Troll 2 (1990) Review

You’re ten years old, and your dead grandpa just materialized at the foot of your bed to warn you about the family vacation. Not the drive. Not the motel. The town. Everybody there smiles a little too wide. The corn grows a little too green. And grandpa — sweet, ghostly, time-freezing grandpa — looks you dead in the eye and tells you the truth no adult will believe: the whole town is goblins, and the goblins are going to turn your family into plants. Then eat them.

Because that’s what goblins do in this town. They’re vegetarians, you see. Health nuts. They don’t want your blood — they want your chlorophyll. So they feed you their food, and their food turns you into a houseplant, and then they feast. It’s the most deranged dietary plan in horror history, and nobody in this movie questions it for a second. They just keep passing the corn.

Welcome to Nilbog, horror lover. Population: doomed. Now — I need you to understand something before we go any further. This movie is terrible. Objectively, historically, magnificently terrible. And I love it with my whole black heart. This is the one I call “so bad it’s good,” and I’m right — nobody sets out to make something this broken, but somehow it became unforgettable anyway. Strap in.

The Review

Here’s the setup, spoiler-light: the Waits family — dad Michael, mom Diane, daughter Holly, and young Joshua — head to the tiny town of Nilbog for a quiet country vacation. Joshua’s dead grandpa Seth keeps popping in from the great beyond to scream warnings nobody heeds. Turns out grandpa’s right: Nilbog is goblin country, the townsfolk are monsters in human suits, and their entire evil scheme revolves around getting you to eat the appetizers. Joshua, armed with nothing but a ghost grandpa who can freeze time and a strict moral objection to vegetables, has to save his family from becoming side dishes.

Now let’s talk about what this movie gets right, because — and I say this with love — the list is short but glorious. First: it is never, ever boring. Every five minutes something happens that will sear itself into your brain forever. A corn cob seduction scored to Joe Cocker. A kid urinating on the dinner table as a tactical maneuver. A double-decker bologna sandwich deployed as a weapon of war. You cannot look away from this movie. It will not let you.

Second: the earnestness. Nobody in this cast is winking. Every single person on screen is giving it their absolute all, and that sincerity is what elevates Troll 2 from “bad” to “legendary.” This isn’t a cynical cash-grab — it’s a movie made by people who genuinely believed they were crafting a ferocious commentary on modern society. (The screenwriter said so. I’m not kidding. We’ll get there.) When everyone commits this hard to something this unhinged, the result isn’t a failure. It’s folk art.

And then there’s the scream. You know the one. A terrified young man, dragged into a goblin lair, watching monsters dissolve a woman in green slime, stammering “They’re eating her… then they’re going to eat me… OH MY GAAAAAAAAWD!” while a housefly strolls across his forehead in extreme close-up. That is Arnold — played by Darren Ewing — and it is one of the great line deliveries in cinema history. Not good. Great. There is a difference, and this movie lives in it.

As for what doesn’t work — horror lover, where do I start? The dialogue sounds like it was written by people who learned English from a phrasebook and then were forbidden from changing a single word. (Because that’s almost exactly what happened.) The acting ranges from “community theater” to “hostage video.” The plot runs on pure dream logic held together by corn-based set pieces. Scenes end whenever they feel like it. Characters announce their motivations like they’re reading telegrams. It is, by every conventional measure of filmmaking, a catastrophe.

But here’s the thing the snobs miss: the performances are unforgettable precisely because they’re unhinged. George Hardy — a real-life practicing dentist who wandered into a casting call — plays dad Michael with the sweaty conviction of a man defusing a bomb, and delivers the immortal line “You can’t piss on hospitality!” like it’s Shakespeare. That was his audition line, by the way — performed in front of nine Italian casting agents who didn’t understand a word of it. Deborah Reed as the goblin queen Creedence Leonore Gielgud is pure nightmare fuel wrapped in a housecoat. Robert Ormsby’s Grandpa Seth freezes time with the gravitas of a man who has seen things. These people are giving us everything they have, and I refuse to disrespect that.

So where does that leave us? Troll 2 fails at being a horror movie and accidentally succeeds at being something rarer: a communal experience. This is a movie you watch with people — shouting at the screen, quoting the corn, gasping at the bologna. It has no trolls, barely has a plot, and features a monster scheme that could be defeated by a salad bar. And yet, thirty-five years later, people are still holding festivals for it in the Utah town where it filmed, complete with bologna-eating contests. Tell me that’s not a kind of greatness.

Trivia & Facts

• There are no trolls in Troll 2. Not one. The monsters are vegetarian goblins. The film was originally shot as Goblins, and American distributors slapped the Troll 2 title on it to cash in on 1986’s Troll — a completely unrelated movie. It’s the most dishonest title in horror history, and honestly? It rules.
• Nilbog is “goblin” spelled backwards. That’s it. That’s the big twist of the town name. The movie is very proud of this.
• The director used a fake name. Claudio Fragasso directed under the pseudonym “Drake Floyd,” and co-wrote the script with his wife Rossella Drudi. Neither spoke fluent English, the Italian crew and American cast could barely communicate, and Fragasso insisted every actor deliver his dialogue verbatim. That explains… everything.
• George Hardy really is a dentist. The man who bellows “You can’t piss on hospitality!” was — and still is — a practicing small-town dentist who answered a casting call. He is now a beloved fixture of the Troll 2 cult and leans all the way into it. King.
• The store owner was played by a mental patient on day release. Don Packard, who plays the shopkeeper, later admitted he harbored murderous thoughts about his youngest co-star during filming. The documentary Best Worst Movie covers it. Truth is stranger than Nilbog.
• The corn scene is scored to Joe Cocker. When Creedence seduces Brent, the corn cob on screen bursts into popcorn — while “You Can Leave Your Hat On” plays. I have watched a lot of horror movies, horror lover. Nothing prepared me for sexy corn.
• The scream almost had a co-star. During Arnold’s legendary “Oh my God” close-up, a housefly crawls across Darren Ewing’s forehead. They kept the take. Of course they kept the take.
• Meat is poison to the goblins. That’s the lore. The climactic weapon is a double-decker bologna sandwich, deployed with the battle cry “Think about the cholesterol! Think about the toxins!” I want this on my tombstone.
• The cult is still growing. In June 2026, a Troll 2 festival invaded Morgan, Utah — where the film was shot in 1989 — complete with a bologna-eating contest. And Michael Stephenson, the kid from the movie, directed the acclaimed 2009 documentary Best Worst Movie about the whole beautiful disaster. Required viewing.

Harper’s Extras

If Troll 2 rewired your brain in the best way, the so-bad-it’s-great canon awaits — and trust me, it’s a deep, delicious rabbit hole:

• The Room (2003) — the Citizen Kane of bad movies. Oh hi, Mark.
• Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) — Ed Wood’s magnum opus. The granddaddy of them all.
• Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) — made on a bet, and it shows. The Master would approve. Probably.
• Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010) — coat-hanger CGI birds, a plot held together by hope. It’s next in our takedown queue, horror lover. You’ve been warned.
• Best Worst Movie (2009) — the documentary about Troll 2‘s fandom, directed by Michael Stephenson himself (that’s Joshua, all grown up). Watch this right after the movie. It’ll make you love it even more.
• Dig deeper: browse our full horror wiki for movies, monsters, and mayhem — and if you want to see what a good modern horror review looks like from yours truly, my Backrooms (2026) review is the perfect palate cleanser after this corn-fed fever dream.

Where to Watch

As of October 2026, Troll 2 (1990) is streaming free on Tubi and Pluto TV in the US — which feels cosmically correct for this movie. It’s also available with subscription on Prime Video and Kanopy, and to rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon Video, and Fandango at Home. Streaming lineups shuffle constantly, so check JustWatch for the latest options in your region. Gather friends. Bring bologna.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Troll 2 connected to Troll (1986)?

No — not even a little. Troll 2 was filmed under the title Goblins, and distributors renamed it to ride the coattails of 1986’s Troll. The two films share no characters, no story, no monsters, and no continuity. It’s one of the most misleading titles in movie history.

Why is it called Troll 2 if there are no trolls?

Pure marketing. The creatures in the film are goblins — vegetarian, corn-obsessed goblins — but “Goblins” didn’t test as well with distributors as a sequel title to a modest 1986 hit. So Troll 2 it was, trolls be damned.

What does Nilbog mean in Troll 2?

Nilbog is “goblin” spelled backwards — the name of the small town secretly populated by goblins disguised as humans. It’s the film’s most famous wordplay and a staple of its cult legend.

Is Troll 2 streaming anywhere?

Yes — as of October 2026, Troll 2 streams free on Tubi and Pluto TV in the US, and is available on Prime Video and Kanopy with a subscription. Digital rental and purchase options include Apple TV, Amazon Video, and Fandango at Home.

One skull for the filmmaking. Five stars in my heart. Troll 2 is proof that sincerity plus insanity equals immortality — and I’ll be quoting that bologna sandwich until the goblins come for me. They’re eating her… then they’re going to eat me… OH MY GAAAAWD.