User reviews

I have to give this movie a 6/10 because this is a very decent film that deserves praise. I don't know why so many people hate it. For one the little evil character, Troll, has a personality. The kids have personality as well and they're not some stupid one-sided characters. There are funny jokes inserted in the dialogue and the people who occupy the apartment are funny too. Unlike some movies from the same era this one actually has pretty good special effects that are pretty scary too. Just wait till you see a guy turn into a bunch of plants! Thats gross, but its also good effects. Check this movie out and remember it has nothing to do with the really crappy movie Troll 2.

The Potter family has just moved to a rented apartment in San Francisco. Harry Potter Sr. (Michael Moriarty) and his wife Anne (Shelley Hack) are bringing the packages to the apartment and their son Harry Jr. (Noah Hathaway) and their little daughter Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck) stays on the sidewalk. Wendy goes to the laundry room, she meets the wicked troll Torok (Phil Fondacaro) that uses his magic ring to possess Wendy and to use her form to transform the dwellers and their apartment into other trolls and his kingdom. Harry Jr. feels that something is wrong with his sister and seeks out help with the good witch Eunice St. Clair (June Lockhart) that lives in the building.

"Troll" is another lame movie of creatures in the 80's but also a cult- movie. Michael Moriarty in the role of Harry Potter Sr. is so ridiculous that becomes funny. The symphony of the creatures singing in troll language is one of the best moments of this movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Troll"

I rather liked this one a bit, though I can see from its score that I am in the minority in my opinion. Though at least most can agree this one is a lot better than the sequel. This movie has a family moving into a new apartment complex. Very quickly the little girl is taken by the title character and he takes her place. Throughout the movie the troll disguised as the little girl moves from one apartment to the next turning each room into a seemingly new dimension or something. The girl's brother has his suspicious and teams with this old woman to figure things out. The old woman seems to know a lot and she looks a lot better with her hair down. Soon the entire apartment becomes part of this world the troll is creating and the boy must finish it off because the old lady just is not in the position to help at the end. Rather fanciful and interesting...nothing to take to seriously, but I thought it was a rather good story and movie.

This is a ridiculous fantasy/horror hybrid from Empire Pictures. Michael Moriarty stars as Harry Potter (!) who moves into an old apartment building with his wife (Shelley Hack) and two kids (Noah Hathaway and Jenny Beck). The young daughter finds a magical ring in the basement that unleashes the evil troll Torok, who begins to wreak magical mayhem among the various tenants. The bizarre supporting cast includes Sonny Bono, June Lockhart, Gary Sandy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, Anne Lockhart, and Phil Fondacaro in two roles.

This is really silly stuff, and the attempts at menace and suspense fall flat. The movie does hold a strange fascination though, as you don't know what's coming next. There are a lot of special effects, but most of them aren't very special. The scene of Julia Louis-Dreyfus dancing around nearly naked, wrapped in ivy like a wood nymph, is one she must be proud of. I watched in amazement as Michael Moriarty danced badly while listening to Blue Cheer's cover of "Summertime Blues". I also think it's interesting that this film involves a young boy named Harry Potter (Jr.) who learns of a secret world of magic. Did Troll inspire J.K. Rowling? Only the gods know for sure.

And finally some thoughts on Michael Moriarty's ponderous career decisions - He plays the leads in films like this and the equally campy "Island of the Alive", then lands a lead spot on a popular and critically acclaimed show - Law and Order - and then walks away (or was fired depending on who you talk to) after four seasons because of some paranoid delusions concerning Janet Reno? His loss was Sam Waterston's gain.

I'd watch this only to see actors not normally associated with this kind of modern B film.

A couple of friends and I got into a craze of watching cheesy old horror films on the weekends because there is nothing else to do in a small town... But anyway, we rented this one and laughed like never before, it is so insane! We love the "Creature Symphony" part where all of the troll creatures start singing some gibberish song, it is hilarious. We still laugh about it randomly to this day. This movie has maybe half a minute worth of scariness, unless you are afraid of midgets. By the way, the little man in the movie is superb LOL with his little story that he tells. I recommend this film to everyone to see once, because once is all it takes and once is all you really could take. It is a crappy horror film, but a great comedy!!

This movie is good.;) Yeah... - different , interesting Sarcastic , dark comedy...And... I like how the little girl always has this really evil smirk on her face.But she faked me out a bit when she was eating....(huh, ew) The parts with Sonny Bono - those are so silly. All the little earth wandering trolls keep coming out of the woodwork... And they look hilariously silly putty - ish. Freaky , funny stuff. Oh - '86...

This film is not one that is remembered, yet it's much worse sequel is. Here's why. This movie has good special effects for it's time and has OK acting, but just one of the most bizarre story lines. The plot is that a family moves in to an apartment building, where the family's young daughter is stolen, and a troll takes her form. The troll goes around the building killing people and turning them in to troll pods. The reason that this one is not remembered like it's horrible sequel, is this movie is rather weird and boring, but had production values, where the sequel has no production values and horrible acting and writing. The best thing about the film is it's excellent musical score from the every wonderful Richard Band. However, I didn't like this movie very well at all, but it does have some redeeming qualities in the acting and direction...not so much the writing.

My rating: * 1/2 out of ****. 82 mins.

This movie only serves to prove that you can't make a good film based solely on good special effects. The effects are the only selling points of the movie, and they are impressive (we're talking about old-fashioned, "Howling"-type transformations here, none of that modern "digital" stuff). But the story is pointless in the extreme. And the film is rather boring. An example of its bad storytelling: when the boy asks the older lady if she's a witch, there have been absolutely no indications apparent to him to make him reach such an unusual conclusion, yet the script goes right ahead with it because it's necessary for the "revelation" to be made at that moment. And the boy acts pretty casual about the whole "witch" business, too! (*1/2)

This is a great movie to watch with your friends when bored. Troll is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but for some reason I continue to watch it because it is so bad that it's funny.

Amazingly enough, several celebrities are in this film: Sonny Bono is in it (which gives this film a "seal of quality") and he turns into this disgusting booger-like pod, Julia Louis-Dryfus turns into a nymph, and June Lockhart is the creepy old lady who knows everything.

Favorite parts: When the mushroom starts singing and when the midget gets turned into the Troll's "brother" and becomes this puppet that whimpers like a puppy.

I think they wrote the plot as they filmed it. The boy chases his sister out of their apartment on the first floor, but in the next shot they are running from the second floor and bump into their own parents as their door opens and they run out to get the children(?). Also, these parents have no problems with their kids spending their days with total strangers.

When I first saw this movie, I was harsh on it. Why? Probably because I wasn't used to the b-movie style. About a year later, I watch it again after seeing a few dozen other bad movies.

Wow.

It can easily be said that this movie set standards for future b-movies to follow. Why? The cheesy special effects are VERY dated, there's no doubt about it. The acting is mediocre at best, and the plot is extremely corny. But isn't that what we love about these kinds of movies? The script impressed me a bit. Ed Naha did what he could with the dialouge, which was humorous for the most part.

So basically, anyone who didn't like this movie had the wrong expectations. This may be classified as a horror or fantasy film, but it seems unfair to think of it that way. There should be a category called "Late-night-nonsense." Maybe it would get better ratings.

I'm more biased toward liking this movie because I kinda grew up on it. As pathetic as it is to say now, certain scenes were too scary for me to even watch.

Anyway, it's a really cute and fanciful movie full of imaginative whatnot. I mean, come on! An ancient troll takes over a modern apartment building, transforming it into a faerie tale wilderness, complete with a chorus of singing trolls. Wonderful.

This movie is not that great, but not as awful as you might hear. It's mostly a fantasy/horror/comedy that isn't too ambitious yet was weird enough to make a good midnight cult movie. The short eighty minutes weren't unbearable, and there was plenty of things that didn't make too much sense. 1: If everything in the fairy land was completely evil, how come the witch had the talking mushroom? 2: How come the troll didn't want the girl to die. Yes, the ending was pretty anti-climatic and some of the jokes missed, though some hit straight on. But this movie is worthy as its genre: a ridiculous 80's creature flick. Although, there is one very awesome musical number as the trolls are partying, which is just greatly scored and edited, other than that, nothing special unless you like creature/Full Moon flicks. 6/10

They play TROLL on TV every once and awhile and like a train wreck, its hard to look away. Its so bad its almost good. Almost. But not quite. What can you really say about an '80s film that boasts both Sonny Bono and Julia "Elaine from Seinfeld" Louis Dreyfuss??? The casting here is so strange that it reels the mind. Noah "NeverEnding Story" Hathaway?? Shelly Hack?? In short, a boy finds a mysterious land o' TROLLs in the basement of his new apartment building. The TROLLS are cheesy to be sure and the whole thing is silly,I guess. But there is something endearing about watching a little boy rescue his cute little sister who suddenly growls and bites people, something weird about watching June Lockhart play with her pet singing mushroom right before she morphs into a total blonde, buxom she-babe. I even love the friendly little dwarf man! TROLL is cheesy but in an inoffensive fun way, unlike it's sequel TROLL 2 which is a terrible cult classic that is painful to watch.

Troll is not as bad as its sequel, which is horrendous(yet you sort of get some entertainment at how bad it is), but I would be lying if I said it wasn't a terrible movie.

The production values are quite shoddy, the cinematography is slip-shod while the costumes are hokey. The sound effects range from okay-ish to truly bizarre, and the story is weak and quite predictable. That's not all, the direction is sloppy, the script is dreadfully corny but somewhat hilarious in the way that it doesn't know which direction to take, and the acting from all involved is terrible. Oh, and the troll is more silly than scary.

Yet I actually got some entertainment out of it, also it is quite short, has a cool score and goes quickly, so overall it is not a complete waste of time. 3/10 Bethany Cox

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).

She looks so young and cute and topless?!?! Crazy! As she's so conservative in Seinfeld lol...Wow just wow! Way too funny, I have to watch this just for fun now :D.

This is one weird flick for sure. I'm not even sure if I'd call it a horror film, it's more like a sci-fi comedy with some scary-ish creatures.

"Troll" gets going with a horrible performance from Michael Moriarty and his family moving into a new apartment in a random building in an unknown city. His young daughter (who is played by an amazing child actress) is captured and taken over by a troll in the basement. She freaks out on everyone. The troll takes over the apartment building, subjecting many of it's residents to his tom foolery and hi-jinx. He grows gardens in some apartments and creates some strange little monsters. They seem to come out of nowhere and one of them is like a mini creature from the black lagoon.

To say this movie is strange would be an understatement. Not scary at all. I fell asleep for about twenty minutes in the middle of it and I wasn't tired.

Watch for an unusually awful Moriarty performance as he dances around his living room like a nerd to some horrible rendition of 'Summertime Blues.' Yikes, is this guy serious? "Leprechaun" was a hell of a lot more fun.

2 out of 10, kids.

Okay. First I want to say it makes me angry that Troll 2 steals the spotlight from this highly original horror/comedy just because it's such a terrible movie. Troll, the original, is pretty great in my personal opinion. It's a funny movie with a pretty creepy troll and a fantastic soundtrack...

But let's get to it... the plot. I'm going to take this time to make a pretty serious point. It is absolutely INCREDIBLE to me that J. K. Rowling, who "invented" Harry Potter, has not been sued for stealing from this film. Does anyone find it absolutely insane that the protagonist of this movie is named "HARRY POTTER JR." Yes, I'm not kidding. And let's talk about the plot. A boy moves into an apartment building with his family and is stalked by a magical troll that's hanging out and possessing people and turning them into trolls in a sort of troll making farm... but here's the kicker. On the top floor lives a witch, who teaches Harry Potter Jr. About the secret world of magic and the troll. Yep, you heard it. A secret magical world. A witch teaching magic to Harry Potter Jr. And a troll antagonist. Now, I realize this isn't the complete Harry Potter story that we all now know... but... c'mon! The mind boggles... how is this legally possible?!? Why don't more people talk about this?!? And all people seem to care about is it's sequel being so incredibly awful...

But the truth is Troll is a good movie. It's hilarious. Sonny Bono is great. The troll is great. The puppets are great. The dad is great. It's got an awesome Blue Cheer "summertime blues" segment in it... what a great funny scene and an amazing tune. We also have a very young Julia Louis-Dreyfus looking... very... young. She's great. The little sister is great. It's just a fun movie with great makeup and puppets... it's good man! It's funny! And that troll creeps me out!

But seriously folks. Harry Potter Jr.... WAKE UP PEOPLE! There's no Harry Potter without Troll. Just sayin...

Troll is a bad and stupid horror comedy about the Potters. Harry Potter is the main character of the movie and i think he's actually pretty good character. The trolls are actual trolls unlike troll 2 that doesn't have trolls, but goblins.

The acting isn't anything special the characters are decent.

It's pretty boring and slow.

The trolls look much better than the goblins in troll 2.

Overall a pretty bad movie i actually prefer troll 2. I recommend it, but don't watch it alone.

I'm a bit confused. I was a kid when this movie 'Troll' came out. But, I distinctly remember hearing the name Harry Potter. I noticed in some of the other comments that people were commenting on the name because it has now become a huge series of books. At first, I thought this was a Stephen King movie, but now I see it isn't. I think the movie is reminiscent of things I've seen in other Steven King movies. I would bet the writers, directors and/or producers were somehow influenced by Steven King.