"Come Closer..."	Year of Release: 1986 Directed by: John Carl Buechler Running Time: Approx. 86 minutes Rating: PG-13 Listing on the A.K.A. Page: Nope! A Second Opinion: The B-Hive Buy it on VHS at: Amazon.com or Movies Unlimited.com. My Rating:

Harry Potter Jr.- Noah Hathaway! Wendy's older brother. After getting tossed around by his sister (actually Torok posing as Harry's sister), Harry seeks help from Eunice St. Clair. He soon learns that his sister is actually a troll and must go forth with a magical spear to save the day. Naturally, despite having said weapon, he's useless!

Wendy Potter- Harry's little sister. For the majority of the film, she's held captive in one of Torok's fairy worlds, to be the only specimen left of humankind. The Wendy we see in the meantime is actually Torok in disguise.

Harry Potter Sr.- Michael Moriarty! Father of the Potter kids. Doesn't do much more than dance to his old LP vinyl records. I guess you could even say he's the comic relief on occasion.

Anne Potter- Mother of the Potter kids and the family disciplinarian.

Peter Dickinson- Sonny Bono! The apartment building's resident swinger. He's turned into a giant pea pod by Torok (though it looks more like a giant dog turd), which breaks open and creates a fairy universe [I'll explain more about that later on].

Malcolm Mallory- Phil Fondacaro! An English professor (he teaches English; he's not from England. Got it? Good!) who's dying of leukemia. He always wanted to be an elf, so Torok is more than pleased to turn Malcolm into one. I was blown away by this because Torok succeeded in making Malcolm smaller!

Eunice St. Clair- June Lockhart/Anne Lockhart! She's the residing witch/sorceress of the apartment building. She was once betrothed to Torok and learned magic so the two would have something in common. But alas, he became a troll and now Eunice must stop him from completing his diabolical plans from turning our world into a world of fairies! (Cue lightning, then cue thunderclap and foreboding music!)

Barry Tubar- Gary Sandy! A war vet and insurance salesman (what a combonation!). He meets up with Torok and suffers the same fate as all the other apartment building inhabitants.

Jeanette Cooper and William Daniels- Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall! Jeanette is turned into an ivy covered nymph(o?) by Torok. Brad's fate occurs offscreen but I'm pretty sure he was turned into a pod like the rest.

Torok- Phil Fondacaro! Wow he's such a gifted actor that he plays a dual role! This evil troll plans on turning the world and all us humans into a kingdom of fairies. The only people standing in his way are Harry Potter Jr. and Eunice St. Clair. Can they alone stop the evil Torok?!

This has to be one of the most underrated films I've reviewed to date. Yes it is produced by Charles Band so the production value is low, but look at what else you got going for this movie. First off, the cast is amazing (as in, it's amazing what stars they pulled together for this film). We've got Michael Moriarty, Noah Hathaway (Neverending Story), Phil Fondacaro, Julia Loius-Dreyfus (Seinfeld), Sonny Bono, Anne Lockhart, June Lockhart, and Gary Sandy (Willow). Plus you have the director, John Carl Buechler doing the special effects. Though most of his creations are very unrealistic, the little rubber troll puppets prove to be effective. But the crowning achievement of this movie is the Troll itself (portrayed by Phil Fondacaro). The troll suit looks great (definitely better than most CGI creature creations)!
This whole movie begins once the Potters show up at their new home. As the others unpack everything, Wendy Potter wanders into the building's basement only to be captured by Torok. So five minutes into the movie and we've already seen the title creature? That's taking a big risk in my opinion. And what exactly is this troll doing in this apartment building? Why doesn't it live in an old abandoned warehouse, or under a bridge? Maybe the landlord of the building gave him a good deal? Anyway, Torok takes on Wendy's form and starts making Harry Potter Jr.'s life miserable. She constantly tosses him around like a ragdoll! So Harry Jr. keeps his distance, allowing Torok to go from apartment to apartment unabated.
First he turns Peter the swinger into a giant plant pod (I still say it's a giant dog turd). Once the pod ripens, it bursts open, releasing vines and small troll puppets. During Torok's takeover of the apartment building, Harry Jr. befriends Eunice St. Clair, a spunky old witch that lives up on the third floor. He tells Eunice all about Wendy's strange behaviour, concluding that his sister is "a pod person from the planet Mars." (He came to this groundbreaking idea after watching an old sci-fi movie on T.V.) Eunice corrects the error and lets Harry know that his sister is really Torok the troll in disguise. At this point, Torok has changed every apartment into a seperate fairy universe with the exception of the Potter's domicile. Eunice finally decides it's time to do something so she gives Harry Jr. a magic spear and sends him off to Fairyworld to find his sister and plunge said spear into the heart of the fairy universe.
While he goes off to do his task, Eunice transforms into her younger self and goes after Torok himself, only to fail and be turned into a talking tree. So it's all up to young Harry Potter now! He finds the heart of Torok's universe fairly easily, since it's a HUGE MONSTER! Harry succeeds in freeing his sister but he ends up losing the spear. As the giant beast closes in, Torok continuosly yells "No not the girl, not the girl!" Ingoring it's master, the monster prepares to do it's worst until Torok tosses the magic spear into said monster, thus ruining his plans to conquer our world. At the end, the Potters move out of the building, Eunice is back to her old ... young self, and everything's fine. Wait, what's this?! Apparently there's a fairy world in the basement and a curious police officer just got sucked in! Could this be the start for Troll II? Yes and no ....
Now, I neglected to mention this earlier (as usual), but I did a little digging and I'm not sure J.K. Rawlings had the rights to Harry Potter's name when she wrote her series of books. As far as I could find, the copyright for the first Harry Potter tale ("The Sorcerer's Stone" I presume?) was about 1992-1993. So wether Charles Band and company don't care or already have tried to sue is beyond me (but if the latter were true, we'd see something about it on the news). If anyone out there has any information on this please e-mail me at [email protected]. And if Warner Bros. Inc. e-mails me looking for trouble (they are terribly overprotective of their Harry Potter copyright), I shall banish thee to a mystical world from whence you shall not return!

Barry: "Weird kid. Probably reads a lot."

Wendy: "I know what death looks like."
Gary: "Well that's good that's good. What's it look like eh?"
Wendy/Torok: "It looks something like this!"

Harry Jr.: "She's not my sister."
Eunice: "What do you mean?"
Harry Jr.: "I figured it out. She looks like my sister, she acts like my sister, she even sounds like my sister but..."
Eunice: "But?"
Harry Jr.: "She's an alien. She's like a pod person from the planet Mars."

Harry Sr.: "Honey?! Did you do a lot of drugs before we met?"