Troll (1986)

Troll ​is a 1986 American-Italian comedy horror film directed by John Carl Buechler and produced by Charles Band of Empire Pictures, starring Noah Hathaway, Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Jenny Beck, and Sonny Bono. The film was shot in Italy in the Stabilimenti Cinematografici Pontini studios near Rome.

​Plot
​The Potter family move into a new apartment complex in San Francisco. While unpacking, their young daughter Wendy is attacked by a grotesque little creature, who had long ago been transformed from a powerful wizard into a troll. Using a magic crystal green ring, he captures Wendy and possesses her form. After meeting the other eccentric tenants, the family notices Wendy's unusual behavior (roaring, biting, tossing people across rooms, punching people in the groin), but they attribute her behavior to the stress of the move. The only one that notices something is terribly wrong is Wendy's brother, Harry Potter Jr.

Frightened by his sister's sudden and violent changes, he seeks solace in the company of a mysterious old woman named Eunice St. Clair, who lives upstairs. When he tells her of the strange goings-on, she reveals to him her real profession: a witch. Harry asks Eunice to teach him magic, but she says that there isn't time. She does instruct him as to the ways of a hidden magical world, and tells him of her long history stretching back to a time when she and a powerful wizard named Torok were in love. At that time the world was divided between fairies, which includes trolls, and humans. The realms were equal and independent of each other; however, Torok and some of the fairies challenged this balance resulting in a great war in which the humans prevailed. Torok was transformed into a troll as punishment. Eunice stands guard, as she has for centuries now in her apartment, waiting patiently for Torok to challenge the realms again, which is happening now. The troll wizard has already begun his secret war, going from apartment to apartment, attacking the tenants and transforming them into mythical creatures according to their personalities, such as goblins, nymphs, an elf, and a bugbear, and it transforms their rooms into lush fairy worlds. When every apartment is transformed the world of the fairies will burst forth into the world of the humans.

Harry is told by Eunice that Torok can be stopped by plunging a magic staff into the heart of Torok's world. Eunice tells Harry the heart of the new fairy world will be a large and vicious magical creature. Armed with magic staffs which shoot bolts of energy, Eunice and Harry launch a final attempt to stop Torok's hostile takeover of the world and enter the troll's magical alternate universe. Eunice is attacked by Torok and turned into a tree stump, and Harry finds his sister trapped in a coffin of glass à la Snow White. Suddenly, Torok's great bat monster attacks and disables Harry. When it goes after Wendy, Torok kills it, destroying his carefully constructed fairy realm. As the magic world collapses around them, Harry and his family are given a chance to escape, leaving just as the police arrive. Eunice is restored to normal as well as she bids Harry farewell and departs. As the police investigate the house, one of them is drawn into a remaining fragment of the alternate fairy world. Torok's arm rises into view, preparing to use his ring on the cop. The door closes while the film goes black as the credits roll.

​​Cast

 * Noah Hathaway as Harry Potter Jr.
 * Michael Moriarty as Harry Potter Sr.
 * Shelley Hack as Anne Potter
 * Jenny Beck as Wendy Anne Potter
 * Sonny Bono as Peter Dickinson
 * Phil Fondacaro as Malcolm Malory & Torok the Troll
 * Anne Lockhart as Young Eunice St. Clair
 * Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Jeanette Cooper
 * Gary Sandy as Barry Tabor
 * June Lockhart as Eunice St. Clair
 * Frank Welker as the voice of Torok the Troll

Production
The film was shot back-to-back with Empire Pictures' TerrorVision in Italy in the Stabilimenti Cinematografici Pontini studios near Rome. Many of the same crew worked on both productions, including Buechler as creature effects designer, Romano Albani as cinematographer, and Richard Band as composer. The two films were released a month apart from each other in the United States.

Box office
The estimated budget for Troll was between $700,000 and $1.1 million. Troll opened in the U.S. on January 17, 1986, on 959 screens, earning $2,595,054 that weekend, and placing ninth on the box office charts.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 30% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 3.67/10. On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Troll has a knowing tone that's more smart-alecky than clever. And it hovers uncomfortably between comedy and horror, without ever landing decisively in either camp." Variety gave the film a mixed review and called it a "predictable, dim-witted premise executed for the most part with surprising style." Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times described it as "A clunky, poorly executed shocker."