a review of 矮人怪2

𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖕𝖙𝖔𝖇𝖊𝖗 𝖝 𝖓𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖘𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓: I'm glad to have finally crossed this one off my list after all of this time, it absolutely earns its cult following in all of the ways, but mainly by virtue of being this wild hybrid of weird Euro-horror and amateurish US regional horror, with stray bits of '80s kiddie fantasy/adventure films thrown in for some reason. I have to hand it to Claudio Fragasso, there's a couple of pretty inspired bits of direction, like the scene when the kid protagonist interrupts the grandfather's story (which feels like a Sweded version of the frame story from The Princess Bride) and literally appears in the middle of a fairy tale scene, as well as some of the weirder sight gags (which I will not spoil). There's definitely CHOICES being made in this movie, and it seems pretty clear that the filmmakers had certain ambitions that could not be delivered within the budget, while conversely the actors make every line reading sound like the first time they'd ever said any of the words aloud. It has just the right ratio of wacko directorial vision to thespian incompetence. Also apparently Laura Gemser (lead actress from the X-rated "Black Emanuelle" film series) did the costumes? I'm gonna need to watch the "Best Worst Movie" documentary to find out more about all of this.