Re: What Have You Watched Recently?
Best Worst Movie, a documentary about Troll 2, considered the worst movie of all time. It is so bad it has achieved cult status and is very popular in the right circles. The documentary was created by the star of that movie, a boy at the time, now grown up and living with the embarrassment that was this film.
I'm not a huge bad movie fan, but I do like some. Robot Jox is pure gold as far as I'm concerned, but I don't think I could ever meet with the makers and say, "This movie is so awful, I just love it!" I know that I would hate to have someone say that to me with anything I created with serious intent. I've been in some very bad productions, including the world's worst stage version of To Kill a Mockingbird, but the difference is that we had no illusions that it was good in the first place. I can revel in stories of the hideousness now because I did so then as well. But if I did something I was genuinely proud of, and heard people label it as the world's worst anything, I would find that very difficult to take.
That is the tragedy of this documentary. Most of it is fun to watch as the actors realize how awful it is and and are shocked and delighted by the cult popularity. They join in the various screenings and Q&A sessions with tongue planted firmly in cheek. However, other parts are very tragic, such as seeing the director and writer who are still deluded that they have created a genuinely great piece of art and don't really understand the popularity as a love of bad film and camp. Then there's the scene where some of them fool themselves into thinking the love of the movie is more widespread than it actually is as they set up a booth at a horror convention, ignored and disgusted.
Like most good documentaries, it really delves into the human element behind the story. Meeting these creators and the fans involved is pretty incredible. There are some amazing stories, like the general store owner who is an incredibly creepy character, and we discover that the actor has had mental problems his whole life and that was mostly him in a role he hardly remembers doing at all. There's the legitimate actress who refuses to put Troll 2 on her resume and says she's lost jobs because they found out she was in it. The film combines the joys of backstage fun with the horror of watching a terrible comedian dying on stage. A truly mixed pleasure.