I also hope there are kids out there discovering some of these for the first time and loving them, and that it's not just us old farts getting nostalgic cinema-erections every time they announce another one. 

THE STUFF (1985) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

THE STUFF (1985) 

Label: Arrow Video 
Release Date: April 19th 2016 

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 87 Minutes 

Audio: Original English PCM 1.0 Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Larry Cohen

Cast: Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Danny Aiello, Paul Sorvino, Scott Bloom

When a miner stumbles upon sweet gooey white substance bubbling-up from the Earth what else can he do but slap a pretty sticker on it and market the creamy treat for mass consumption? Now calling it The Stuff the sweet treat fast becomes America's newest taste-sensation surpassing even ice cream as the premiere treat. Alarmed frozen-treat moguls band together to employ industrial saboteur David "Mo" Ruthaford (Michael Moriarty, Q the Winged Serpent) to discover just what the secret ingredient is so they can steal it for themselves and make the world safe for the ice cream producers of the world.

Yup, it's just as silly as it sounds but The Stuff is a smartly written and deftly executed satire by writer/director Larry Cohen who really sparked on a great concept with this one. Throughout you can find send-ups of classic science fiction films like The Blob (1958) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) mixed with some tasty bits of humor. Actor Michael Moriarty is a bit an eccentric person and never more so than when he teamed-up with filmmaker Larry Cohen, always over-the-top but never less than pitch-perfect in my opinion. Mo's quest for answers begin with a corrupt former employee named Mr. Vickers (Danny Aiello, Jacob's Ladder) of the FDA who first approved the Stuff for consumption. The strange encounter with Vickers and his menacing doberman pincer tip Mo off to the fact that something strange is happening behind the scenes. Turns out the Stuff is some sort of body-snatching parasite that transforms ordinary treat-seeking people into Stuff craving zombie drones.

The cast is great with Moriarty leading the charge with assist from an attractive ad exec (Andrea Marcovicci) and a trio of strange cameos from Aiello, Garret Morris (SNL) as an embittered confectioner and Paul Sorvino (Goodfelleas) as a right-wing militia nut. There's also a young kid named Jason (Scott Bloom) who early on realizes that the Stuff is dangerous and discovers that he must fend off his family who have become drones to the creepy confection. The scenes of his family trying to force the Stuff into his mouth are the stuff of surreal nightmares. The father (Robert Frank Telfin) for some reason particularly made my skin crawl, there's just something so uneasy about him. As with Q the Winged Serpent (1982) it is Michael Moriarty and his odd delivery that own the film (alongside the great effects), a wonderful mix of silliness, satire and some actual scares.

The Stuff (1985) is easily my favorite Larry Cohen entry and a quite a fun send-up of consumerism with some great special effects that uses about everything from shaving cream, ice cream and fire retardant foam to bring the Stuff to life onscreen, including some vintage stop-motion animation from the late David Allen of Puppet Master fame. Some of it might be a bit dated after 25-years but The Stuff holds up very nicely -  a classic 80's b-movie from New World Pictures and the demented mind of b-movie genius Larry Cohen.

Audio/Video: The HD transfer from Arrow Video is quite pleasing all round, framed in the original widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1) with a natural  layer of fine film grain and with it some additional fine detail and improved sharpness. Colors are accurate and nicely saturated and there's a surprising amount of depth to the image. The English LPCM Mono 1.0 audio (with optional English subs) sounds great, with dialogue, score and sound effects coming through clean, free of distortion and is well-balanced.

Unfortunately we do not get the commentary track from director Larry Cohen from the now out-of-print Anchor Bay release (and it's not on the Image DVD either) so don't be in a hurry to trade that one in just yet. What we do get is a nearly hour long making-of doc featuring interviews with Larry Cohen, producer Paul Kurta, actress Andrea Marcovicci, mechanical makeup effects person  Steve Neill and Kim Newman, and it is a fantastic watch, if you love Larry Cohen or movie this is a treat. We also have  a trailer commentary sourced from the Trailers from Hell site with director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III) espousing his love for the film.

The last of the disc extras is the original trailer and a 24-page booklet  with new writing on the gooey movie by Joel Harley, illustrated with original stills and promotional materials. There is also a sleeve of reversible artwork with original and new artwork by artist Gary Pullin. This is a  pretty great 1080p upgrade for one of my all-time favorite Larry Cohen features, the audio-visual boost is worth the upgrade alone and the hour-long doc is The stuff on top. Previously issued by Arrow as a UK exclusive the disc is now region free, which is great news for fans of the film who may not be region-free themselves.

Special Features:
- Can’t Get Enough of The Stuff: Making Larry Cohen’s Classic Creature Feature Documentary (52 Mins)
- Introduction and Trailer Commentary by The Stuff fan Darren Bousman (2 Mins)
- Original Trailer (2 Mins)
- Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Joel Harley, illustrated with original stills and promotional materials

The Stuff (1983) is a great piece of satire with the gooey effects of The Blob (1958) and the sweet paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) mixed in with Larry Cohen's unique commentary on '80s consumerism and corporate culture in America. A very high recommend, I just can't get enough of Arrow Video Blu-ray of The Stuff! 4/5

TROLL / TROLL 2 (Blu-ray Review)

TROLL(1986) / TROLL 2 (1991) 
plus BEST WORST MOVIE (2010)

2-Disc Limited Edition DVD/BD 

TROLL (1986) 
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rated: PG-13 
Duration: 82 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo
Video: HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: John Carl Buechler
Cast: June Lockhart, Michael Moriarty, Anne Lockhart, Brad Hall, Gary Sandy, Jenny Beck, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Noah Hathaway, Phil Fondacaro, Shelley Hack, Sonny Bono

Synopsis: Lock the doors and pull out the weed-wacker for this house party of horror! One family is about to find out there's no place like home when a troublesome troll starts taking over their building, transforming each apartment into an overgrown garden of ancient evil and turning tenants into a horde of hairy hobgoblins! Michael Moriarty and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in this super-slimy scare-fest that's "a special-effects pig-out" (Daily News)!

The original Troll film is a fun kids movie about a young girl named Wendy who is possessed by a wizard troll and his bid to break down the barriers between the troll world and the modern world, and of course this all takes place inside a small apartment in San Francisco. Classing up this b-movie slice of fantasy film making are the very cool special effects work from John Carl Buechler and his team, the main troll Torok is a full-on body suit with some great facial articulation, an expressive little beast with actor Phil Fondacaro (Ghoulies 2) beneath the make-up doing a bang-up job. Fondacaro also appearing in a dual role as a pint-sized professor who befriends the young Wendy, only to be transformed into a troll-creature himself. 

The movie has a great cast, we have the always awesome Michael Moriarty from Larry Cohen's The Stuff (1985) as Wendy's father Harry Potter - that's right, Harry Potter! Moriarty steals the show in my opinion in a strange scene as he dances along to Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues" in a strange scene that has nothing to do with trolls whatsoever. His son Harry Potter Jr. (Noah Hathaway) seems to be the only one who recognizes that his sister is acting strange, with him on the receiving end of biting attacks and groin punches. With his parent's turning a blind eye to Wendy's increasingly erratic behavior he confides in a sweet old lady who lives in an upstairs apartment, Eunice, played by June Lockhart, of She-Wolf of London (1946) fame, she adds a wonderful, caring and magical flavor to the movie and tells young Harry about what's happened to his sister, and of brewing war between trolls and mankind, one with ancient origins and which she was part of. Eunice is a centuries old witch who has been standing guard at the gates of reality, enlisting the aid off Henry to protect the world from the evil troll Torok who seems about ready to declare war on mankind, yet again. 

This is just fun stuff, totally kiddie friendly movie and a great gateway film to introduce your kids to horror, right alongside Monster squad and The Gate. This is not a great film, but it's got a lot of heart and some memorable weirdness, including the appearance of sonny Bono as a swinging neighbor, and a pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 

Special Features: 
- NEW The Making of TROLL Featuring Interviews With Director John Carl Buechler, Producer Charles Band, Writer Ed Naha, Composer Richard Band, Special Effects Artists John Vulich And Gino Crognale, Visual Effects Artists Jim Aupperle, James Belhovek, Linda Drake And Kevin Kutchaver (50 Mins) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (3 Mins) HD 
- Behind The Scenes Still Gallery (1 Min) HD 

TROLL 2 (1991) 
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo
Video: HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Claudio Fragasso
Cast: Michael Stephenson, Connie Young, George Hardy, Margo Prey, Robert Ormsby

Synopsis: Those greedy goblins are back and hungrier than ever in this gourmet gross-out! Disguised as friendly country folk, a pugnacious posse of people-eating trolls lures visitors to their town. But a family of four is about to discover this place is a real tourist trap... and now, the no-good gnomes must be destroyed before the family gets flambéed... and the world becomes a buffet in this feeding frenzy of fear!

Five years after Troll came Troll 2 from Italian director Claudio Fragasso, a movie originally titles Goblins that had nothing to do with John Carl Buechler's original film, but the distributor slapped on the Troll 2 title to cash-in on Troll's success at the box office. widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, which is a fun thought, but this is not accurate. In fact, I have a pile of movies sitting right here within arm's reach which are infinitely worse movies, so bad in fact that I don't even want to review them because I typically choose to celebrate movies, not shit on them. 

Anyone who thinks this is the worst movie ever made simply has not seen enough movies, or the wrong types of movies, or are just not familiar with the other movie of Claudio Fragasso, for instance Hell of the Living Dead (1980), Rats: Night of Terror (1884) and Beyond Darkness (1990) - all of which are equally strange and poorly made, he was an exploitation director churning out some cheap knock-offs, they're not high art but they're not the worst movies ever made, they're nowhere near as bad as Manos:The Hands of Fate, but like that movie they're very entertaining for a myriad of awful reasons, but none are the WORST. It's also worth mentioning that all of these films have an audience and have been released on Blu-ray! 

The story such as it is concerns a nuclear family who arrange through nefarious means to swap homes with a rural family from the town of Nilbog, because the father Michael (George Hardy) has always dreamed of being a farmer, much to the chagrin of his teenage daughter Holly (McFarland) and son Joshua (Stephenson) who are in no hurry to trade in their city-life for farmer's tans. What they don't know is that Nilbog has been overrun by evil goblins who want to eat them. Before they can eat them they have to trick the family into consuming a green liquid which they bake into tasty treats. 

The young Joshua is haunted by visions of his dead grandfather Seth (Robert Ormsby) who warns him throughout the movie of the impending danger and the evil of the goblins. On the night they arrive in Nilbog the spectral grampa warns him to not let the family eat the green-tainted food left for them by the exchange family, with no other options the boy jumps up on the table and pisses all over the food! This is my favorite scene, and is followed by his father carrying the boy to his room while yelling how "you can't piss on hospitality!"

There's a b-story involving Holly's boyfriend  Elliot (Wright) and his friends who follow the family to the town of Nilbog, which *SPOILER* is Goblin spelled backwards! They have an encounter with the Goblin Queen Creedence Leonore Gielgud played by Deborah Reed, who looks, acts and sounds like she would make a fun horror-host on late-night TV. She tricks them into drinking the green liquid and they are transformed into human-plants with small branches sprouting from their fingertips, sweating green fluid, it's an oddly effective special effect, and in my younger years it definitely made my skin crawl. However, unlike Troll (1986) the creature effects are very poor, sad rubber-faced goblins (not trolls mind you!) who seem to be wearing a burlap sacks for clothing.

A lot of the weirdness of the movie comes from the fact that the Italian director and crew knew almost no English and the Italian written script was translated directly, and put into the mouths of non-actors, who then received little direction, they're doing the best they can, but with a clunky dialogue like "I'm the victim of a nocturnal rapture. I have to release my lowest instincts with a woman", there's just not much you can do with it. But some of the unintentional humor is classic stuff and has proven to keep fans coming back for more, time and time again. That bit where Elliot is punched in the nuts by Holly always makes me laugh, the part where he says that's how guys are turned homosexual, by being blasted in the nuts! 

Special Features: 
- NEW Audio Commentary With Actors George Hardy And Deborah Reed
- Theatrical Trailer

BEST WORST MOVIE (2010
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: 1
Rated: Unrated
Duration: 93 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0  
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Michael Stephenson
Cast: Margo Prey, Robert Ormsby, Rossella Drudi, Claudio Fragasso, Connie Young, Michael Stephenson, George Hardy

Also included with the first 5,000 copies of the Troll/Troll 2 Blu-ray is a DVD of Michael Stephenson's loving doc Best Worst Movie (2010) which minus many extras on the Troll 2 Blu-ray  offers pretty much anything you could ever want to know about the making of the cult-classic, a bittersweet look and the infamous awful movie. The doc is directed by former child star Michael Stephenson who played the freckle-faced boy Joshua in the movie, he sort of filters the experience through the eyes of actor George Hardy who played his hospitality respecting father in Troll 2, and has since become a successful dentist. 

It's a Hell of a fun watch with the varying stories of making the movie, some new it was awful, some had no idea and everyone is surprised by the cult-following the movie has garnered through the years, though director Fragasso doesn't seem to thrilled to hear people celebrating his movie as one of the worst movies ever made, even if they call it the "best" worst movie, and who can blame the guy, I imagine it takes a special mindset and brand of self awareness to not just appreciate, but to celebrate the fact that you've made a bad movie, and he made a lot of them. Every shitty movie should have a doc celebrating it that is this entertaining. 

The disc also includes a ton of special features which expand on the movie, including nearly an hour of deleted scenes and extended interviews, several music video tributes to the movie, and Q and A with the director and a very cool interview with the Goblin queen herself Deborah Reed who once again dons the wardrobe!

Special Features: 
- Deleted Scenes And Interviews (57 Mins)
- A Public Service Announcement From George Hardy (1 Min)
- Kingdom Of The Goblins (4 Mins) 
- Meat Noam Telnobody 2 (6 Mins) 
- Provocative Interview With Troll 2’s Goblin Queen, Deborah Reed (13 Mins)
- George Hardy Doesn’t Know My Name (4 Mins) 
- Monstrous Music Video (4 Mins) 
- Filmmaker Q and A with Creative Screenwriting Magazine (82 Mins) 
- Indie Trailer ( 2 Mins) 
- Filmmaker Bio 
- About Docurama
- Docurama Trailers (9 Mins) 

Another fun double-feature from Scream Factory with some great extras, that making of doc for Troll (1986) alone makes it worth a purchase, it might even be better than the actual movie itself, but I still love the movie. Troll 2 (1991) is not a good movie but it is most definitely not the worst movie ever made, but we'll keep letting the hipsters say it if it makes 'em happy. The fact that the first 5000 of these Blu-ray sets will include the Best Worst Movie (2010) doc is a nifty value-added bonus, I give this a high recommend if you're a fan of either of the movies, worth the upgrade. 3/5