Film

Troll 2

Troll 2 is the film that gave us goblins pretending to be trolls, a family menaced by killer vegetarian monsters in a town spelled backwards, and dialogue so wrong it becomes poetry. Made by an Italian crew with barely any English speakers on set, it's less a horror movie than an accidental comedy masterpiece. Watch it loud, with friends, and zero expectations of competence.

TMDb rating3.9

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The Room2003

The reigning monarch of so-bad-it's-good cinema, with Tommy Wiseau's baffling line readings and physically impossible spoon collection. If you laughed at Troll 2's dubbing, this is the next holy text.

But Its fame means most people have already seen it, sometimes multiple times, at midnight screenings with props.

The Room poster

Birdemic: Shock and Terror2010

A modern-day answer to Troll 2's chaos — an eco-thriller where CGI eagles attack with the grace of a broken screensaver. The sincerity behind the incompetence is what makes it sing.

But The pacing is glacial between attacks, and the humor relies entirely on watching things go wrong slowly.

Birdemic: Shock and Terror poster

Miami Connection1987no page yet

Taekwondo rock band versus motorcycle ninja drug dealers, performed with the earnest joy of people who have no idea how strange this all is. Pure, uncut cult energy.

But The fight choreography and music numbers eat up huge stretches, so plot momentum basically doesn't exist.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

American Movie1999

Same DIY delusion and heart that produced Troll 2, but here you watch the desperate, human process behind the badness instead of just the result.

A documentary that captures the real-life version of Troll 2's chaos — a broke Wisconsin filmmaker chasing his horror short against all logic and budget. Funny, then quietly moving.

But It's a real documentary with real stakes and sadness under the comedy, not pure camp escapism.

American Movie poster
More like this (7)

Samurai Cop1991no page yet

A wig that deserves its own end credit, dialogue looped in from another dimension, and a lead actor who seems to be improvising every single line. Gloriously incompetent action cinema.

But Some of the humor ages badly, and the plot is barely a suggestion rather than a structure.

Sharknado2013no page yet

A tornado full of sharks terrorizes Los Angeles, and everyone involved seems to know exactly how ridiculous that is. Self-aware trash done with real comic timing.

But The self-awareness makes it feel more calculated than Troll 2's accidental genius — less innocent, more winking.

"MANOS" The Hands of Fate1966no page yet

A door-to-door salesman shot this on a bet, and it shows in every frame — the score alone deserves a place in cinema history for its sheer wrongness.

But It's slower and more tedious than Troll 2, with long stretches of almost nothing happening.

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats1977no page yet

Exactly what it sounds like — a haunted bed that digests its victims, narrated by a disembodied voice for reasons the film never explains. Dreamlike, cheap, unforgettable.

But The narration and static setup make it feel more experimental-weird than funny-weird; patience required.

Cool as Ice1991no page yet

Vanilla Ice plays a motorcycle-riding poet who rolls into a small town and turns everyone's life upside down with rhymes. A time capsule of confidence outpacing talent.

But It's more cringe than campy fun in places, and the humor is unintentional rather than gleeful.

Robot Monster1953no page yet

Troll 2's goblins-in-rubber-masks energy has an ancestor here — a monster costume so wrong it becomes iconic, and a film utterly sincere about its own absurdity.

A gorilla suit topped with a diving helmet plays the alien invader, bubble machine included, in a film that somehow predates Troll 2's commitment to nonsensical monster design by decades.

But Extremely dated pacing and dialogue; this is one for people who genuinely love the history of bad cinema.

The Wicker Man1973

Swap the goofy goblins for genuine folk-horror menace and you get the same bones as Troll 2 — a family lured to a bizarre town with its own rules, played this time for real terror instead of accidental comedy.

A genuinely unsettling folk-horror classic about outsiders lured into a strange, insular community with its own twisted rules and rituals, building to one of horror's great gut-punch endings.

But It's played completely straight and slow-burn tense — no camp, no laughs, just dread that creeps rather than jumps.

The Wicker Man poster

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