Troll 2-A movie That Transcends a Rating or Quality in General

Watching Troll 2 in a theater with a packed crowd, I realized this film transcends a rating. It's a film made to be a genuinely scary piece of horror but plays out feeling like a spoof of horror films of its era instead. But, when viewing the movie from that comedic standpoint, it's brilliant. Practically every scene is hilarious, with moments so over-top and absurd they feel like a gag you would see in a David Zucker-like spoof movie. There's dialogue exchanges meant to be genuine but have such incredible comedic timing. Dialogue that's so unnatural that they reach hilariously absurd levels.

Even the filmmaking feels more intended for comedy than horror. Camera pans and zooms meant to provide genuine scares end up feeling hilarious. The way the editing cuts from one plotline to another also provides unintentionally pitch-perfect comedic timing, with the film cutting from a moment meant to be scary to a moment of other characters having bizarre interactions that are entertaining but feel more mundane by comparison, be it the boyfriend and his "boys" or Joshua and Grandpa Seth.

It all makes for a film that feels like an anomaly. It's a film with some pretty good practical effects but is so shoddy in every other aspect to be genuinely scary. Despite that, though, the film is so entertaining when viewed as a spoof of horror films of its era rather than a genuine horror film the filmmakers intended to make. Because of that, it's a hard film to classify critically. It's not a good horror film, but it's so entertaining for me to hate it. It's truly a film that transcends a rating and any other critical analysis because it's a blast to watch from beginning to end.

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