he was at the horror movie convention and was asking why people like that *beep* calling them weird and criticizing everyone about their dental hygiene?
He clearly doesn't understand horror movie fandom and the people who gave Troll 2 cult status. I guess I just don't like that he bites the hand that feeds him.
Was he right?
I've never been to any convention of any kind. Are horror fans smelly?
Nah.
You have to remember that George is a small-town kinda guy. He's probably not used to the horror fans, I mean those people can be hardcore.
He reminded me of a guy I used to work with, an older gentleman who caught a showing of The Osbournes. I was the youngest person in the office and he was trying to get me to explain it to him. He was like "do people really look like that, do people really like that music etc?" It was too foreign to him.
As for the poor dental hygiene, he's a dentist. It's what he notices. I have a friend who is a vein specialist, she spent her entire Honeymoon looking at people's legs and noticing spider veins!
Just my two cents. He's used to a southern small town crowd is all.
I was a bit annoyed he said that, but I kind of chalk it up to a fish-out-of-water deal... he's a country bumpkin who lives in a very religious, all around nice town. It makes sense he would be put off by a subculture. I'm not saying he is right to be, but I can understand it from his point of view.
That said, I was annoyed. I have a ton of friends who go to those conventions regularly, etc.
I believe this hits at the core of a lot of the tone of his response.
I live in Alabama, and not even small town south Alabama like George does, and people can be very insular and demanding of conformity here... especially in religious circles.
People who fall prey to that mentality can feel a need to make a very showy rejection of anything outside "the norm" to show how normal and decent they are.
I would imagine this pressure is even greater for someone like George, who, as a somewhat effeminate middle-aged bachelor with seemingly no romantic interests, is probably at least somewhat suspect in his community already.
Plus, as others have pointed out, I believe his feelings were hurt, and I believe he was coming to the realization that "Troll 2" is a niche within a niche within a niche, and wasn't going to be his ticket to any sort of real money or celebrity, and he probably began to worry about losing the life he has due to neglecting it in favor of a life that he was beginning to realize would never amount to anything.
Here's how I saw it, that part has several intended purposes. The first is George Hardy as a person. For the first part of the film we get to know George as this likable human being with seemingly no major flaws, which without the horror con part would counter as a flaw in the film. George is human and no human is perfect, though he embraces and loves his cult icon status I really do think he only understands the surface of what is cult. A good point of that is when he holds a screening for the people in his town, he's under the impression that everyone loves Troll 2, which is not the case at all. Of course he's a bit ignorant and it smudges his image a bit but he is a human, who hates horror apparently.
Another purpose is that Stephenson is trying to convey all angles of Troll 2, and in that alone not all angles are pretty. That's why we see interviews from odd cast members like Don Packard and Jason Steadman, who's characters aren't that important in the film but the impact on them it had afterwards is, because they represent a different side. Same goes to Connie Young. I promise I'm not side tracked this is relevant; like the interviews the documentary finds where Troll 2's place is. It doesn't belong at the horror convention it belongs at the midnight screenings for the fans, but we have to see that to understand it.
It's sad that it had to occur at the last part of the film because it comes close to leaving you disappointed and the first hour is basically forgotten. However; I think Stephenson manages to mend the damage when he asks George if he'd star in Troll 3 and George willing, with excitement of course, volunteers a yes. The film ends there and for me it reminded me of the first part.
The documentary is intended to be honest and that's what it is. If anything as djrosenblatt said it grounds Hardy who's cult was exhausting him, and in a way it grounds the viewer from the Troll 2 buzz (I wanted to watch it again right after I saw the documentary). Its not easy to watch but its not intended to be.
It's just balance. Let's not forget the film starts off telling us just how great this man is etc.
shareI didn't get mad I just thought he was being childish. If the people were excited to see him he would have really liked them. But also I wasn't sure why the director put it in there, it toally made him look bad and the rest of the movie didn't. Confusing.
shareI thought it was pretty obvious that this part was to show that George really really likes to be in the spotlight, and was severely disappointed when no one cared about Troll 2 in the UK or at the horror con. He was used to being the center of attention (as he noted before the trip) at these screenings, and had built it up in his mind that he was some kind of cult celebrity. I'm sure he expected much more from these two events and when he was let down, his disappointment turned into frustration and he started saying insulting things in order to put himself and his professional above those people around him.
He's only human after all.
And Margo is *beep* insane.
The guy reminds me of my girlfriend's father. It totally reminded me of how he might respond to that kind of convention. It's outside his comfort zone, outside of his experience. He doesn't get the horror scene and seems like he hardly considers Troll 2 to be a horror flick. I found him getting a bit annoying and pathetic trying to get everyone to watch the movies. This is exactly how my gf's father is. He's not a bad guy, he just gets over-excited and over-zealous. George is a total good ol' boy. And you can't bring a good ol' boy to a place where people are covered in piercings and have crazy hair and stuff like that and expect them to just be like "Yep, business as usual."
shareI think what that scene boils down to is that George clearly didn't like *not* being the center of attention.
share