Troll
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This week, we went back in time for Craig’s childhood favorite, Troll. Marketed as a straight horror film, Troll is more a children’s fantasy movie with some grotesque horror elements, along with some surprisingly touching material at times.
Troll (1986)
Episode 22, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw
Todd: Welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.
Craig: I’m Craig.
Todd: And today, we picked what must be a childhood favorite of yours. Right, Craig? Yeah. Troll. The nostalgia was just oozing from you as we watched this movie. Yeah.
Craig: Yeah. No. We picked it for its great cinematic quality.
Todd: Well, that too. Right?
Craig: Right? Yeah. No. This is a movie that, gosh, I don’t even know how we came how we got it. When when I was a kid, we had HBO, which is like a big luxury back in those days, and, my dad would always tape movies to keep for us. And this one, I assume, got taped off there. I’m sure he didn’t illegally dub it or anything like that. But, it was a VHS tape with this first and The Goonies right after. And this was, like, the double feature of my childhood. Are you serious? Oh my gosh. I I can’t I still have that VHS tape somewhere. I can’t believe I didn’t, like, totally run it dry because I watched this so many times, and I love this movie. I’m not gonna be mad at you. I feel like Disclosure. Yeah. I feel like I feel like we owe it to our listeners Todd be honest. So, yeah, I’m not I’m gonna try to stay your friend if you have negative things to say about this. But I’m I’m just saying straight up, I love this movie.
Todd: Now you have a sister, and and was she as fond of this movie as you were?
Craig: No. Really? She would watch it with me from time to time, but I think mostly because I would force her. It’s one of the perks of being the big brother. You kinda you kinda got the muscle.
Todd: So she had to sit through this in order to get to The Goonies?
Craig: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. And we oh, gosh. I watched it all the time. And it’s so funny because we put it I I’ve been looking forward to to watching this with you and talking about it. And you put it in and just, I mean, it all came back to me. I haven’t seen it in in so long. I mean, I’ve probably seen it a 100 times or more, but it’s been years. And as soon as the, the opening credits came up and the score started playing, I was just in heaven. I was just smiling from ear to ear. It was such a a nostalgic thing.
Todd: So it you’re saying it’s fallen out of your regular rotation.
Craig: It has kind of, unfortunately. You know, when we were talking about doing this, you asked me if I had it, and I kinda thought, no. I don’t, and I can’t believe I don’t.
Todd: I was surprised. I thought you had the DVD.
Craig: No. I I I, got on Amazon, and, yeah. I I I’m going to order it. I I’ve gotta have it, but I didn’t I didn’t have it for us.
Todd: Now wait a second, but you’ve got the VHS tape.
Craig: I do have the VHS. I don’t have a working VCR.
Todd: That’s a lot of good today. Right.
Craig: But, it’s it’s there in an emergency, I suppose, if I could find a a working VCR.
Todd: Well, this is one of those movies that I remember seeing the cover when we were in the right? I mean, it’s got that creepy looking cover with the troll and what looks like at least as a kid, it looked like a shield in front of him. Right. And you realize it’s a ball. Right. But my dad rented it. You know, and he he and I would rent movies and watch them occasionally. He wasn’t as into horror as I was, but he tried to indulge me a little bit. And so he’d pick those ones out that sort of sounded interesting enough to him that he could sit through it, and some for some reason, this one must have jumped out at him. I don’t know what he read on the back of the box cover or whatnot. And I remember sitting down, and I don’t remember how old I was. I wasn’t in high school yet. You know, I was probably middle school, maybe late elementary, and thinking this is the weirdest movie I have seen to date. It is kind
Craig: of a weird movie, and I I think that it’s weird and that we don’t really see movies like this anymore. We’ve you and I have talked about this several times, but this is one of those movies who I’m not sure what the target audience was that they were going for.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: But I think that it really is kind of targeted towards kids, like, you know or prepubescent, early adolescent kind of kids. It’s got it it’s PG 13.
Todd: Mhmm.
Craig: There there’s not a lot of, graphic violence or gore or anything like that. There is some mild swearing, but it’s just the tone is something that you really just don’t really see anymore, and I miss it because I I feel like we’ve we’ve softened things up a lot for kids. And I don’t have any kids. Maybe I’d feel different if I had kids. But if I did have a kid, this is one of those movies that I would just be waiting, waiting. Please get old enough so I can show you this movie because I would so want to share it, and I loved it so much as a kid.
Todd: It it does have that tone. We’ve talked about that. The gate has that tone.
Craig: Yes.
Todd: Exactly. One of the other films we watched recent well, The Hole has that Todd, But, yeah, it has that tone where you’re not sure of the audience. It seems aimed at a younger crowd, yet you see things in here that you don’t necessarily see anymore in kids movies. You see some pretty gruesome makeup. Yeah. And it’s not bloody gruesome, but it’s people transforming. It’s a little bit out of thriller. It’s a little bit out of Ghoulies and some harder horror films. In fact, I think the director of this was primarily started out as a special effects artist.
Craig: Oh, that would make sense.
Todd: For Roger Corman. And I know that he went on and he did Ghoulies, Ghoulies 2, all those kinds of films. In fact, I think he went and did I don’t know. Did you ever see the Garbage Pail Kids movie?
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Oh, my word. Yeah. He did the makeup for that. And you can you can tell. You know? The animatronics and everything, it’s almost like a signature look. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t reused some of the puppets. I did. Did he okay? Yeah. They look very familiar.
Craig: At at least one of them, I know. I I read this online. I I don’t know if he directed, but there was, another movie called Dungeon Master. And, the the main character in this this movie whose name happens to be Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Yeah. Right? And he’s got a, poster for Dungeon Master on his wall. He’s like a a horror buff kid, a young he weighs probably, like, 14.
Todd: 14? Yeah. Probably. Young high school.
Craig: Yeah. And and he’s got a dungeon master, and I I poster, and I read that one of the puppets from this movie was actually recycled, from that movie. I don’t recall having seen dungeon master, but the premise of the story is it it’s a really simple story. I mean, there’s there’s not a whole lot to it. This family, Harry Potter senior, his wife Anne, and their 2 kids, Harry Potter junior and, Wendy, the little sister, younger sister, are moving into this new building. We don’t know why. They’re just they’re moving into this new apartment building. And as soon as they get there, they start unpacking their stuff, and the mom says, Wendy, you don’t have to help us. Why don’t you run off and play? And so she goes around kinda looking around the building, and the 1st place that she comes to is this cellar. And she’s got this bouncing ball with her that you’d already referenced. It’s on the cover of the jacket. And she’s bouncing it, and she’s just kinda saying nursery rhymes and stuff, And it bounces down into the cellar. It looks kinda like maybe like a laundry room or or something like that.
Todd: Like a shared laundry room for the apartment.
Craig: Right. Right. And, she’s reluctant to go down into the spooky basin basement in the new building, but she does. And, then she’s starting to play down there, and we kind of get these point of view shots from somewhere else, in the room. And she’s looking around. She’s not seeing anything. But then as she’s bouncing her ball, we hear this kind of grunting, kind of heavy breathing kind of sound as the point of view shot approaches her, and you can kind of see kind of a weird shadow on the wall behind her. And this monstrous hand reaches out and grabs her, and she gasps. And, that’s all we see. We cut back to the family at the at the front of the house where the mom says, go find your sister. Harry goes to find her, and he goes down. He he goes to where the basement is. He’s looking down there. He’s calling for her. He sees her ball down there, but she’s not answering. So, he starts to go down, and we see the troll, you know, holding the ball, like, and and saying the same nursery rhyme that the little girl was saying. And when he hears the bro when the troll hears the brother coming, he kinda looks up, and he goes and hides, like, behind or in between a washer and a dryer. And right before Harry comes in, he the troll is wearing this ring, and he holds it up and it kind of lights up, and he transforms magically into the girl. And that’s where we set the story off. From this point on, we don’t know what’s happened to Wendy, but we know that the girl that looks like Wendy now is not. It’s actually this troll, and that’s where everything kinda picks up.
Todd: Yeah. And then the movies, these these kind of low budget films, this is usually the point where they are saving a ton of money. Right? Yeah. There’s this great creature effect in the beginning, and then the creature possesses somebody or transforms into somebody, and then we never see that creature again until the end of the movie. And, you know, it’s just that person who’s transformed. But this movie is not that movie. No. We see lots of effects. We see lots of creatures. So it’s it’s kinda nice, the the fact that it it didn’t become that film. Right. There’s a little bit more money in it, I guess.
Craig: Yeah. A little bit. I mean, I I don’t have any idea what their actual budget was, but I know that it was pretty low. You know, they had some ambitions for some things I’ll talk about here in a little bit that they weren’t able to accomplish. But so what happens is the family is all gathered together, and the dad has gone out to get lunch. And he calls the food rat burgers. I guess he’s just talking about fast food burgers. But he brings it in, and they all sit down to eat. And, Wendy or the troll in Wendy’s form opens up the burger, and it’s gross. It’s all like lettuce and tomato and slimy and gross. And she’s like, what’s this? What’s this? And, they’re like, just eat it. And so she’s the works. Right? It’s the works. Right. And so she starts to eat it, but she starts to eat it like a troll would eat, like a like a dog would eat or something. I mean, she’s just, like, mashing her face in it and grunting and
Clip: What a pig. Harry, have you been letting her read your monster magazines? More work. Well, it works what? Well, it works now. Hey. Bring back those wax burgers.
Todd: And then she goes nuts. It’s like she wants more of it, and she’s running around the house, and then the fire alarm goes off.
Craig: Yeah. She runs out in the hall and Did she
Todd: trip it?
Craig: I don’t know. I guess. Okay. She did or somebody did. I have no idea. But the fire alarm goes off, which gives us a good opportunity to meet everybody else in the building because everybody else in the building comes running down.
Todd: That was a really interesting piece of writing, I thought. You know, you could go from apartment to apartment and gradually meet people and have these weird things, or you do some event like a fire alarm, and everybody rushes out of their apartment at once and sort of bangs into each other, and you have these humorous interactions essentially between everybody. That that was neat. I I really enjoyed that. You’ve got the a number of people and some famous people over here. Really interesting. First of all, I believe the 1st guy who pops out is Sonny Bono.
Craig: Sonny Bono.
Todd: Who’s like a swinger guy. Yeah.
Craig: He’s like he seems like a it’s like a seventies swinger type, late in his years, past his prime.
Todd: Uh-huh. And then, the next person that kinda runs in is his name was Duke. Is
Craig: that right? Yeah.
Todd: Yeah. He was, sort of an ex marine person. Right. A bit tough, and and he’s chatting with them. And then coming down the stairs, cursing and swearing is June Lockhart. Right. And which was funny because it was so out of character from the beaver’s mom, you know, that we normally know her as. I think the first thing out of her out of her mouth is, what’s who who pulled the goddamn fire alarm? It’s like it’s
Craig: like, woah. Right. And she’s this older woman, and she’s dressed in kind of a long, kind of older fashioned, dress, and she’s got her hair all up. I love her in this movie. I mean, if She is great. If there’s this you know, if if anybody wants to be critical of this movie, I will say that if nothing else, June Lockhart is, the saving grace for this film. She’s she’s funny. Her acting is good. I just really like her. But yeah. So there’s her. The guy that plays the dad, we didn’t mention before. I think his name is, Michael Moriarty. Is that right? Yes. And he’s really pretty famous. I mean, he’s he’s continued to work. I mean, you would definitely recognize him. Did you recognize him for anything specific?
Todd: You know, not anything specific, but, yeah, he had that face that I’d seen before.
Craig: Yeah. I I’m kind of been in. I’m not you know, I I I just glanced at IMDB, and I don’t remember, but, he’s still working. I mean, he’s he’s still working regularly. The mom is played by Shelley Hack, who again is really recognizable, but I couldn’t really put 2 and 2 together. And I I looked her up, and she’s done quite a bit of work. What she kinda got her big break in was when one of the original Charlie’s Angels left, she was the replacement.
Todd: Of course. She has that look.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: And She has that look in this movie.
Craig: Yeah. She’s very pretty, and I I guess she was only on Charlie’s Angels for a a season before she was replaced too. But, again, you know, these may not be a list actors, but, people that you’ll recognize. And then after we meet June Lockhart, then the next people who come down are a very young and fresh face looking Julia Louis Dreyfus and the guy that plays her boyfriend. And I can’t remember what the actor’s name is.
Todd: I don’t know.
Craig: This was Julia Louis Dreyfus’ first movie ever, her first film appearance. Wow. And the guy that plays her boyfriend in obviously, in the movie, they play boyfriend girlfriend. In real life, they were dating at the at the time. And shortly after the film was made, they got married, and they’re still married.
Todd: Oh, really? Yeah. So did they meet on the set?
Craig: I don’t know. It just said I just read that they were dating. They were actually in a relationship.
Todd: That’s interesting.
Craig: And they live upstairs and, you know, like
Todd: They’re kind of the young Todd eighties couple. Yeah. It’s like they go jogging a lot, and their apartment looks pretty modern for the time and all.
Craig: I think she’s, like, a waitress and aspiring actress. She says at one point that she’s got an audition. That’s right. So they come down, and it’s funny. This is, I’m sure, the first thing that I knew Julia Louis Dreyfus from. This is from 1986, and, obviously, she’s gone on to be very famous. She’s I think she comes from a wealthy family. She’s one of the most she’s one of the richest women in the world. Oh, really? Yeah.
Clip: What I
Craig: from what I’ve heard. Oh, man. But she does not look back on this movie fondly. I guess, I guess, a few years ago when Jay Leno still at his show, he had her on, and he surprised her by running a loop of one of her scenes in this movie. And, she wasn’t amused.
Todd: Well, she can’t be disgusted by her acting because her acting was great.
Craig: Yeah. It was fine.
Todd: It’s just a goofy movie, and she ends up in kind of a goofy role in it.
Craig: Right? Yeah. So we meet all those people, and then what happens is right away, I guess, they they sleep there 1 night, and then first of all, Harry Todd. Harry notices right away that there’s something off about Wendy. I mean, they all do, but the parents are attributing it to the move. You know, she’s just stressed out, and so she’s acting out. Harry’s a little bit more skeptical. He thinks there’s something strange going on. But very first thing the next morning, Wendy gets out of bed and gets dressed and says hello to her family, but then she immediately goes upstairs to Sonny Bono’s apartment. Sonny Bono had just been entertaining this lady.
Todd: Overnight. Right. Was she supposed to be a prostitute or a
Craig: I couldn’t tell. She kinda looked like a prostitute.
Todd: Did, but I maybe she was just supposed to be one of his swinger friends.
Craig: I don’t know.
Todd: She wasn’t very amused by him either.
Craig: No. No. So Wendy goes up, into, Sonny Bono. I don’t know what his name is. Mister Dickinson.
Todd: Mister Dickinson, that’s right.
Craig: Goes up to Sonny Bono’s, apartment. And, his apartment it’s so funny. He’s got, like, lava lamps and
Todd: It’s got those, the stoplight that as I don’t know. There must be a speaker or something or a microphone or something in the room. So every time they talk, the stoplight kinda goes Right. And and flashes. There’s probably a mirror ball up above, and he’s got a crazy bar. It’s a total bachelor’s wears pack.
Craig: Right. And he’s wearing, like, the Hugh Hefner, like, red silk robe, and he’s just super smarmy and mean. He’s not a nice guy. But, Wendy knocks on the door. He opens it. She just comes right in and makes herself at home, and, he’s annoyed with her and and makes it clear that he has no interest in her being there or playing with her or anything. But she runs and hides behind the bar or something, and he’s mad. He’s like, I don’t play hide and seek. And he goes, and he looks behind the bar, and she’s gone.
Todd: Yep.
Craig: And then she pops up behind the couch, and she’s laughing. Like, she’s teasing him, and she pops back down behind the couch, and he runs and jumps and looks over, and she’s gone again. So he sits back down on the couch. He’s kinda confused. And from right there behind the couch again, she pops up. She pops back down. He says, I got you now, and he reaches over, and it’s Torok the troll.
Todd: She’s changed again.
Craig: Changed. Right. So we get to see the troll, and and Sonny gets to see the troll.
Todd: And,
Craig: the troll, you can’t really say he chases him around because the actor in the suit is is a little bit limited in his his movement. It’s a great suit. I love it. I love the look of the trunk.
Todd: Very impressive.
Craig: Yeah. But, so, anyway, she pulls up her ring that she’s got, this big green ring, and, like, a little, like, needle or something kind of pops out of it. And she pokes him with it. And then he starts to go into this transformation, and that’s what you were talking about. The the transformation really is fairly gruesome.
Todd: It is. It it reminded me of the toxic avenger a little bit, but but but way more a little bit better budget, a little bit more skillful. But, yeah, he’s kinda popping out. His skin is bulging. I watched this with my wife maybe a year ago or so on a whim just because it was PG 13. It’s a horror movie she could watch with me, and I remembered, oh, it wasn’t too bad. And she she kinda averted her eyes here and wondered what she was getting into.
Craig: Yeah. It gets a little gross. I mean, he he bloats and swells. His skin kinda starts Todd turn black. Like, black ooze starts to come out of his mouth, and the transformation goes on for a while. I mean, we don’t get a solid shot of the whole thing happening, and I’m sure that’s budgetary. I’m sure it’s based on the effects that they had available to them. So it’ll cut away to the troll, and then it’ll go back, and he will progress a little more. And then it’ll cut away, and then it’ll go back, and he’s progressed more. And, eventually, he transforms into what my sister used to call a big Todd, But, it’s apparently like a Like a pod. Like a pod or like a cocoon or or something. And it splits open, and all of these, like, vines and greenery start coming out. And, again, the effects are limited, but you get the effect of what’s going on.
Todd: They’re acceptable. You know? They really are. It’s moving around. It’s a stop motion type thing, and it’s filling the apartment basically turning the apartment into a little forest. Right. And that was the part where my dad and I know we’re just like, what in the world is this movie? And, of course, popping out also are a number of these little creatures.
Craig: Right. Right? Yeah. These little and they’re little grotesque creatures. They’re clearly puppets, but they’re good ones. And, you know, they’re scary looking. They’re small. They’re they’re kinda slimy and shiny.
Todd: Drooling and there’s mucus coming out of their noses. And one of them’s like a crab type blood. It’s almost it’s like a centaur, but instead of a horse’s body, it it’s it has, like, a spider’s body. It’s weird.
Craig: Yeah. And they’re I mean, they all look different. They, 1 kinda has, like, a pig snout, and
Todd: Mhmm.
Craig: One of them is very reminiscent of, the main ghoulie, which would make sense.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: There was one that I thought looked a lot like Donald
Todd: Trump. There was one of them that looked like that pig the pig one reminded me of, teenage mutant ninja turtles, the pig, guy. Bee Bob
Craig: or something
Todd: like that. One of those guys. Right.
Craig: And so then Wendy goes back to her family, and pretty much that is what continues to happen.
Todd: Mhmm.
Craig: She continues to visit the the other people that we’ve met in the building and continues to kind of toy with them a little bit first. You know, it’s it’s pretty innocent. I mean, she just seems like a precocious young girl.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: But then she she reveals who she is and and she transforms them.
Todd: And her interaction with her brother is very interesting, and I don’t know why. I guess it’s because it’s a safe place for her. It’s she waits for that family’s apartment to be the last to go. I guess it’s because it’s where she can retreat to have her home base. But because the brother is onto her, she’s essentially intimidating him
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Throughout this process. They go to the fridge, and, she turns around and basically throws him across the room
Craig: with the
Todd: strength that she shouldn’t have. Yet when the parents call running to his parents to really alarm them about the girl, and I thought that was interesting.
Craig: Yeah. It is interesting. I don’t know if it’s because he’s uncertain of what’s going on and he wants to kinda try to figure it out if he doesn’t think that they’ll believe him. Mhmm. Yeah. I don’t know.
Todd: It’s almost like you wanted to keep a little extra watch on her. Yeah. Maybe, like you said, figure it out a little bit more before he raises the alarm bells. Like, there’s something weird about her, but he’s not sure what.
Craig: Right.
Todd: And I might be that night or it’s a later time, and I think it was a later time, when he goes up to bed and he pulls out his television from underneath his his bed and is sitting there watching a sci fi movie, horror movie, and it’s a goofball sci fi horror movie, but it’s the pod people.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: And it seems to implant this idea in his head that maybe his sister is one of the pod people or she’s been invaded. Right. She’s not who she seems she is. She’s a pod person
Craig: from Mars. He keeps seeing, you know, this we keep seeing these clips from this movie and
Clip: That isn’t Spot our pet, Nancy. That’s something that looks like Spot, acts like Spot, even smells like Spot. But in reality, it’s a Martian. You mean Yes. Our dog is a pod person from the planet Mars.
Todd: Todd the screen. Right. It’s great.
Craig: So so eventually, yeah, he gets that idea in his mind. But but even before that, just to try to get away from her because she is I mean, she’s toying with him.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: She knows that he’s onto her, and she’s not. Early on, she doesn’t reveal her true form.
Todd: Yes.
Craig: But she doesn’t hide the fact that she’s different and that she can take him down if if she needs to. So at one point, I think just to kind of get away from her, he goes upstairs to Eunice’s house. Eunice St. Clair is her name, and that’s June what what’s her name? June Lockhart. Right. So he goes up to her house and or her apartment, he knocks on the door, and, she’s how would you describe her personality?
Todd: Oh my goodness. She is a older woman, a little prim and proper except for the swearing. You know, there’s a, like, a slight sense of Pollyanna’s mother in her.
Craig: You
Todd: know what I mean? She has she dresses like that, got that Victorian air about her. Her apartment is totally decked out in a Victorian type stuff mixed with some medieval things. It’s an odd eclectic
Craig: swords and spears and, you know, really old paintings, and it’s it’s cool stuff.
Todd: It’s like nerdy old lady from the middle ages or something.
Craig: She but she’s
Todd: Like, she could be a d and d master if she was if she had been, you know, 12 or 18 in this movie.
Craig: But she’s got this air about her, of this air of confidence, this air of she’s no nonsense.
Todd: Oh, yeah.
Craig: She seems like a tough Todd broad who who can take care of herself. He asked if he can come in because he’s he said he feels like he’s gonna be sick, and she lets him in. She’s kinda quipping with him back and forth. And while he’s in the bathroom, she’s sitting at an easel painting, and next to her, there’s this large Mushroom. Mushroom with a face that, like, is it’s a a puppet. It’s cute. It is cute. And it’s it’s kinda moving around and making little squeaky noises like it’s talking. And so we know that there’s something about her too.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: You know? All of this weird supernatural stuff, either she’s involved or somehow she’s connected. But when he comes out of the bathroom, she puts a lampshade on the on the mushroom, which I always love.
Todd: Which is cute because it’s like the mushroom’s been through this road before. It just, like, stiffens up. Okay. I’m ready. Right. Right. Shade on me.
Clip: Well, did you pop your cookies? No. False alarm. Well, then there’s no reason for you to stay around here any longer, is there? Oh, I don’t wanna go right now, if it’s okay with you. Doesn’t make any difference to me at all. I’ll just pretend you’re not here. Thanks. I feel safe here. You’re sounding like a ninny. What the hell have you got to be afraid of? I don’t know. Keep talking like that, you’ll become an adult.
Craig: She’s a cool old lady, and she obviously realizes that he is in fact scared.
Todd: Mhmm.
Craig: And we get the impression that she may be aware that maybe there is something to be afraid of. So she tells him, you can come over anytime. Just knock before you come in. The door is always open. And so they establish a connection, a friendship. This is kind of a place where he can go to to talk and and feel safe.
Todd: And I feel like in a way she respects his attitude Yeah. Kind of his way of dealing with it that he is taking his time, he’s unsure. I feel like that might be part of the meaning of that line and why it was so significantly called out in the film. He’s a little more adult than a kid his age would be, and that might explain why he deals with it the way he does deal with it.
Craig: Right. And why she eventually, she she tells the whole story. I mean, first, Wendy continues to go from house to house. I think the second apartment that she visits is Duke. That’s the guy who lives right across from them. He’s the army guy. His apartment is all decked out in, like, a tiger skin and Just
Todd: over the top.
Craig: Crazy macho stuff, like guns on the walls and stuff.
Todd: He’s got a pool table in there.
Craig: Right. Right. And he’s one of the interesting things about this movie to me is that the people who are kind of, this guy, Duke doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, he’s kinda nice, but he’s also really conceited and, really macho, and, like, he’s really concerned with his looks and stuff. So the people who are kind of, for lack of a better word, ugly on the inside, When they transform, that’s kind of reflected in what comes out of their pods.
Todd: That’s true.
Craig: So when he, is transformed, it’s it’s very similar to the 1st time around. It’s these kind of grotesque, goblin y looking puppets. But then I think the 3rd person that she goes to is Julia Louis Dreyfus.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And Julia Louis Dreyfus is nice to her. She invites her in, says, you know, I’ve got stuff to do, but you’re welcome to hang out. I I could get you a drink or whatever. And
Todd: This is my husband. Right. There’s another cute moment in there where she’s she almost admires, the girl almost admire the girl slash troll almost admires her, and she’s just staring at her. She says you’re and and, she’s like, you’re so pretty and says, oh, thank you. And she says, what does she say? Beauty fades with age.
Craig: Right. Right. She she, she compliments her as soon as she comes in and tells her she’s very pretty. And then, Wendy grabs a picture, and it’s a photograph of the boyfriend, and she says that’s my boyfriend. But then tucked in the corner of the frame is also a picture, I guess. I didn’t really get a good look at it.
Todd: Of her as a as a young girl.
Craig: Her as a young girl. And she says, is it Wendy says, is this you when you were younger? And she says, yeah. That was me. She says, you were very beautiful. And Julie Louis Dreyfus says, well, thanks, I guess. Right. And then you get that beauty fades with age thing, and we know that she is going to be transformed. And, eventually, we see what she’s transformed into, and she’s transformed into not a very different version of herself at all. No. She’s just, like a Todd nymph, Yeah. I guess. I mean, it’s it’s still Julia Louis Dreyfus playing the character, but she’s partially nude, kind of draped in greenery and things and really is her appearance doesn’t change at all.
Todd: But her personality changes. Yeah. And she’s kind of playful and chirping and
Craig: And teasing. Little teasing, flirtatious, kind of.
Todd: Yeah. So the one her boyfriend comes back in to check on her eventually, the apartment has like all of these apartments, I guess, has become almost another dimension where he can wander through the woods and he chases her
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: Through the woods. And she’s coyly teasing him and running along, and he’s chasing her like, what in the world is going on? I liked that bit. And again, I don’t think she has except for the fact that the film is really goofy.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: She doesn’t have anything to to be concerned about as far as her acting No. Or any or the way she looks.
Craig: Right. She oh, and she looks great. I mean, she looks gorgeous, and I actually thought her acting was good. I mean, when when it was when she was just herself, it was very natural, and and, you know, her character was likable. And then when she turned into the wood nymph or whatever, her affect really changed. And and she’s kinda toying around with the boyfriend and kind of giving him sly flirtatious looks and running away from him, a lot of laughing and stuff. And, eventually, she leads him deep into that forest wherever it is, and she leads him to the troll who then presumably transforms him. We don’t really see
Todd: this transformation. Now earlier, kind of concurrent with all this happening, there’s a relationship between Wendy and a man who saves her from a car. She’s kind of running out into the street, and he reaches out and grabs her and pulls her away. And it turns out that this man is a is a short it’s a he’s a He’s
Craig: a little person.
Todd: He’s a little person. And, she is taken by this, and she stares at him and says
Clip: Are you an elf? No. I just resemble 1. Why? Do you believe in elves? Oh, yes. Oh, well, then perhaps I might be 1 after all. Where do you live? In there. Yeah. So do I. What’s your name? Wendy Ann. Malcolm Mowery. Glad to meet you, Wendy Ann. Well, come along. Your parents are probably wondering where you are. Yes, brother Alf.
Craig: This actor, I’ve re I recognize him from stuff. He has a really distinctive voice. He’s a very small little person. His name is Phil, Fondacaro. And not only does he play Malcolm, the the professor from upstairs, but he also plays Turok. Yes. Oh, okay.
Clip: I
Craig: think so. The the the troll. He plays the troll. The part was written specifically with him in mind, but, the production company, I guess, put a lot of pressure on the director to cast Billy Barty
Clip: Oh, yeah.
Craig: Who is, you know, one of the more famous little people actors in the industry. But the director really fought for for this Phil Fonsecaro and got him. And I’m glad because, again, he’s another one of my favorite parts of this movie. He’s nice to her, to to Wendy. He’s just a nice guy. He’s a, you know, he’s a an English professor, so he’s he’s really smart. Everybody else in the building is kind of anti intellectual.
Todd: Intellectual. Yeah.
Craig: And and he’s, you know, a professor and and a cool guy. So I guess he takes her inside, and she goes home and she tells her parents, I made a little friend. Uh-huh. And I invited him to dinner. Yeah. And they say, okay. So they’re expecting her little friend to come to dinner. And he shows up. Like Knocks on the door.
Todd: Oh, is it your little friend here? Just as they’re opening the door and Right. They look down. Oh, boy. And what ensues is this very awkward comic scene where she’s come out with a glass of chocolate milk for him, and, oh, and he’s standing there and he’s brought, like, some champagne or whatever, And he asked for, you know, I’d rather have a gin and tonic. Yeah.
Craig: He says, don’t worry. I brought a note from my mom.
Todd: And he kind of acknowledged that, but he’s so he takes it all in stride. Yeah. Like, oh, this has happened to me before. It’s okay. He doesn’t. There’s none of that conflict in this movie at all really. Mm-mm. Even with the jerky guy downstairs, even with the brutish marine across the way, there isn’t a lot of serious person to person conflict.
Craig: No. You know? And, actually, I always thought that was interesting even when I was a kid. We don’t meet Malcolm until he rescues Wendy from getting hit by the car. But when everybody had converged in the hallway during the fire alarm, I think it was Julie Louie Dreyfus’ character had said and then there’s a professor that lives upstairs. His name is Malcolm. But she never said anything about him being a little person. Like, that was just something they didn’t even consider.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And when when he shows up, it’s not that the parents are rude. It’s just that they’re taken aback. You know? They’re they’re surprised. They didn’t see they didn’t expect this.
Todd: They weren’t prepared, and they don’t know how to deal with it.
Craig: Right. Right. And he, I think, you know, kinda makes them comfortable. He kinda jokes around and Todd doesn’t make a big deal out of it. And, eventually, they sit down to have a nice dinner.
Todd: Yeah. And then, at the dinner, she of course, you can tell that Wendy is totally taken with him, loves him to death, and they’ve had some conversation before, and him being an English professor, at some point she asked him to recite a poem, which is cute. You know, that never happens anymore, I’m sure. But, and and his his poem’s called The Fairy Princess.
Craig: Or The Fairy Queen.
Todd: The Fairy Queen. You’re right. And as he starts to recite this poem, and is this an actual
Craig: I believe it is. Okay. Yeah. He starts
Todd: to recite this poem, and we get a very interesting interlude where the poem starts getting recited, and then we’re flashing to the apartment stairs where the witch is, where,
Craig: Eunice
Todd: Eunice is, and the apartments where the Todd well, they’re actually fairies, I guess, but they look like goblins are. And music starts to come in, and it’s a whole musical sequence essentially.
Craig: Oh, gosh. And I just love it so much. I know that it’s corny and cheesy, but I love it. First of all, I love this score. I have no idea who is responsible for it, but I love everything about it. There’s at some points, there’s kind of a light, kind of plinky, plunky, kind of fairyland stuff. And then when you get to the fairies, trolls, whatever you wanna call them, it gets much darker. And there’s scoring underneath a lot of the movie.
Todd: There is.
Craig: Most of it is scored. And I just think I mean, I could I could buy that on CD and just listen to it. I just love it. And the scene that you’re talking about, the bad fairies, the gross looking fairies, kinda start to sing this weird chant.
Clip: Mhmm.
Craig: And it’s called I I’m gonna totally say it wrong, but cantos profane or cantos profane, something like that. And it’s just it doesn’t really have words, not intelligible words, but they’re chanting or singing together kind of, you know, in in tune, in key, even though it’s their weird, you know, weird monster voices. While Malcolm is reciting this poem, which, of course, is all about fairies and knights and all that kind of stuff, every time that it cuts to the bad fairies, you have that, you know, that that kind of weird scary music. But then every time it cuts back to Wendy watching Malcolm recite this, there’s this really lovely what would you even call it? I don’t know.
Todd: It’s just a it’s a melodic line that comes in. Yeah. It’s really pretty. It’s it’s it’s interesting that they pull this off so well. I thought the scene was fantastic. And, again, this is another thing that doesn’t really happen in films, you know, Todd, where you insert a random musical number into a movie that doesn’t really seem to call for it. Right. But it works really well, and it’s edited really well, and it brings on this sense of urgency Mhmm. This sense of impending doom, but in the same sense, it conflicts with this beauty that you’re hearing and this affection between her and Malcolm. It’s a complicated, I think, emotional moment. Yeah. When you’re watching it, and the music does a lot to add to that.
Craig: I just love it. I mean, I I read that initially it was conceived probably supposed to be more animation in the in the puppets, but they were, you know, just, Didn’t have the money. Right. Right. Right. But it’s still a great scene. I love it. Wendy’s parents seem to be oblivious to anything else going on besides the recitation of the poem, which they’re enjoying very much. Yeah. But Eunice upstairs seems to be aware of what’s going on in the rest of the building, and she goes and grabs a horn off her wall, which has all kinds of weird stuff on it. And she blows into the horn, and it seems to upset the bad fairies, and it upsets Wendy. She, like, chokes. She chokes on her milk or something and starts coughing, and the sound of the horn causes the bad fairies to to stop. So we see that Eunice has some power, and she does know what’s going on. And it’s it’s very soon after that that, Harry goes back to talk to her, and that’s when he’s been convinced that she’s a pod person from the planet Mars.
Todd: That Wendy is.
Craig: Right. And and Eunice says, not quite, but close. And that’s when she gives us the exposition story.
Todd: And Harry calls her right out. I mean, he says, who what are you doing here? Mhmm. What is your role? You are not who you say you are.
Craig: Right.
Todd: And, she he basically asked if she’s a witch, and she’s yeah.
Craig: Yeah. She just doesn’t deny it. So what of it? You’re a
Todd: clever kid, and and he’s like, oh, that’s cool. He’s just smiling. He knows that he’s in safe hands with her just instinctively, and she tells the story. And the story, I’m gonna get it wrong, but it’s basically that she had fallen in love with this guy, and he was a he was a wizard. He was learning magic, and, this guy actually turned out to be Torak. Right?
Craig: Right. Yeah. It’s like she is we presume 100 upon 100 of years old. I mean, she she talks about long, long ago in the in the time before
Todd: That’s right.
Craig: In the time before countries and presidents and all those things. It was just 1 big world.
Todd: And it was fairies and humans.
Craig: Right.
Todd: She was the fairy princess, and, she was in love with this guy. And I guess he was also a fairy, but then there was a war of some kind between the fairies and the humans, and the fairies lost out.
Craig: Right. Tohrach, they had they initially the 2 kingdoms had had an agreement that neither one of them would rule over the other. They would just share the the world equally. But Turok was ambitious, and he wanted to take over the world. So he rallied an army of fairies, and there was a big battle, but they lost. And, he was turned into a troll for for all eternity.
Todd: And then kinda banished, I guess.
Craig: I guess. Well, that where all
Todd: the fairies are. That’s where they’re hiding. Right.
Craig: And that part, you know, really is kind of plot holy. You know? Yeah. It it’s never really explained why this is all happening now. She indicates that she’s there to kind of I guess she’s waiting for this. Like like, she knows it’s going to happen eventually, and it’s just happening now.
Todd: And she must know it’s gonna happen there because that’s where she’s waiting. None of that’s
Craig: really explained. Right.
Todd: There is an opening scene during the credits Mhmm. Where we’re zooming into what appears to be a kind of cathedral or old style church or maybe castle. Was it a castle?
Craig: Maybe. I stained glass windows. I don’t know.
Todd: Yeah. And then the books and things, and it kind of pans out of that and through a forest. And then through the forest, and eventually, you know, after the credits go, we are emerging from the forest basically across the street from this apartment complex that they’re in. I don’t know if that was meant to actually imply that there was some proximity there between wherever Torak lived or bided his time and the actual apartment or not.
Craig: I I don’t know either. Now Harry knows what’s going on. And
Todd: And she mentions that, she learned her magic from this guy named, Galwin. Uh-huh. And it turns out that that mushroom is Galwin. Yeah.
Craig: And, Harry asks, well, could you teach me to be a magician? Which is so ironic. You know, Harry Potter, you know, the Yeah. This movie came out 11 years before, any of the JK Rowling stuff came out. This but there are so many similarities.
Todd: It really makes you wonder if she hadn’t seen this film in some point.
Craig: I mean Even if it was subconsciously.
Todd: Yeah. It would be hard to argue against that.
Craig: Right. But he he said, can you make could you teach me to be a magician? And she said, well, I could, but I don’t think there’s gonna be time. And she explains that once this once this is in process, he’s got 72 hours to complete it. And at this point, I think everybody in the building has been transformed except for Eunice and the Potters apartment.
Todd: The Potters. Yeah.
Clip: One of
Craig: the things that we skipped was at some point, Wendy goes to visit Malcolm.
Todd: Oh, yes.
Craig: And it’s I this is such a nice scene then. Scene.
Todd: Yeah. We should talk about it. Wendy goes to visit Malcolm at his house, and this is also kinda cute. This is a different era, obviously, where parents didn’t mind their kids cavorting with adults and going to their apartments and whatnot. But she goes over to his house and his apartment and talks to him, and she’s very interested in him. She’s very interested in him, and she knows that he’s sick.
Craig: Yeah. She can tell.
Clip: Malcolm, someone asked you if you were an elf? Uh-huh. Did you ever want to be? I did, actually. And I was about your age, in fact. Maybe a little older. Doctors talking to my parents about recessive genes. I thought they were talking about pants. It’s funny what you think about when you’re a child. Todd didn’t understand what was happening. My parents told me, Malcolm, just not gonna grow anymore. I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful if all this was happening to me because I was magic and not because I was sick?
Craig: I know. I’m serious. I was sitting here. I was almost getting a little misty because it’s so sweet. And the actor, Phil Fonsecaro, does such a good job. I mean, he’s so endearing, and you so feel for him. And he’s telling this story about how he used to imagine that he would someday wake up in a land with fairies and dragons and flying horses and unicorns, and he said he just kept waiting for that day to happen. He just kept waiting and waiting. Meanwhile, she’s just kind of been kind of circling around him a little bit. She gets back behind his chair, and she transforms into the troll again, and you see the the little thing come out of her ring. We don’t really get to see his transformation. No. We
Todd: don’t really see his reaction anyway. Right.
Craig: And I think that’s probably kind of intentional because it it’s kind of a sweet moment. And when his pod opens up, it’s just a little elfin version of himself. Very small, cute.
Todd: And kind of like looking around in wonder.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. And she she picks him up. I mean, he’s he’s little tiny. It’s a puppet, but she he the troll picks him up and just says, welcome, brother elf. Now that’s one of the things that I like so much about this movie is that it’s not straightforward. There’s not No. You know, Turok’s the bad guy, but, really, what he’s trying to do is he’s just trying to build this world for himself. And the people who are good hearted and good natured aren’t turned into something ugly. You know, they’re it’s it’s nice.
Todd: You know, it is again, and that’s something you don’t see in a lot of American horror films or or American films for kids is that there’s this assumption that it has to follow the Disney model where there’s an absolute bad evil person who is going to be defeated at the end, and it’s a good versus evil battle. This is a lot more reminiscent of a a lot of what you find, for example, in Japanese kids films. I don’t know how familiar you are with some of them, but, there’s a movie called Spirited Away that was very popular. It had some popularity here too. Mhmm. But what’s nice about those films, and I’ll just pull out Spirited Away as an example, is that they’re really up against circumstances. They’re not up against bad people. The people who you are watching this film from an American mindset, oh, she’s really bad, as you see the film, you realize that, no, she’s not bad. She’s just a different character, and she has different motivations, and there’s not this black and white good versus evil thing going on, and so your main character is really overcoming a situation.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: There’s a problem that needs to be solved, and different people have different personalities coming into it. And I feel like those are the kind of movies that kids need to see. I agree. Because it’s way more reflective of the world as it is, and it could cut out a lot of the nonsense, you know, that we deal with, where people wanna demonize each other. And this film does a great job as you mentioned of that. It doesn’t totally demonize this troll.
Craig: Right.
Todd: You see it from their perspective, and the story is a little more complex.
Craig: Yeah. And and the character is a little bit more complex, and I I really appreciate that. You know, we’re we’re leading up now to the final act of the film. Everybody except Eunice and the Potters have been transformed. She Eunice has explained to Harry what’s going on, and she says you have to well, she explains. What he’s trying to do is to build these little different fairy universes in each of these apartments. And then once they’re all done, once it’s complete, they will come together as, like, this huge fairy universe, and that will then explode like a 4th dimension into our world, and the fairies will again take over the world. So that’s what they well, that’s what he’s trying to do, and they have only this remaining day. You know? They’re at the end of this 2 72 hour period to stop it. She gives him this big golden spear and says
Clip: Here. Plunge this weapon deep into the heart of Torok’s universe. And where can I find that? Well, Torok has always been a little melodramatic, so just look for the biggest, most powerful creature you can find.
Craig: So she said, just look for something big and scary and not happy to see you, and you’ll know it when you see it. So he goes downstairs, and he’s waiting. Meanwhile, as soon as he leaves Todd, I’ve said this now 4 or 5 times. Another one of my favorite parts of the movie.
Todd: How many favorite parts do you have, Kyle?
Craig: They’re all my favorite parts. She, she walks in front of she has shown him before that one of the paintings on her wall is of her younger self with Torok in his human form or or human like form. I think they were fairies, but they looked like humans. And in the photograph, obviously, a and then she starts pulling the pins out of her hair. She’s had her her hair’s gray. She’s had it up in kind of this loose updo throughout very matronly, and down fall these beautiful golden cascading locks, and she turns around, and all of a sudden, she’s again the youthful woman from the painting. Yes. When I was a kid, I was blown away by that scene because I thought, how did they do that? How did they make her look so young? It’s amazing.
Todd: And you might have put 2 and 2 together now that that may be June Lockhart’s daughter.
Craig: I well, they have the same last name. I mean, that would be a major coincidence. It’s Anne Lockhart is Lockhart is the actress that plays her younger self, and they do look strikingly similar.
Todd: Yep. Yep.
Craig: So I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it was. And from that point on, Anne Lockhart takes over the role, but it’s a really smooth transition. I mean, it it feels the like the same character.
Todd: It’s surprising. There must be a cut in there, but I didn’t really detect it. I guess maybe because I wasn’t expecting it. Yeah. It comes right at you. I’m like, woah. Yeah. It it it’s it’s pretty effective.
Craig: Yeah. So she arms herself with one of those spears too, and she goes out looking for Torak. And, again, she’s just this no she’s no nonsense. It’s hilarious. She’s you know, he in the this forest, which by now is expansive, I mean, it’s it’s large. There’s wind blowing. The the trees are blowing in the wind. And she’s walking through, and her long hair is flying in her face, and she’s trying to bat it away. And, eventually, she just stops where she is and says, oh, stop it. And the wind quits. And the wind quits. And then she says, well, that’s better.
Todd: It’s moments like that that that happen frequently through this movie. These moments of comedy where you know you’re not gonna be taking this too seriously, you know. It’s it’s aimed towards children in a way Yeah. That at any point where it seems like it’s going to get too scary, it’s interspersed with these moments of comedy Uh-huh. That take the tone down a bit.
Craig: Yeah. It’s it’s it’s funny. I mean, it’s it’s not an outright comedy, but there are moments of light, you know, light natured stuff. There’s 1 scene that we skipped where the dad just does this big dance.
Todd: The goofiest, weirdest dance sequence that It is. If anybody was gonna be embarrassed to go on Leno and have a clip replay back to that guy’s clip. Exactly.
Craig: You know, I had read that, the guy that plays the dad, on one of the 1st days of filming, he went to the director and said, I don’t understand my character. I I don’t I don’t get it. And the director just grabbed this goofy floppy hat that the dad ends up wearing through a large part of the movie off like a a production assistant or something and plops it on his head. And, the actor said, well, I look ridiculous. And the director just looked at him. He said, so he’s just ridiculous? Yep. And that’s he kinda plays that, and it’s funny. It’s fun.
Todd: Well, it’s honestly the only way that this guy could be, so oblivious to what’s going on and Right. So she goes out and, gets approached by this monster. We don’t actually see the monster yet. It’s a POV shot, but we can see there’s a big monster coming. Rips that staff away, her magic staff, and then cut away.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: Now she had given another magic staff to Harry. Harry, and Harry, meanwhile, I think, was setting up shop downstairs waiting. And at some point, the parents get up and go to the door because there’s some banging on the door.
Craig: Well, Harry leaves first.
Todd: He does leave.
Craig: That’s right. Know if he hears something outside or what. At this point, the vegetation and all that stuff is now spilling out into the hallway.
Todd: That’s right. Is it this point too where it’s coming outside as well?
Craig: I I believe so. Yeah. People across
Todd: the street are seeing this craziness going on. There’s a bit of a crowd around the oh, power my comp apartment.
Craig: Right. And these huge vines are, like, coming out of the roof, and it doesn’t look real at all. I mean, it’s stop motion stuff, but, you know, it’s it’s reminiscent of the old monster movies, Godzilla, those types of things. Harry goes out looking, and he he knocks on Eunice’s door, and it swings open. And, like, I guess, the wind suction pulls him in, and he falls to the ground. And he falls next to this little Stump. Stump, like a little tree stump. And it starts talking to him, and it’s Eunice. And he says, you’re on your own, kid.
Todd: That is so funny. That was the most brilliant comedy in this movie. Some of it’s goofy. Some of it’s a little corny, but that was spot on hilarious.
Craig: Right. And, you know, he’s upset, but she’s just go out there and find your sister. So he goes, and he’s looking around, and it doesn’t take him long. He finds her.
Todd: Yep.
Craig: She’s in, like, a kinda like a snow white glass coffin
Todd: kind of thing. The middle of the woods. It’s very, very fairy tale esque.
Craig: Right. The as the whole movie is. Mhmm. And, he goes the top of it is kind of glowing in, you know, kind of a cheap special effects kind of way, which we’ve seen these effects throughout. But he goes to touch it, and it shocks him. But then he’s got that magic spear, so he thinks he touches that to the Todd, and that breaks the spell apparently. Meanwhile, we know. He doesn’t know, but Turok is watching all this kind of from a safe distance. And, he he he tries to wake Wendy up, but she doesn’t wake immediately. So he picks her up, and that’s when the big monster appears. And this is kinda funny. And, you know, watching it as an adult, I can look at it with a critical eye. I appreciate what they were trying to do. They wanted this to be the big monster, and so they’re shooting it from a super low angle. That’s right. A super low angle so that it looks like it’s towering over the camera. And they try to maintain that, but as it gets closer to the children, it becomes really apparent that it’s just a normal sized guy in a suit.
Todd: Yeah. They’re clearly cutting away from it pretty quickly so that you don’t see that and trying to get some close ups on their face and some really high POV shots from the monster on the kid. Right. But it’s it’s unfortunately pretty Yeah.
Craig: I mean, it’s pretty clear if if you’ve got any kind of discerning eye at all. But Meanwhile, the parents are downstairs. They hear something weird outside. They more great comedy. The mom opens the door, and here’s a bunch of these evil little fairy trolls just kind of hanging out, like, right outside the door just looking at her. Yeah. And so she closes the door and,
Todd: gets her husband over.
Craig: Honey. And he comes over and, opens the door. And then the the tree stump Eunice is right outside their door, and she said
Clip: Shut that damn door. He can’t take over if you keep him out of your home. I don’t know, but I’m listening to the
Todd: tree. Oh,
Craig: gosh. So funny. Harry and Wendy are now in the forest. They’re running from this monster. Turok is watching, and the monster is kind of, like, attacking both of the kids.
Todd: With, like, throwing throwing the murders at them.
Craig: Stuff. Yeah. And Torok starts saying, no. No.
Todd: Because he doesn’t want the girl to be hung.
Craig: He doesn’t want the girl. We didn’t explain this. Eunice explained. You know? Harriet asked her, you know, where’s where’s Wendy? Is she okay? And he said, yeah. I don’t know where she is, but she’s alive. Because when he takes over the world and and gets rid of all the rest of the humans, he’s gonna keep one perfect specimen who’s gonna be the the princess of the fairies. Yep. So, Torok is saying, no. No. Not the girl, but the monster is still approaching the girl. It looks like it’s going to, harm her, kill her, whatever. And so Tork himself again, in one of these moments where he’s not entirely villainous, he himself throws the spear and kills the monster, saves the girl, and Shuts down his whole plan. Shuts down his whole plan.
Todd: Basically.
Craig: Yeah. The I mean, everything starts shaking. There’s, like, these magical electrical bolts, like, flying through the air. Harry and Wendy run out and and get out and run downstairs and get home. The the whole building is shaking again. You said those people outside are seeing all these vines, writhing around in the top of the building. When Harry and Wendy get back in the apartment, they slam the door, and everything stops. And they look outside. Everything seems normal.
Todd: And they move.
Craig: And they move. Which, gosh, you know, don’t you wish people in these types of movies were that smart all the time?
Todd: That’s right. We’re getting out of here. The police are like, you can file file that report down the road.
Craig: Yeah. And that’s okay. And then
Todd: you get your final little little clincher ending where the cops are probing through the house. What what do you think that could be? I don’t know. Let let’s go check things out, and one of them goes down back into the laundry room, opens up a door, and it’s into the forest. He gets sucked out and the door slams.
Craig: And right. And Turok’s in there, and you just see him hold up his ring.
Todd: His ring right in his face. Yeah.
Craig: And that’s it. And that’s the end of the movie. So what do you think?
Todd: You know, it was set up for a sequel. It’s interesting that they didn’t do a proper sequel to this movie. Right. Right? There was a movie called Troll two. It has nothing to do with this film.
Craig: To do. No. They’re just trying to cash in, which I don’t. This movie, I can’t imagine it was that popular.
Todd: It did make back what it what it earned, probably almost double anyway. It made, like, 1,000,000 or one and a half. I think it costs anywhere from 700,000 to $1,000,000, and I guess it was popular enough for somebody to try to ride on its coattails, Patrol 2. But, yeah, it’s, again, one of those films that’s gonna have a fairly limited audience.
Craig: Right.
Todd: It’s not gonna be the Goonies of its day because it’s honestly too low budget, and although it’s cute and it had a lot of great acting and some famous actors and things in it, it just it just is missing that level professionalism, I guess. Right. The story is very simple Mhmm.
Craig: And
Todd: it moves very slowly.
Clip: Mhmm.
Todd: And, yeah. I don’t know. I don’t I guess there’s probably not a lot places you can go with it after that. Right. That we didn’t even mention that the kid, who played, Harry. Harry was from, The Never Ending Story.
Craig: Right. Noah Hathaway. And I guess play the trainee.
Todd: I guess yes. And I guess the director was impressed with him in that film and, decided to cast him in this one. So, I mean, it’s not for lack of, I guess, star power.
Craig: Or It’s just kind of a weird niche movie. You know? It’s it’s I was reading, you know, user comments, and that was one of the things that, I I read. You know? People were questioning, who was this made for? You know? It it doesn’t seem to be specifically for adults or specifically for kids, and I think it’s just because it’s it’s from a bygone era in in filmmaking. I just don’t think we see these types of movies very much at all anymore.
Todd: Cloud House, I think, was the one that he said was also in this vein.
Craig: We and I would argue that that’s scarier.
Todd: It’s definitely scarier. This is more fantasy, really.
Craig: Yeah. It’s it’s like a fairy tale. Mhmm. Okay? Which I think is really appealing and really endearing.
Todd: And it has backstory. It’s really quite nice. And if this had been made by Spielberg and had a bigger budget, I think it probably would have spawned a sequel. It probably would have
Craig: Right.
Todd: Been better remembered and wouldn’t have been relegated to the horror shelves. And that might be part of the problem with it too is that it seems like all the materials, all of the posters, which are, you know, on the on the box cover and everything, we’re really marketing this as a horror film, and that may have been a mistake.
Craig: Yeah. Maybe.
Todd: But the gate was marketed the same way. I mean, it’s just spooky, and it’s just as sort of lost to time as this film is. Yeah.
Craig: I mean, it’s it’s kind of similar in tone to something like legend, which, you know, is is very fantastical, but has its definite scary moments. Even something like labyrinth, it’s darker. You know, the the puppets and things are a little bit scarier. They’re not as cute. Yeah. But but similar in tone. We just you know, you don’t see that too much anymore, which is too bad. There have been talks for years years about remaking this movie. Mhmm. At one point, it was in preproduction. Ali Lohan, of all people, was connected to it. It was supposed to be a vehicle for her. Wow. I I think that it’s kinda dead in the water right now, but I’d be interested in seeing a remake.
Todd: I think this is a movie right for remake. I don’t have the nostalgic feelings about it that you do. I can see though I can I I have enough imagination? I could put myself back as a kid in the eighties, and if this had been in our rotation when we were young enough, this would have been a family favorite. Absolutely would have been.
Craig: Yeah. And and like I said, I would watch it back to back with The Goonies and, they they’re they’re kinda similar in Todd, even those 2 movies. I the Goonies was just on the TV on TV the other day, and I was watching it, and it’s got a really intricate score. And I thought, you gosh. This score is almost similar Todd, Troll. No wonder I was so comfortable watching them back to back. And I rec I recommend it. If you’re if you’re having a a marathon night, go go for both of them. They’re both they’re both fun.
Todd: So now as an adult, you know, I know you don’t wanna be critical about the film it’s gonna kill your it’s gonna ruin all your memories and your fantasies, but you mentioned a few things that, oh, that’s a little cheesy. That’s a little pokey. Do do you still like it as much?
Craig: I do. I mean, it’s it’s it’s it’s nostalgia. I mean, that’s that’s what it is. But I I I just think it’s a good movie. It entertains me. It’s simple. It’s not, you know, it’s not gonna leave you trying to work out problems in your mind or anything.
Todd: That’s true.
Craig: It’s it’s kinda like you know, it’s like and and I think part of the reason I liked it so much as a kid is it because it is imaginative. It’s creative and fantasy, and, it’s not based in reality, and it’s not too scary. I mean, I’ve got, a little niece and nephew, and and they’re, I think, 7 and 4. That’s too young. I I think, you know, there’s there’s stuff in here that’s spooky enough that little kids might struggle with it, but, yeah, I I I I get it. I I can recognize its flaws, and I I just don’t care. In fact, if anything, that adds to the charm. Well, before we, sign out, I just wanted to say something really quick. This was, a rough week for me. My best friend, my dog, Jack, passed away this week. And, I’ve I had him since he was a puppy, and, he he became an old man. I I kinda feel like he was my 1st grown up thing that I did. You know? I I got a job, and I thought, I’m responsible now. I can take care of this. And he’s been with us for a really long time, and and this last year has been rough for him. We knew we probably didn’t have a lot of time left earlier this week. 1 morning, I think that he had kind of waited for us to wake up, and, he just, went very peacefully in our arms. It was it was really, really tough for me. I mean, it still is. I am not I’m not done grieving that yet, but I I was glad that we decided to do this movie. It’s fun. It’s it’s, not something that’s gonna you know, it’s a a good memory for me. It makes me feel good. So I wanna dedicate this episode to, my dog, Jack. Wherever he is, I hope that he’s happy and having a good time, but, I sure do miss him. So, this one’s for you, Jack.
Todd: Oh, he’s probably out there chasing those trolls to the forest.
Craig: I hope so. I hope so.
Todd: Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend. You can subscribe to us on Itunes or Stitcher. Check out our Facebook page. Leave us a comment. Leave us some suggestions for other films to do. Until next week, this is Todd And this is Craig. With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.