'Worst Movie' star on trail of vampires

LOS ANGELES  - Michael Stephenson was the child star of the 1990 horror pic "Troll 2," a movie so infamously bad, he used the experience to write and direct "Best Worst Movie," about the film becoming a cult phenomenon.

In a twist of fate, that documentary enabled Stephenson, 32, to line up financing for his first narrative feature, a dark comedy titled "Destroy."

In "Destroy," vampires don't exist, but that doesn't stop a well-intentioned would-be vampire hunter from leaving a trail of blood-splattered wooden stakes across Bavaria. But while he thinks he's saving the world, he is mistakenly murdering sweet, innocent old men.

"Destroy" will shoot in eastern Europe and is in the early stages of casting.

Stephenson is directing from a script he co-wrote with Zack Carlson, programmer of Austin's Alamo Drafthouse Cinema; the two became friends when Troll 2 played at Drafthouse.

"I was embarrassed by this movie my whole life," Stephenson says. "But now, a lot of good has come from being in one of the worst movies ever made."