--- title: "Troll 2" year: 1990 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/troll-2" fi1m_score: 40 critics_score: 43 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-16T14:33:40.120890+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T14:34:19.489282+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Troll 2 (1990) Directed by Claudio Fragasso · 1h 35m · MPA PG-13 · Horror, Fantasy **Fi1m score: 40** · Critics 43 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* Vegetarian goblins, a ruined dinner and dialogue nobody should have to say aloud > Claudio Fragasso’s *Troll 2* has vegetarian goblins and a script that keeps defeating its cast. There are laughs in its mistakes, but we found them too scattered to justify 95 minutes of weak horror. ## Synopsis Nilbog has goblins with a particular dietary requirement: they turn humans into plants before eating them. Joshua Waits (Michael Stephenson) needs to keep his family out of their reach. Michael Waits (George Hardy), Diana Waits (Margo Prey) and Holly Waits (Connie Young) face a threat that arrives through food, while Grandpa Seth (Robert Ormsby) helps Joshua when a goblin attacks. Stopping the family from eating becomes Joshua’s immediate task. With dinner posing a danger, he takes the direct route and urinates on it. The goblins’ vegetarian diet offers no protection to the people in their way. ## Review *Troll 2* is a poor horror film whose accidental laughs are too scattered to make it worth recommending. Claudio Fragasso treats vegetarian goblins and dangerous food with an earnestness that sometimes makes them funny, but the stretches between those moments are hard work. We can see why its mistakes have attracted admirers. At 95 minutes, though, it leaves us sitting through too much awkward conversation between the absurd scenes. The screenplay, credited to Rossella Drudi and Claudio Fragasso, supplies an unusual problem: goblins who turn people into plants so they can eat them. Food ought to be a useful source of anxiety in a family horror film, and there is something unpleasant in that premise. We laughed when Joshua Waits protected the family by urinating on dinner, because it is such a blunt response to an elaborate supernatural threat. For that scene, the family’s predicament held our attention. Michael Stephenson plays Joshua Waits, with George Hardy as Michael Waits and Margo Prey as Diana Waits, and the family scenes expose the writing’s weaknesses. The dialogue makes ordinary concern sound unnatural before anyone has to deal with a goblin. Michael Stephenson’s urgency gives us something to follow, but it is difficult to believe in the family’s conversations when the words are so awkward to say. We would not put all the blame on the performers; it is hard to imagine those lines sounding natural from a more assured cast. Giancarlo Ferrando’s cinematography gives the unconvincing goblins little protection, and the flimsy sets are no more persuasive. The creatures invite inspection when they ought to prompt alarm. Vanio Amici’s editing cannot make the plot’s leaps feel urgent, so the pauses between absurdities become hard to ignore. Carlo Maria Cordio’s music has to support threats already weakened by the effects and dialogue, and it cannot do enough to make them frightening. With so little danger to believe in, the family’s efforts to avoid becoming food are much less involving than they should be. The film’s seriousness is its main attraction as accidental comedy. Claudio Fragasso does not seem to be inviting us to laugh at the goblins, which gives their dietary arrangements an odd fascination. Within fantasy horror, artificial monsters can still frighten if the people facing them are convincing and the threat is clear. Here, the family struggles to hold our attention and the goblins’ peculiar diet has to supply almost all the interest. Watching for mistakes can be amusing, but it also means waiting through scenes that are neither frightening nor funny. Choose it only for an evening devoted to peculiar failures, with expectations adjusted accordingly. The food scare supplies a few moments worth talking about, but we would not rely on it for sustained horror or comedy. Bring company willing to tolerate the gaps between laughs. *Fi1m score 40, published 16 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (5) - **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a 'crapsterpiece' of cheapjack DIY exploitation, packed with excruciating dialogue, terrible effects, nonsensical plotting and cardboard sets, yet celebrates its self-serious ecological subtext and overall ineptitude as a compilation of the best bad-movie moments. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/troll-2) - **Film Comment** (30/100, inferred): The piece discusses Troll 2 as Italian schlock maestro Claudio Fragasso’s ‘masterpiece’ with a marginal cult following from midnight screenings, noting its low IMDb ranking and the embarrassment of some cast members, while observing that the accompanying documentary offers more amusement than the film itself. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/short-takes-best-worst-movie/) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (30/100, inferred): The critic positions Troll 2 as a strong contender for the worst film ever made in a comparison with Manos: The Hands of Fate, praising its singular ineptitude, camp value, and memorable absurdities like the Nilbog twist and bologna sandwich scene while noting its drop in quality from the first Troll. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-new-cult-canon-manos-the-hands-of-fate-vs-troll-1798214473) - **The Guardian**, Wendy Mitchell (10/100, inferred): The critic highlights Troll 2's status as one of the worst films ever made that has gained cult status through its spectacular badness and unintentional comedy. She singles out the film's plot involving vegetarian goblins in Nilbog, terrible performances, cheesy elements, and the creative team's non-native English dialogue as key factors in its appeal. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/03/troll-2-best-worst-movie) - **Den of Geek**, Nick Aldwinckle (90/100, inferred): The critic regards 1990’s Troll 2 as one of the greatest ‘so bad it’s good’ movies, charmed by its ludicrous goofy elements like vegetarian goblins turning humans into plants, the Nilbog twist, and absurd scenes such as a hero saving his family by urinating on dinner. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-bottom-shelf-troll-2-phantasm-the-entity/) ## Details - **Director:** Claudio Fragasso - **Director:** Claudio Fragasso - **Screenplay:** Claudio Fragasso, Rossella Drudi - **Cinematography:** Giancarlo Ferrando - **Editor:** Vanio Amici - **Music:** Carlo Maria Cordio - **Costume design:** Laura Gemser - **Cast:** Michael Stephenson as Joshua Waits; George Hardy as Michael Waits; Margo Prey as Diana Waits; Connie Young as Holly Waits; Robert Ormsby as Grandpa Seth; Deborah Reed as Creedence Leonore Gielgud; Jason Wright as Elliott Cooper; Darren Ewing as Arnold - **Runtime:** 1h 35m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 12 October 1990 - **Genres:** Horror, Fantasy - **Budget:** $65,000 - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p1Fu5lvrc4 ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AR, AU, BG, CA, CL, CZ, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, ID, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PH, PL, SG, TH, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Stuff* (1985): Another food scare, with consumer habits giving the absurdity a sharper purpose. - *House* (1977): Japanese haunted-house chaos that makes its artificial effects part of the pleasure. - *Little Shop of Horrors* (1986): For hungry plants, but with songs and jokes that know their business. - *The Lair of the White Worm* (1988): British folk horror played with the deliberate mischief missing from Nilbog. - *Rare Exports* (2010): Finnish Christmas horror with strange creatures and firmer control of its absurdities. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/troll-2