I'm in an unusual position watching this movie, since I've only seen a few moments from Troll 2 online, but I've never sat through the whole thing. But I'm also very familiar, and generally pretty loving toward bad movies. I have a certain understanding of what makes them work so that they aren't just seriously bad, incompetent movies. A level of competence needs to be reached, especially on a technical level. There has to be a string of bad decisions made, and there has to be a sense of serious determination by someone in charge.
It looks like Troll 2 reaches those criteria.
The documentary explores most of the people involved in making the movie. Most of the cast is interviewed, the director plays a role, and we even see the composer, although he doesn't say anything. The fans are shown, events are shown. The main focus is on the man who played the father in Troll 2, George Hardy. He's a dentist now, and he's a wonderfully enthusiastic, positive guy. He's a remarkably charming presence, and he seems entirely genuine.
What's remarkable is that the entire cast knows that the movie is terrible, and has gradually come to terms with it. They know that they were terrible actors, but they also have the weight of the overall project being terrible weighing against their film credit. I suppose there's a difference between being in a low-budget, poorly made movie that isn't recognized as the worst movie ever, and being in the one that shows up at the bottom of the heap on IMDB.
Even though these cast members seem to have accepted their role in this, we see that the director seems conflicted. He loves the attention he's getting, he loves going to events, but he doesn't seem to accept that the movie is bad. It's a little uncomfortable to see it, because he's clearly aware of the way that most people view the movie, but he feels compelled to defend it in ways that don't feel right. He argues with the actors in front of the convention audience, he expresses contempt for his cast.
The one bit that especially stood out was when the cast is talking about how they were trying to get a line changed in the script. The line, as it appears in the movie, is "He'd cut off your little nuts and eat them!" The girl who delivers the line was uncomfortable with it. Not just the content, but that it's not the way people speak. Other cast members and her come up with an alternative, and propose it to the director. He refuses, saying "I know how Americans speak." Of course, this is an Italian director, with a limited grasp of English.
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