A troll lives in an apartment building and wants to turn the other occupants into troll creatures, too. But he didn't expect Harry Potter (no, not that Harry Potter) to be on his case, ready to deal out a special brand of magic (no, not that brand of magic).
This films stands as a really hard film to grade. I want to give it a good rating, because director John Carl Buechler ("Friday the 13th Part VII") is a master at making costumes and such, and he really had the crew go balls out with the fantasy scenery and creatures. It has the first film appearance of Julia-Louis Dreyfuss ("Seinfeld"), and even Michael Moriarty (Larry Cohen's leading man) shows up to do a crazy dance.
And the writer is a notable man (although not known), having written "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Dolls", as well as being an editor for Fangoria magazine. But the film, as decent as its credentials are, just doesn't really work as a horror film. And that's the problem here.
If this is a fantasy film for kids (like "Willow"), it's got the wrong feel to it. This isn't going to hold a kid's attention. But for horror, it's not really great, either. Too tame, no real blood or violence or moral subversion. Even horror films geared towards kids ("The Gate") have certain elements -- Hell, heavy metal music -- and this film lacks them.
If you like 1980s films and horror films, check this out. It's sort of like "House II" in a variety of ways (though not nearly as good). And if you like midgets, there's a really cool midget in this movie. And Michael Moriarty. But, yeah, don't expect me to push this on anyone like it was accidentally pushed on me (we thought we were putting "Basket Case III" in the DVD player and by the time we found we were wrong, we were too lazy to change it).
This films stands as a really hard film to grade. I want to give it a good rating, because director John Carl Buechler ("Friday the 13th Part VII") is a master at making costumes and such, and he really had the crew go balls out with the fantasy scenery and creatures. It has the first film appearance of Julia-Louis Dreyfuss ("Seinfeld"), and even Michael Moriarty (Larry Cohen's leading man) shows up to do a crazy dance.
And the writer is a notable man (although not known), having written "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Dolls", as well as being an editor for Fangoria magazine. But the film, as decent as its credentials are, just doesn't really work as a horror film. And that's the problem here.
If this is a fantasy film for kids (like "Willow"), it's got the wrong feel to it. This isn't going to hold a kid's attention. But for horror, it's not really great, either. Too tame, no real blood or violence or moral subversion. Even horror films geared towards kids ("The Gate") have certain elements -- Hell, heavy metal music -- and this film lacks them.
If you like 1980s films and horror films, check this out. It's sort of like "House II" in a variety of ways (though not nearly as good). And if you like midgets, there's a really cool midget in this movie. And Michael Moriarty. But, yeah, don't expect me to push this on anyone like it was accidentally pushed on me (we thought we were putting "Basket Case III" in the DVD player and by the time we found we were wrong, we were too lazy to change it).