History Trivia / Troll2

* TroubledProduction: Actually an efficiently-produced film, made for around $200,000 and finished in three weeks during the summer of 1989. But the cast was made up of Utah locals, many of whom had no professional acting experience (and who assumed the casting call was supposed to be for extras). To make matters worse, only one member of the all-Italian crew spoke fluent English, and the cast were only given the script a few pages at a time, and very minimal and confusing direction. And the director wouldn't allow the actors to change the awkwardly-phrased dialogue, leaving the actors even more in the dark about what was happening. It all added up to a glorious trainwreck of a film.

* NamesTheSame: Lampshaded on the Podcast/RiffTrax: when Diane refers to her husband as "Farmer Waits", Mike Nelson, amused, starts singing "Old [=MacDonald=] Had a Farm" in a Music/TomWaits impression.

* ChannelHop: The original VHS release came from SVS-Triumph (a semi sub-label of what's currently [[Creator/SonyPictures Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]]); all current releases have Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer's involvement, having bought the library of producer Epic Productions in 1998.

* ParodyRetcon: Claudio Fragasso has unconvincingly tried to claim that most of the film's humor was intentional. [[FlipFlopOfGod Other times, he's tried to claim the film was intended to be taken 100% seriously.]]

* ParodyRetcon: Claudio Fragasso has unconvincingly tried to claim that most of film's humor was intentional. [[FlipFlopOfGod Other times, he's tried to claim the film was intended to be taken 100% seriously.]]

* AmateurCast: Most of the cast were local residents who responded to an open casting call hoping to be extras. George Hardy, who played the father, was a dentist with no prior acting experience who showed up for fun, and Don Packard, who played the store owner, was a mental hospital patient on a day trip.

* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown: For all its cult status in the U.S., the film was never released theatrically in Italy and is virtually unknown there. It only had a very brief, quickly-discontinued VHS release in 1991, with Italian subtitles but no dub. The producers' business model was to make B-movies for the U.S. cable and home video markets, so many of their films (''Troll 2'' included) were never dubbed into Italian nor advertised there. To that end, Claudio Fragasso is better known in his country as the director of mainstream action and drama films like than for the B-movies that built his following overseas.
* SameContentDifferentRating: In the U.S., the film is rated PG-13, but when it was first released in the UK, it was rated ''18''. Perhaps the MPAA realized that the film wasn't particularly scary. It has since been reissued in the UK at 15.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Hoo boy. Between the [[EightiesHair hairdos]], the gaudy neon & pastel wardrobes, the digital SynthPop soundtrack (some of which is just stock demo tracks on a loop), and the wide array of analog technology, ''Troll 2'' becomes a vivid time capsule of middle-class American life at the end of the 80's and the ''very'' start of the 90's.

* [[ChannelHop Studio Hop]]: The original VHS release came from SVS-Triumph (a semi sub-label of what's currently [[Creator/SonyPictures Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]]); all current releases have Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer's involvement, having bought the library of producer Epic Productions in 1998.

* AudienceParticipation: During the viewings of the movie, the audience would throw popcorn and bologna slices, as well as counting down to when Joshua "pisses on hospitality".

* ParodyRetcon: Claudio Fragasso has unconvincingly tried to claim that most of film's humor was intentional. [[FlipFlopOfGod Other times, he's tried to claim the film was intended to be 100% seriously.]]

* HeAlsoDid: Don Packard (who played the creepy store owner) hosted a radio talk show in Salt Lake City for many years, using "Golden Delicious" as his on-air alias. As you'd expect from his performance here, the show was very bizarre, mainly focused on Packard's {{Cloudcuckoolander}} takes on everyday life.

* HeAlsoDid: Don Packard (who played the creepy store owner) hosted a radio talk show in Salt Lake City for many years, using "Golden Delicious" as his on-air alias. The show was every bit as bizarre as you would expect from his performance here.

* HeAlsoDid: Don Packard (who played the creepy store owner) hosted a radio talk show for a while in Salt Lake City, using "Golden Delicious" as his on-air alias. The show was every bit as bizarre as you would expect from his performance here.