The Potter family – Father Harry Snr. (Michael Moriarty), Mother Anne (Shelley Hack), Son Harry Jnr. (Noah Hathaway) and daughter Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck) – move into a new apartment on Mockingbird Lane in San Francisco, unaware that it has been built over the doorway to another dimension.
Young Wendy Anne wanders down to the laundry room in the cellar and is nabbed by Torok the Troll (Phil Fondacaro) who dissolves himself into her body – thus Torok becomes Wendy Anne while the real girl is spirited off to the fourth dimension to lie in state, poised to become Torok’s princess at an undisclosed future date.
Torok begins transforming the other residents in the building – including a swinging bachelor (Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher fame), an aspiring actress (Seinfeld’s Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in her feature film debut), a former Marine-turned-insurance salesman (Gary Sandy) and a midget who is a professor of English (also Phil Fondacaro, hence he never appears in the same shot as Torok!) – into mystical forests that hatch more little trolls
His goal is to turn the apartment building into a troll universe from which he can take over the world.
The rest of the film concerns efforts to thwart Torok and his minions and bring Wendy Anne back to her normal pre-teen existence.
Harry Jnr. and Eunice St Clair (played variously by real-life mother and daughter, June and Anne Lockhart), a 2000-year-old white witch who lives upstairs, are responsible for most of the work here.
Obviously inspired by Gremlins, Troll has some decent special effects, but Ed Naha’s script is thoroughly mediocre.
The film was shot in Italy and director John Carl Buechler was also responsible for the special effects work.
Harry Potter Jr.
Noah Hathaway Harry Potter Sr.
Michael Moriarty Anne Potter
Shelley Hack Wendy Anne Potter
Jenny Beck Peter Dickinson
Sonny Bono Malcolm Mallory/Torok the Troll
Phil Fondacaro William Daniels
Brad Hall Eunice St. Clair
June Lockhart Young Eunice St. Clair
Anne Lockhart Jeanette Cooper
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Barry Tabor
Gary Sandy Policemen
Robert Hathaway
James Beck Dickinson’s Girlfriend
Dale Wyatt Fairies
Barbara Sciorilli
Viviana Giusti
Jessie Carfora
Director
John Carl Buechler
Related Posts
They're A Weird Mob (1966) Based on the 1958 John O'Grady novel of the same name, They're A Weird Mob told the story of newly-arrived Italian immigrant…
Taste of Fear (1961) Penny Applebee (Susan Strasberg) grew up with her mother after her parents divorced when she was quite young. After her…
Malcolm (1986) This charming Australian comedy is the story of Malcolm (Colin Friels) a young man with a genius for mechanical devices,…
Take a Girl Like You (1970) This 1969 film adaptation of a Kingsley Amis novel has young Jenny Bunn (Hayley Mills) heading to the South of…
Round Midnight (1986) French director Bernard Tavernier's jazz odyssey set in the 1950s finds living legend Dexter Gordon portraying American expat saxophonist Dale…
Nothing in Common (1986) This disjointed but still effective comedy features the strained relationship of workaholic son David Basner (Tom Hanks) and his crusty…
Take the Money and Run (1969) Filmed in a mockumentary style, Woody Allen's directorial debut chronicles the life and times of inept bank-robber and petty criminal…
Young Wendy Anne wanders down to the laundry room in the cellar and is nabbed by Torok the Troll (Phil Fondacaro) who dissolves himself into her body – thus Torok becomes Wendy Anne while the real girl is spirited off to the fourth dimension to lie in state, poised to become Torok’s princess at an undisclosed future date.
His goal is to turn the apartment building into a troll universe from which he can take over the world.
