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OVERALL
BEASTS
BREASTS
Director: John Carl Buechler
Writers: John Carl Buechler (story)
Ed Naha (writer)
Cast---
Noah Hathaway ...  Harry Potter Jr.
Michael Moriarty ...  Harry Potter Sr.
Shelley Hack ...  Anne Potter
Jenny Beck ...  Wendy Anne Potter
Sonny Bono ...  Peter Dickinson
Phil Fondacaro ...  Malcolm Mallory / Torok the
Troll
Brad Hall ...  William Daniels
Anne Lockhart ...  Young Eunice St. Clair

Runtime: 82 min
TROLL (1986)

I have seen Troll several times. It’s a classic fantasy film produced by Charles Band, who started Full
Moon Entertainment. There’s a few famous names in the cast mainly Sonny Bono and Julia Louis-
Dreyfus. Besides being the main creature effects man John Carl Buechler directs the movie giving it a
true fantasy feel.

Harry and Anne Potter move into an apartment building with their two kids; Harry Jr. and Wendy. While
Wendy is playing in the basement laundry room the troll grabs her by the arm and apparently possesses
her. What a troll is doing inside a basement is not explained much. Wendy is now fully controlled by the
troll and will use her to exact his grand scheme of creating a fairy universe here on earth. He will start
one apartment at a time until the building will become like a fourth dimension into fairy land.

There are several cool characters living in the building. We have a tough army guy, a swinging
bachelor and a good witch. Wendy enters each of their apartments and pricks them with a magical ring
on her finger. Then the person mutates into vegetation becoming a mini indoor forest. This starts
happening in every apartment building until there are only two left. Harry’s and the witch. The effects are
very entertaining as we see people turning into trees and forest stuff and even little trolls appear to
populate the fresh terrain. Wendy’s brother is freaked out by his sister. She growls at him and throws
him against the wall. He finds friendship with the good witch Eunice St. Clair. She tells him the story of
the Troll and how she was a magic wielding princess. When it comes down to it she wants him to stop
the madness by thrusting a magical lance into a large monster’s heart.

The witch herself grabs a lance and let’s her hair down magically becoming younger and more
beautiful. This is all a bunch of nonsense because the troll quickly turns her apartment into a forest and
her into a talking tree trunk. Henry Jr. finds his real sister’s body in the forest and frees her. The troll
wanted her to become his fairy princess. The big gigantic monster that Henry Jr. was supposed to kill to
end the trolls grand plot goes after Wendy. He’s a huge thing with gargoyle wings. Not wanting any harm
to come to the girl the troll snatches the magical lance and throws it at the  monster thus ending the
whole thing. Everything comes back to normal. Later on a policeman is checking the apartment’s
basement and the troll is there!!

If you asked me the troll was mischievous but not truly evil. This is a great movie to watch with kids
cause it has a nice fairy tale element. Maybe older kids cause some parts are just kind of strange. It is a
very simple movie but it has whacky moments, great special effects and makeup and a genuine fantasy
touch. It takes you back to the glorious eighties. Just keep on guard, for there might be a sneaky troll in
your apartment laundry room scheming in the shadows.


                                                                                 
                                                                                         - Jorge Antonio Lopez
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Troll (1986)
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