Best Worst Movie is a brilliant documentary. But we don’t want you to go and see it. Not yet, anyway.

We want you to buy a copy of Troll 2, first (not too much of a stretch, you can get it for less than a fiver).

If you hurry, you can pick it up before the next FrightFest screening, on Sunday at 9pm.

Because Best Worst Movie celebrates the phenomenon that is the awesomely terrible trash classic Troll 2, once rated the worst movie ever made on the imdb.

But if you’ve yet to watch Troll’s glorious sequel, the doc might ruin the magical experience of seeing it for the very first time.



You can get a sense of the inexplicable pleasure of watching Troll 2 from Best Worst Movie – it shows many of the best worst clips, some more than once – but seeing those scenes out of context will probably numb the joy of watching it straight through without any prior knowledge of what’s coming.

But for the already initiated, Best Worst Movie (directed by Troll 2’s child star, Michael Stephenson) contains almost as many jaw-punching moments as the original flick.



Whether we’re finding out which one of the cast was on day release from a local mental hospital, hearing Troll 2 mom Margo Prey doing an impression of the noises her neighbours make, or experiencing any of director Claudio Fragrasso’s impassioned defences of the film, Best Worst Movie is constantly surprising.

Fragasso’s one of the two main stars of Stephenson’s doc, with only Troll 2 dad turned dentist George Hardy competing for the spotlight.

Both men’s journeys provide telling glimpses into the nature of cult celebrity.



Hardy moves from being slightly embarrassed about his role in the worst movie of all time to, after attending a few rapturous screenings, becoming its loudest advocate, to suffering slumping disappointment (we won’t spoil it here, but we see Hardy getting more than one ego knock over the course of his travels)…

Claudio Fragasso also takes the occasional knock to the ego when confronted with Troll 2’s drooling fans – opining that they laugh when it’s meant to be funny, but also when it isn’t.



His impassioned defence of the film is one of the doc’s greatest strengths – it’s a sheer joy to watch for fans of the film; he loves it as much as we do, for very different reasons.

But it’s not just about the director and the star, Stephenson turns his camera on the geeks, the supporting players and even the Trolls themselves.



It’s funny, obviously, but it’s also incredibly sad in places.

We catch up with actors whose dreams died the moment Troll’s 2 credits rolled like some sort of bad actor register and we can't help but feel moved by their fates, no matter how many times we’ve laughed at their line delivery.

We saw Best Worst Movie with a Troll 2 virgin, and she loved it. We just hope that her experience of the original film hasn’t been sullied by the poignancy of seeing the effect it had on the mental health of some of its stars.

So, by all means see it – it’s one of the most fascinating documentaries of the year. Just make sure you rent Troll 2 first. Because Best Worst Movie is best enjoyed by Nilbogs in disguise...

You can see Best Worst Movie at FrightFest 30 August at 9pm. You can buy tickets here.