On The evening of November 24th, 2019, I had the great pleasure
of meeting local film director Trent Harris for a special screening of his 1995
film - Plan 10 From Outer Space. During this event, Harris autographed my
VHS copy of his other 1992 cult masterpiece – Rubin & Ed. The event took
place as a film festival at The Monarch building in Ogden – an arts hub for
local artists. The event was well attended and director Harris answered questions
from fans in attendance. I also had the pleasure of meeting the parents of actress
Stefene Russell at this event.
Norman Talmage, played by Curtis James, is a mad prophet in 1853 who buries a
bronze plaque near the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. A hundred and forty
years passes, and a young and beautiful woman named Lucinda Hall, played by
Stefene Russell, discovers the plaque, known as the Plaque of Kolob, and
becomes obsessed with decoding its meaning. Kolob refers to a star or planet
mentioned in the Book of Abraham, a foundational scripture of LDS theology.
Hall’s brother Larsen (Pat Collins) is a return LDS missionary, who is
receiving shock therapy treatments for stealing women’s panties. Larsen begins
to see strange hallucinations after his shock treatment. He intercepts messages
from outer space. Meanwhile Hall spends her time writing a book but is greatly
distracted by her neighbor who dances almost completely naked in front of his
apartment window every evening.
While researching Norman Talmage, Hall decides to track down his only living
relative – Guy Fonsbeck (Deva Cantrell). Fonsbeck turns out to be the
half-naked guy who dances in front of his apartment window every evening.
Attempting to decode the Plaque of Kolob, Hall discovers a plot by aliens and
their feminist goddess Nehor, played by Karen Black, for world domination to
put women in charge.
The most intriguing scenes of this film are of the one-eyed beehive alien in
his red space suit with bee wings. Nehor’s animated throne is another great
highlight of the film. Director Harris narrates a sequence early in the film
about the history of the Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon.
An interesting connection is made in Plan 10 to Harris’ earlier film of Rubin
& Ed. Hall is not allowed inside a music club where Nehor and some aliens
are doing a dance. To get into the club, Hall puts a tire hub cap on her head
and dresses in a cape. In Rubin & Ed, actor Crispin Glover also places a
hubcap on his head to shield the heat of the desert sun. The hub cap connects
the two films together.
If you own the DVD or Blu-Ray of Plan 10 From Outer Space, don’t miss the
extras of a documentary Harris puts on the disc – Naked Reality. Harris drives
around in the desert near the Great Salt Lake salt flats looking for
interesting subjects to film. He encounters a dead beetle that crawled out into
the desert and died from the heat. Harris talks about living in Hollywood and
getting a phone call to go to lunch with Warren Beatty. Look quickly as the end
credits roll for a special thank you to Wade Williams – science fiction archivist
and collector. Happy viewing.
(The second photo above shows director Harris at far right. Blog post author Steve D. Stones is at far left. To the right of Stones is Christopher T. Ostler, who arranged to have Plan 10 From Outer Space shown in Ogden in 2028. The photo is from the above-mentioned 2019 event.)
In author Dean Patrick’s The Harlot and the Beast, TWB Press, large
swaths of people move deliberately to a demonic gathering/concert. It’s a celebration
of perversion and evil, presided over by the beautiful Terra Drake, once known
as Lilith, Adam of the Bible's other wife.
In Patrick’s Terra Drake novels, this demon is with us in
these latter times, and searching for converts. Grotesque images converge
toward the crowd. Demons supporting Terra Drake – most with multi personalities and names – pay homage to her empire. Cain, Jack the Ripper, Adrian Kane, Rex Brody, Mr. Boogie, serial killers galore, an
emaciated hag that haunts roadside gas ‘n gulps, and many other obscenities,
all are there, entertaining the deceived, hyponotized-like masses.
That’s just one of many descriptive, intense scenes Patrick
provides in this superbly crafted novel. To Patrick, a recovering alcoholic, Terra Drake’s
empire is in league with modern-day depravities and horrors. It’s her goal to
draw and suffocate people in these dysfunctions, and lose their souls.
Writer Patrick draws from terrible, dysfunctional episodes in
his addiction past to convey to readers the horror of his tales. One of his
settings is rural Duncan, Utah, which represents Morgan, Utah.
Terra Drake destroys people, families, communities, and the
culture. A horrific mix of sex, peer pressure, addiction and violence fuels her
bloody reign. Patrick’s two previous novels in the Terra Drake trilogy, The Lady Mephistoles, and Terra’s Sabbath, charted her path of enslaving humanity.
In the first novel, a brave but doomed addict named Steve Paul gave his best
effort against Terra.
When he died, his brother Marion Paul, a police officer,
takes on the fight. Marion is a stronger man, and he’s full of righteous anger.
He can cause wounds to Terra and her crew, but he’s still overmatched in numbers and power. In The
Harlot and the Beast, he also has other major stresses. He needs to rescue the woman he loves, and his
daughter, both captured by Terra Drake and lost in New Orleans.
Marion Paul is a strong, admirable hero to root for. He
reminds me of Gary Sinise’s character in the TV adaptation in The Stand. In Stephen King’s novel,
Sinise’s Stu Redman is ultimately the most influential adversary of Satan against
those allied against him. So is Marion Paul is Patrick’s trilogy. Despite setback
after setback to the “good people” in The Harlot and The Beast – including a
memorable, heartbreaking scene outdoors among Paul’s extended family – Marion
Paul never gives up fighting evil. His sanity is stretched, but never breaks.
You can purchase The Harlot and the Beast via Amazon here. You can follow Dean Patrick at Amazon here. Also Patrick’s
author website is here. TWB Press website is here. A video teaser for The Harlot and the Beast is here. Chats with Dean Patrick are here, here, here, and here.
The year is 1986, and I've just started my Freshman year at Ben Lomond High School in Ogden, Utah. During my third period gym class, a person claiming to be a casting agent for a movie being filmed at our rival school, Ogden High, is looking for stand-in actors to be used in crowd scenes. Being the young and naive 14 year old I was at the time, I assumed that I had to have actual acting capabilities and previous acting experience, so I did not sign up to be a stand in actor. What a great mistake I made that day. The movie turned out to be Three O'clock High, released in 1987. Watching this movie today, it's fun for me to see many people I know in the movie, including a cousin.
High School reporter and bookstore clerk Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) is assigned to write a story about a tough new kid in school named Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson), who is seen as a bully and does not get along with anyone. Mitchell tries to call off the story when he confronts Revell in the school restroom, but then angers Revell who challenges Mitchell to a fight after school. Mitchell spends the rest of the film trying to figure out how to get out of the fight.
Mitchell has a knife planted in Revell's locker to try and get him suspended from school. He even steals money from the school bookstore cash register to pay off another student to threaten Revell. When that fails, Mitchell's last attempt is to try and pay off Revell to leave him alone. When Revell accuses Mitchell of being a coward, Mitchell decides to go through with the fight in the parking lot after school.
The 1980s was a time when teenagers became an important and marketable subject in film. By the mid-1980s, filmmaker John Hughes had cornered the market on the teen romantic comedy genre of films of teenagers in High School. His great classics include Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Ferris Buehler's Day Off (1986), and Pretty In Pink (1986). Not only did these films resonate with teenagers of the 1980s, but they all included iconic soundtrack music that defines the 80s decade.
Three O'clock High director Phil Joanou perhaps saw his film as an opportunity to cash in on the success of Hughes' teenage romantic comedy films that were so popular in the 1980s. Three O'clock High focuses less on any romantic aspect and more on the conflict of teenagers just trying to make it through high sSchool, or even just trying to make it through the day. We all know what it's like to have to deal with bullies in school. Three O'clock High taps into this problem, but does it in a way that is entertaining and fun. Happy viewing.
There are many fans of the late writer, John D. Fitzgerald. I agree with the description of him as "Utah's Mark Twain." 60-plus years ago he wrote a trilogy of novels about the Fitzgerald family, where a transplanted Pennsylvanian emigrated to Utah to find his wayward brother and also found love with a young Mormon woman. "Papa Married a Mormon" and raised a family.
In his later years, Fitzgerald penned several more novels, geared to younger readers, that focused more on the Fitzgerald children, particularly "The Great Brain," Thomas Dennis Fitzgerald, or T.D., who solved dilemmas that perplexed his contemporaries, even the adults. The successful series, spawned a film, "The Great Brain," that unfortunately had little distribution but can now be viewed at YouTube. The series, all with titles that began with "The Great Brain ..." was so popular that after Fitzgerald's death, the discovery of another "Great Brain" manuscript was also published.
I repeat there are many fans of John D. Fitzgerald, but there are others, myself included, who can be regarded as "'super fans." He is among our favorite writers. We don't just read his novels, we re-read them to tatters, introduce them to others, most satisfyingly to our children, and yes, we think about the Fitzgerald family a lot. We harbor warm sentiments towards Papa, Mamma, T.D., the Great Brain, the narrator, J.D. (John D. Fitzgerald), S.D., older brother Sean Dennis Fitzgerald, Uncle Will, Aunt Cathie, and others.
The books are written as if they are recollections of childhood and family. The principal towns, located in Southern Utah, are Adenville, a predominantly Mormon community, and mining town Silverlode. There are even photographs of the major family characters in the novel, "'Papa Married a Mormon."
I promise I am getting to a review of the wonderful book shown above, but this preface is necessary. If you are a super fan of John D. Fitzgerald, you will encounter a dilemma if you do any cursory research of his popular novels. There is no Adenville. No Silverlode ever existed. The major characters can be located, albeit some with different names. However, these characters don't, for the most part, match how they are depicted in the novels.
Quite frankly, this shouldn't be a surprise. The books are clearly marked as novels, or fiction. You go to the library, "Papa Married a Mormon" is in the fiction section. The "Great Brain" books are in children's fiction. But if you are attached to these novels, it's easy to succumb to the belief they are real.
The author of "Finding Fitzgerald," E.L. Marker (WiDo Publishing, 2019) Carrie Lynn (buy it here), was introduced to the novels at roughly the same age I was. "The Great Brain" was first read to her on a family camping trip in 1976. Our teacher read "The Great Brain At the Academy" to my fifth-grade class a year earlier . Lynn was mesmerized. I was mesmerized. I had to read every "Great Brain" book. And then I had to search the wonderful, now sadly gone "Acres of Books" in Long Beach, Calif., and buy the three novels Fitzgerald had published in the 1950s.
"Finding Fitzgerald" is a memoir. Lynn blends her dogged, determined search to uncover the secrets behind John D. Fitzgerald's mysteries, with her family life of the past two generations. The book opens with Lynn visiting Price, Utah. That's where the Fitzgerald family actually lived. Frankly, for this Fitzgerald fan, it's a thrill to witness Lynn talking to people who knew the Fitzgeralds of the novels, to have her be at locations that we see in a photo in one of the novels, and see buildings and streets in Price that she can visualize as settings in the novels.
One of the most satisfying questions that Lynn answers in "Finding Fitzgerald" is her realization, through a study of Price and its diverse communities, that this town/city offered John D. Fitzgerald the settings of both "Adenville" and "Silverlode." Price had its sections that resembled a small Mormon community and it had its settings where there were saloons, etc. In fact, one interesting fact learned is that Papa Fitzgerald, Tom senior, was not a newspaper editor but nevertheless had a fascinating life. For a long time he traveled through life, pursuing adventures, including ore mining, before settling down in Price and marrying and raising a family.
These location and personality disconnections are important for super fans, because, as Lynn poignantly notes in her memoir, they can tear at the heart. I recall in the late 1970s dragging my family through back roads in Southern Utah trying to locate the ruins of "Adenville," supposedly destroyed by a flood, and the ghost town of "'Silverlode." I thought I found "Silverlode" in Silver Reef, but couldn't find any sign of "'Adenville," but hopefully thought a big white home might have been "Uncle Will"'s place that must have survived the flood. 😀 This just provides an example of how powerful a connection to Fitzgerald's writing can be for some readers.
I need to pay tribute to the author's patient research and determination. She pored over long ago newspaper editions, public relations materials for novels and film, corresponded with Fitzgerald family members and friends, other researchers, started a blog, talked with academics, shared her findings with loved ones, sought and followed their advice, and went on pilgrimages to the areas where the books' characters lived. She not only eased our concerns about the literary license, she provides strong examples, through family lore and her research of Price and other areas, of the origins and inspirations of many of the events and individuals who populate the novels.
And the memoir will tug at your heart when Lynn writes about the real-life "Great Brain," Tom Fitzgerald. The inspiration for brother John's most famous character had a life filled with much tragedy. He was alone most of his latter-half life, and encountered a lot of adversity. But we also learn that he was a survivor, a man who was respected by many, shared his knowledge of subjects with others, and "read a lot of books." I get the feeling from what I learned in the memoir that John loved and respected Tom, and wanted others to feel that respect.
Lynn's memoir flows well between her family and her research. Her embarrassment at falsely claiming to be a writer doing research leads to the happy result of actually completing a book. Her mixture of emotions from discovering and deciphering Fitzgerald mysteries is exemplified in her procrastination to read "Papa Married a Mormon" to her reluctance to pursue answers from a prominent, finally located source, because she doesn't want to bother him. She eventually "bothers" the source for more answers. That's fortunate, because the journalist that is me was decrying her for shying away from that source. It's also heartwarming to read of Lynn being on a panel as a Fitzgerald expert.
There's one more Fitzgerald mystery solved in "Finding Fitzgerald" near the very end: the likely identity of the man who inspires Bishop Aden, the Mormon bishop of "Adenville." I'll say no more on that, leave it to the reader to learn, but will add that in my opinion the Price resident who characterizes "'Mama, Tena Fitzgerald," is likely the most similar in real life to her character in the novels.
Do yourself a favor reader, enjoy "Finding Fitzgerald." The author did a yeoman's job in unearthing so many facts and underscoring how wonderful John D. Fitzgerald's historical novels are. And make sure you pick up a few "Great Brain" books and "Papa Married a Mormon." They are available still, in shops and via Amazon. In fact, "Finding Fitzgerald can also be purchased at Amazon here.
"More psychedelic fun than a barrel of monkeys on mushrooms." - Details Magazine
Words cannot describe the comic weirdness, if not genius, of writer/director Trent Harris' 1991 cult classic - Rubin & Ed. The same can be said about his 1995 cult film - Plan 10 From Outer Space, which is a commentary on Mormon culture and Ed Wood's 1959 classic - Plan 9 From Outer Space. I find Rubin & Ed to be the greater of the two films, but both make a great double-feature together.
Ed Tuttle, played by Howard Hesseman, is a down on his luck, middle aged loser who will do anything to prove to his wife Rula (Karen Black) that he can provide a living for her. The problem is, it's too late for Tuttle because his wife has left him and wants nothing to do with him. He wears old 70s leisure suits and a toupee to cover his balding hair. Apparently Tuttle has been a complete failure his entire life, but he refuses to give up, which is part of the charm of his character.
Tuttle attends a get-rich-quick, pyramid scheme seminar called "The Power of Positive Real Estate," also known as "The Organization." Attendants are brainwashed into thinking that they can achieve great wealth and success in their lives by bringing others into the group and selling real estate. Little do they know that the seminar is a scheme to take away their time and money.
While passing out pamphlets to promote "The Organization," Tuttle runs into his first and only sales subject, Rubin Farr, played by eccentric cult actor Crispin Glover. Farr lives with his mother in a hotel, wears bell bottom pants and platform shoes, and listens to the loud music of Mahler all day, while occasionally lounging by the pool. Farr's mother is constantly on his case to make friends. This is where Tuttle makes his appearance. Two losers, Rubin and Ed, are now united.
Tuttle meets Farr at his hotel room and finds Farr's frozen dead cat in the kitchen freezer. Farr agrees to come with Tuttle to his seminar, but only if they can first find a proper place to bury the cat. The frozen cat, named Simon, is placed in a Coleman cooler. What follows for the rest of the movie is a buddy themed, road trip across Goblin State Park in Utah - only this time Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are nowhere to be found.
One particularly funny dream sequence shows Rubin floating on a tube at Pineview Reservoir in Utah while his cat Simon is waterskiing behind a boat operated by a beautiful girl. Farr gives his most famous line in the film - "My cat can eat a whole watermelon!"
I was fortunate to have found a VHS copy of Rubin & Ed at a local thrift store for less than $1.00. Sources tell me that a used copy of Rubin & Ed on VHS will run anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00 on E-Bay and other movie sales sites. A new VHS copy will run you about $200.00. I often rented the film from Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video in the 1990s from the "Cult Classics" section of both video stores.
I was also fortunate to have purchased a signed copy of Harris' Plan 10 From Outer Space on DVD at Sam Weller's book store in downtown Salt Lake City about 10 years ago. This is one of my most cherished movie collectibles, next to a clam-shelled 80s VHS copy of Andy Milligan's Torture Dungeon from Midnight Video.
To purchase Rubin & Ed on DVD or other films by director Trent Harris, visit his web store at http://www.echocave.net/rubin_ed.html. Hooray for the Echo People! Happy viewing.
Chris Hicks is the top entertainment writer at the Deseret News. He penned this interesting look at horror films that have been filmed in Utah in the 10/15/10 edition:
Just how sleazy is the holiday horror film SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT? Paige Hurley, a concerned parent from Minnesota said: "My 3-year old son saw the television commercial for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT last week and now refuses to sit on Santa’s lap for our annual Christmas picture this year. What next? A marauding turkey at Thanksgiving?" Roxanne T. Mueller of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said: "SILENT NIGHT, DEALY NIGHT is a sleazy, miserable, insulting piece of garbage!" Actor Mickey Rooney said: "How dare they! I’m all for the First Amendment, but … don’t give me Santa Claus with a gun going to kill someone. The scum who made that movie should be run out of town." As you can see, critics were not very kind to this movie.
Like DON’T GO IN THE WOODS . . . ALONE, this film has a special appeal to me because it was filmed locally in Heber City, Utah. In fact, directors James Bryan and Charles Sellier Jr. both worked on the Grizzly Adams TV show of the 1970s.The story begins with a young family traveling to a Utah mental facility to visit their grandfather on Christmas Eve. For years, the grandfather has pretended to be unconscious and mute. After greeting the grandfather, the parents leave the room to attend to some formalities with the superintendent while Billy stays to watch his grandfather. The grandfather begins to warn little Billy that only good children can receive gifts from Santa, and Santa severely punishes all naughty children.
On their way back home, Billy expresses a lack of interest in Santa visiting their home on Christmas because he is afraid of being punished. Soon they encounter a man dressed in a Santa suit pulled off the side of the road with car trouble. The Santa has just robbed a local convenient store. The father pulls over to offer help, but the man points a gun at him. He quickly puts the car in reverse, crashing into a nearby ditch. The father is knocked out unconscious. Santa pulls the mother out of the car, raping and murdering her. Billy witnesses her murder after fleeing from the car and hiding in the brush near the ditch.
Four years later in December 1974, Billy is now living at Saint Mary’s Home For Orphaned Children. Mother Superior disciplines Billy for showing a violent crayon drawing of Santa to his classmates. While walking in the hallway to his room, Billy witnesses a young couple having sex in their room. This triggers a flashback in his mind of the rape and murder of his mother. Even sitting on Santa’s lap at the orphanage seems to trigger the violent flashbacks of his mother. It is now Christmas time 1984, and Billy is a grown up teenager working at a toy store. One of his co-workers constantly teases and bullies him at work. He develops a crush on a pretty brunette girl who also works at the toy store. He even has sexual fantasies about her in his dreams. His boss insists that he dress up as Santa to greet costumers. He is very hesitant to take on this assignment because of what he witnessed of his mother many years ago, but soon agrees to dress up as Jolly O’ Saint Nick.
One night while leaving the store, he witnesses his bully co-worker raping the pretty brunette girl in the back storage room. Once again, this triggers another flashback of his mother being raped. This time he becomes violent and kills the man by hanging him with Christmas lights. For the rest of the film, Billy goes on a murdering rampage with an axe and dressed in his Santa suit. One particularly sleazy and gratuitous scene in the film shows Linnea Quigley, the most famous star of the film, having sex on a pool table with her boyfriend. She hears a cat outside the house and decides to open the front door topless to let it inside. How many women would really open the front door topless to let a cat in the house? This is not very believable. Soon Billy enters the home and picks Quigley up, impaling her on the antlers of an antelope head hanging above the fireplace. The real Santa will have quite a surprise when he comes down this particular chimney tonight!
Although I’m a fan of this film, I do have my criticisms of it. This film is an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween some six years earlier. The 1980s ushered in the "slasher genre" as a result of Halloween, and this is one of many 1980s films that fits this category.
What makes Michael Meyers such a believable killer is that we really do not know why he kills, and we never see his face. Plus, we feel Meyers is evil and has no remorse for his actions because he is not aware they are wrong. The Billy character in this film is not quite believable because we are given a long history into his life, and he appears to be the typical all American boy up until he witnesses the girl at the toy store being raped by his co-worker. He does not come across as being evil and seems to be killing for only the sake of witnessing a rape. Perhaps this is one of many reasons why parents all across America were protesting and banning movie theatres for screening this film.
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is a film I would only recommend to fans of the "slasher genre" of the 1980s. If you’re looking for a well-made, classic holiday horror film, I would highly recommend BLACK CHRISTMASfrom 1974. BLACK CHRISTMAS pre-dates the "slasher genre" by nearly a decade, and is said to be John Carpenter’s inspiration for Halloween.
This film is of particular interest to me because it was filmed in my native state of Utah. The composer who created the music, H. Kingsley Thurber, is a resident of my hometown of Ogden City. Thurber is responsible for composing music tracks for popular video games of the 1990s. With the exception of the four main actors in the film who play the young campers, most of the cast members were from Salt Lake City. Many scenes in this film were shot at Bridal Veil Falls, a beautiful mountainous location up Provo Canyon here in Utah. The film was banned in the U.K. in the 1980s as a "video nasty," and remains banned in that country to this day. Unlike many cult films, I actually loved this film the first time I viewed it. It usually takes me several viewings to appreciate a cult film.
There are many interesting "point of view" shots in the film. One shows the camper Joanie, played by actress Angie Brown, tearing through a sleeping bag after she has been strung up in a tree inside the bag as a prank from her boyfriend. As she tries to tear through the bag to get out, she witnesses the murderer of the film through a hole in the bag as he runs down a mountain trail and stabs her boyfriend in the stomach with a knife tied to a long tree branch. The murderer is similar to the maniac Jupiter in Wes Craven’s 1977 classic "The Hills Have Eyes." On the audio commentary for the film, director James Bryan describes the maniac-murderer as a Siberian-Shaman looking character.
One very creative murder sequence shows a young mother painting on canvas outdoors in the mountains as her infant is bouncing up and down in a baby swing. The canvas she is painting on has only been painted with green strokes of paint. Suddenly she is murdered and gushes of red blood splatter across the canvas, making an interesting use of complementary colors together. I don’t know how intentional this was in the film. For those of us who paint frequently and know about color schemes, it is an interesting sequence. There are also many "fake scares" in the film that set the audience up for thinking they may see the murderer attack a character in the film. Many of these sequences turn out to be a "fake scare" to add to the black humor of the film. Although the humor sequences outweigh the serious ones, it is often hard to tell whether the film wants to be a full-blown black comedy, or a serious horror film, This may be one of the biggest reasons why I enjoyed the film the first time I viewed it, and continue to enjoy it with each viewing. If you pay careful attention to the film, you will notice that every time a new character is shown on screen in an awful costume, you can guarantee that this person will be the next to be killed. This is part of the black humor director Bryan is trying to get across in the film. Death comes to those with a horrible fashion sense.
If you are a fan of low-budget horror films and a native of Utah, I highly recommend that you view this film. The 25th Anniversary Edition DVD distributed by Media Blasters is full of extra features, such as a short featurette made by director James Bryan with cast and crew members, two audio commentaries and a poster and production still gallery of the film. You are guaranteed to get your money’s worth if you purchase this DVD. It is one of the most cherished DVDs in my collection.
SCENES FROM NILBOG INVASION, MORGAN, UTAH, June 28, 2008
On June 28, 2008, Plan 9 Crunch was at Nilbog Invasion, a gathering -- courtesy of Original Alamo Productions -- of Troll 2 fans. It was a great, long weekend of films, Nilbog games, chats with actors, the director, Claudio Fragasso, extras, the screenwriter Rossella Drudi, and fans. (For tons of Nilbog Invasion photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/originalalamo/sets/72157605912466217/) Plan 9 Crunch was also there. Below are our reports. The column, "Cult Film Troll 2 returns triumphant to Morgan County," was originally published in the July 1 Standard-Examiner. http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/topofutahvoices/136919/ The rest is original to Plan 9 Crunch, including some observations from Mickie Pace. In Troll 2, she played Betty the Goblin.
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Cult film 'Troll 2' returns triumphant to 'Nilbog,' Morgan County
By Doug Gibson
Tuesday, July 1, 2008, Standard-Examiner
"Don't do it!!!!" "Aaahhh! ... Think about the cholesterol! Think about ... THE TOXINS!"
-- A vegetarian goblin queen, irate that a little boy is eating a bologna sandwich, in director Claudio Fragasso's 1990 film "Troll 2," filmed in Morgan County.
NILBOG -- Driving in Morgan County through Porterville in the Top of Utah you see beautiful country. One notable site is the ruins of an old church. Not much remains other than parts of walls and the front. The grounds are forbidden to the curious. But if it looks familiar, you've probably seen "Troll 2." I've seen "Troll 2" five times now -- with three viewings in the past week. Enough ink has been spilled on its plot so I'll forego that task quickly: A vacationing family encounters a town, Nilbog, full of shape-shifting, vegetarian goblins adept at turning unlucky humans into green, leafy food. The Goblin Queen of Nilbog lives in that church, but if viewers look closely they see a plaque in the front that says "Porterville Ward ..."
No one likes to see an old, historic church reduced to near rubble, but I'm kinda glad it's a ruin: You see for me, it'll always be the lair of Creedence Leonore Gielgud, the stone-worshiping queen of Nilbog. As she says in the film, "This is myyy houuuuse!"
Actually, a lot of people worship Nilbog. Last weekend, on Morgan's Commercial Street, "Troll 2" fans gathered for a Nilbog celebration with the director Fragasso, screenwriter Rossella Drudi, much of the cast and many Morgan and Top of Utah locals who participated as Nilbog extras and goblins. Hundreds of fans were there, mostly in awe of the actors they've seen dozens of times on screen. A walk down Commercial Street is a kick for a "Troll 2" fan, since much of the movie was filmed there.
What occurred in Morgan is not a rarity. There are "Troll 2" screenings and fan conventions all over the world. It is the new "it" of cult films. Think "Plan 9 From Outer Space" in the '80s and '90s. "Troll 2" fits the definition of a cult film: It's inimitable. Is it a bad film? Yes. But it's unique and watchable. Its blend of inexperienced acting, laughable costumes, freaky dances, synthetic music, very strange dialogue and poor special effects don't hamper the film. It's clearly the only film in the world where vegetarian goblins gather to hear a fundamentalist goblin preacher rant hysterically about the "smelly bladders" meat causes. (OK, I may have once heard the same at a PETA motivational seminar.)
What other film exists that casts vegetarianism as evil? The reason is simple, screenwriter Drudi told the fans. "I was against vegetarianism." So she made the leaf-eating goblins appear like vampires, she explained.
The title "Troll 2" is a farce. The film was supposed to be called "Goblin," an apt choice since there are no trolls. But the filmmakers tried to tag onto an earlier film, "Troll," that was a moneymaker. That is also a weird film, in which a pre-"Seinfeld" Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a half-naked forest nymph. It didn't work. "Troll 2" went straight to video and pay cable, and languished in obscurity before word of mouth revived it. The fans loved Director Fragasso. A personable, natural showman, he promised to film part or all of a planned "Troll 3" in Morgan. When a representative of the Utah Arts Council mentioned a sizeable rebate if lots of money is spent filming in Utah, Fragasso elaborately hugged the man to cheers and chuckles. The "Troll 2" actors have varying careers. Some only made "Troll 2." Others are veterans of occasional TV and film productions.
The Q&A session with all the creators of "Troll 2" was pure Americana. It occurred in a pink, cavernous ballroom, usually a dance and cheer studio. The fans, many wearing green T-shirts with "NILBOG" printed on the back, circulated through the crowd, chatting with cast members, including George Hardy, the Alabama dentist who played dad Michael Waits in the film. His famous line of dialogue was: "Do you see this writing ... ? Do you know what it means ... ? Hospitality. And you can't (urinate) on hospitality! I WON'T ALLOW IT!"
Top of Utahn Michael Stephenson, who starred as youngster Joshua Waits, is making a documentary film about "Troll 2" called "Best Worst Movie." You can see a trailer at http://www.bestworstmovie.com/.
The ballroom was decorated -- Nilbog style -- with green streamers and balloons. Large posters of "Nilbog Invasion" were hawked on tables. The event was videotaped. Fans captured images with cell phones and digital cameras. Robert Ormsby, who played helpful ghost "Grandpa Seth," greeted his director with a big hug. Ormsby, who only made one film, is 80 percent Burl Ives and 20 percent Wilford Brimley. Connie Young, who played high-strung teen Holly Waits, was warmly greeted. Young is best known -- at least in Utah -- as the female lead in the Mormon-genre comedy "The Singles Ward." In "Troll 2," a teenage Young dances bizarrely in front of a mirror. In a fun moment, Fragasso convinced a hesitant Young to recreate her dance. It received a big ovation.
My favorite goblin, actress Deborah Reed, was there. She portrayed Creedence Leonore Gielgud. She is Nilbog. You have to watch Reed to digest her performance in "Troll 2"; think Isadora Duncan on acid. Eyes rolling in sockets, bohemian dress, enunciated screeches. She's a chameleon. One minute she appears to be a deranged aunt, in another a sexy vamp. But I'll say this for Ms. Reed -- she gets better with each viewing. And she nails what makes "Troll 2" so unique. You will never, ever again see a corncob used in such an intimate manner in a PG-13-rated movie.
Wanna learn more? See the movie. Here's a trailer:
Gibson is the Standard-Examiner's assistant editorial page editor. He can be reached at dgibson@standard.net.
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Steve Stones reviews Troll 2
Ever see a movie so bad that it actually improves with each viewing? If you haven’t, I would highly recommend that you visit your local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video and rent Troll II. If your viewing experience doesn’t get better with each viewing, you may need to increase your dosage of Prozac, or just simply lighten up a little and relax.
After all, Troll II is just a little movie filmed in rural Morgan, Utah where the cows outnumber the local citizens 10 to one. In the case of Troll II, the Goblins outnumbered the local citizens for several weeks of filming during the summer of 1989.
At the time of filming, a street sign was put up, changing the city to: NILBOG. What I wouldn’t give or pay to have this sign in my movie memorabilia collection! I would even trade a double-decker pastrami sandwich with all the works, hold the mayo and mustard please.
The Goblins in the film might not take too kindly to this trade, since they are vegetarians who sweat green and eat anything green. Young Michael Stephenson even saves the day in the film with a cold cut bologna sandwich, which repels the Goblins from eating him. My favorite scene in the film is when Michael Stephenson approaches a mirror to talk to the spirit of his Grandpa Seth, and ask for his protection and guidance against the Goblins that have him and his family trapped in a house.
A Goblin immediately jumps out of the mirror attacking Stephenson. Grandpa Seth appears with an ax, cutting off the left hand of the Goblin. The Goblin then jumps backwards through the broken mirror, and the scene cuts to Creedence Leonore Gielgud, the Goblin Queen, screaming in pain in her Goblin lair of a run down old church. She tries to heal her severed arm by shoving it into the crevice of a glowing magic rock.
The expression on the Goblin Queen’s face, played by Deborah Reed, is priceless, and worth the $3.50 it would cost you to rent the film. A later scene has Reed trying to seduce a teenage boy in a motor home with a cob of corn. She is dressed in a sexy black gown with black nylons and high heels, similar to Elvira, Mistress of The Dark. I don’t know about you, but I have a soft spot for those sexy raven-haired women dressed in black. Come to me Creedence Leonore Gielgud, sexy Goblin Queen!!
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Notes on Nilbog Invasion and Troll 2
by Doug Gibson
On Saturday, I had a chance to chat with the very nice and personable Mickie Pace, who played the goblin Betty in Troll 2. Mickie was at Nilbog Invasion with her family and had chatted affably with fans in the hall. To play a goblin in Troll 2 one had to not exceed 4 feet in height. One townsperson extra in Troll 2, Dallin Carter, candidly admitted that his pay had been "hamburgers and beer."
Pace admitted that was about it in recompense for the extras. But she added that she and the other extras were treated well by the Italian film crew while Troll 2 was filming. She said that it could be hot and uncomfortable in the latex masks and potato sacks that were the goblins' garbs, but that everyone did OK.
As in most films for extras, there were long waits during filming. Pace had another assignment while Troll 2 was filming. She picked up some of the extras in her vehicle and took them to the shoot. She was paid for her gas and mileage, she recalled. During our conversation, her sons, proud of their mom's contribution to the much-loved cult film, pointed out sites on Commercial Street that were settings in the film.
At the panel, an elderly woman (whose name I missed) surprised fans by admitting she had never seen the film she had a small part in. Let's hope she saw it that night on the big screen!) Patrick and Paul Gibbs both played goblins in the film. The twins candidly admitted that they fit the needed criteria at the time -- both being under 4 feet tall. Both Gibbs make micro-budget films today.
Darren Ewing, who lives in nearby North Ogden, Utah, was there. He was witty and informative. He plays drums in a band, Skinny Bob and the Blues Dawgs, that reportedly played at Nilbog Invasion. He has several acting credits, including recent stints in the films, "Unaccompanied Minors" and Halloween Town." I also recently have seen Ewing in a commercial urging sensible water use while watering lawns. I spoke briefy to Ewing on Saturday. He gave me directions to see the ruins of the old LDS church that was used as the exterior for the goblin queen's house. Even as a ruin, the old LDS church is still an imposing site in the countryside.
Dentist George Hardy, who plays dad Michael Waits, told the crowd that at least once a month a dental patient will recognize him from Troll 2. Troll 2's star Michael Stephenson, has appeared in several productions, including the TV series Touched by an Angel. Both Connie Young (Holly Waits) and Deborah Reed (Creedence Leonore Gielguid) looked great at the event. Young, besides work in several films, works in infomercials and as a corporate spokesperson, and has worked with Robert Redford at Sundance, according to imdb.com. Lance C. Williams, who played the Goblin house swapper Mr. Presents, has acted in the LDS-themed films Rockwell, Charly and Return with Honor.
At the panel, Young admitted that she still has her original script, with her acting notes. With the state of fandom today, she could likely auction copies at ebay for a nice sum. Several actors recalled the first time they saw the film. A couple of "the boys" were on missions at the time. Young says she saw it on HBO. Her reaction: "I thought I was a better actress than that!" Reed said, "I wept with laughter. I screamed with laughter." Christina Reynolds, who played one of the Presents' goblin kids, first saw Troll 2 just last year. "Naturally, ... I was horrified," she said with tongue in cheek. The actors recalled the film was originally called "Goblin" during shooting.
When Hardy recalled auditioning in Park City in a room full of cigarette smoke, Young nodded, apparently recalling that day. Both said they beat out a lot of other hopefuls to get their roles. Young revealed the secret of her Holly Waits dance: It was a routine from the drill team she was on at high school. It looks odd, she added, because she only had a few feet to dance on the set. Young also added that director Fragasso liked her screaming skills. Stephenson recalled seeing the film with his family and just being appalled at how "bad" it was. Nevertheless, his acting resume lists another film directed by Fragasso, Beyond Darkness. That 1990 film was shown at Nilbog Invasion.
It was fun seeing elderly Robert Ormsby at Nilbog Invasion. "Grandpa Seth" loved the film. It accomplished its task, he said. It "entertained." Director Fragasso called Troll 2 "a family movie without blood." His resume lists a slate of Italian horror films, including "Zombi 3," "Rats," "Evil Dead 5" and "Terminator 2" -- these films have multiple titles to each). Fragasso pledged at Nilbog Invasion to make a Troll 3, at least partially filmed in Morgan. Let's hope he's successful.
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Here's a humble plot idea: Grown Holly Waits, now a hardened cynical private eye, hears rumors of strange goings-on near a ghost town called Nilbog. She recruits her brother Joshua and they head to that cursed town armed with bologna sandwiches to finally get rid of the killer vegetarians. But in the ruins of her old home, they meet --- again --- Creedence Leonore Gielguld!!
