WWTW Interview: ‘Best Worst Movie’ director Michael P. Stephenson – Pt. 2

The director of “Troll 2,” Claudio Fragasso, had no idea his 1990 horror film had become a cult sensation in the U.S.

The film’s co-star, Michael Paul Stephenson, recently had the honor of letting the Italian film director know about his curious fame stateside.

“Do you realize kids are celebrating your movie?” Stephenson recalls telling him. “He said, ’why, Michael, after 18 years they decide they like my movie? Why?’ He had no idea what’s going on.”

“How do you tell him people love it because it’s awful,” Stephenson asks.

So Stephenson, whose new documentary “Best Worst Movie” charts “Troll 2’s” ascent from debacle to cult favorite, took the diplomatic route.

He brought Fragasso to a screening of “Troll 2” and let the director experience it for himself.

“I’ve been to the screenings. I’ve felt the positivity. It’s never mean spirited,” he says. Besides, he says, “Claudio loves the attention.”

Stephenson understands how truly awful “Troll 2” turned out, but he insists the film offers something that’s a bit special these days.

“So many films are so contrived. You feel like your being spoon fed. With ‘Troll 2,’ here is a genuine failure,” he says, adding what Christopher Guest says about comedy applies to his old film – the best comedy is always unintentional.

“At a time when everything is so cynical and ironic, people respond to it,” he adds.

The first-time director plans to show the film to select college towns early next year then embrace a modest theatrical release schedule.

“Troll 2” co-star George Hardy, talking to the press along with Stephenson at the Starz Denver Film Festival, says he’s already gotten plenty out of the film’s resurgence – and his participation in “Best Worst Movie.”

“We’ve lived this story for four years,“ Hardy says of the time between Stephenson’s first phone call through the current festival circuit tour.

“We knew the material gains wouldn’t be that great,” Hardy says. “We really wanted to have a great spirit about making it.”

Related posts:

1. WWTW Interview: ‘Best Worst Movie’ director Michael P. Stephenson – Pt. 1
2. ‘Best Worst Movie’ – Making lemonade out of one big lemon
3. WWTW Interview: ‘Con Artist’ director Michael Sladek
4. Worst horror movie … ever?