Trollhunter (2010)

Movie Info

Man…I hate it when they pack these humans in tin cans!

A group of journalist college students from Volda University College have stumbled onto the story of a lifetime.  While investigating a bear hunt, Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen), and Johanna (Johanna Mørck) meet a man named Hans (Otto Jespersen) who seems to have a mysterious employer.  It turns out that Hans is an employee of the TTS aka the Troll Security Service and that trolls secretly cover the globe.  Hans job is to keep the trolls in check and against orders Hans has allowed the crew to follow him.  Something is wrong with the trolls who seem to be wandering out of their territories and threatening to expose their existence to man.  Hans must determine what is happening with the trolls before it is too late, and Thomas, Johanna, and Kalle are along for the ride!

Written and directed by André Øvredal, Trollhunter (Trolljegeren) is a Norwegian found footage horror comedy.  The film was released in Norway in 2010 and received an international release in the United States in 2011.

I bet troll advocates were up in arms about the portrayal of the trolls in the caves…it is such a stereotype

I saw Trollhunter when it was new and thought it was a fun spirited movie.  Light on real horror, the PG-13 movie is an interesting attempt to blend folklore with a modern twist…which it succeeds at.  Unfortunately, it does suffer a bit from the classic “found footage” syndrome.

The story is very tongue-in-cheek.  The reporters (of course) don’t believe the initial reports of trolls existing, but everyone else takes the idea deadly serious from the hunter Hans, to Hans’s government handler, to the veterinarian…trolls are presented as a real fact of life.  This gives the movie a bit of a goofball premise and allows it to present aspects of folklore combined with made-up folklore (like trolls like to eat tires).  In typical political fashion, the stress level of the people trying to keep trolls under wraps is skyrocketed by inept handling of the situations up to a government level.

Comedian Otto Jespersen plays the crusty and jaded veteran troll hunter.  He gets the nice job of being the Quint type character who is cool to the oddity of his job and carries the goofiness of the script.  The reporters Hans Morten, Johanna Mørck, and Tomas Alf Larsen are largely forgettable and replaceable (literally in the case of Tomas Alf Larsen who is replaced by Urmila Berg-Domaas after a tragic incident with little fanfare).

I’m just standing here trying to have a moment and you keep shooting me, guy!

The real star of the film is the special effects.  The troll designs are pretty neat and the style of shooting gives them a sense of realism that would be lost with a traditionally shot movie.  Unfortunately, the found-footage creates a “run-and-gun” style of filmmaking that never lets you enjoy most of the trolls for long and the fact that the trolls don’t like sunlight almost guarantees they are mostly in the shadows (except the final troll).

Trollhunter is a good spin on The Blair Witch style of film.  It is different, has some great landscapes, and good special effects (when you can see them).  The light nature of the movie keeps it fun though like a lot of the found-footage movies, they need a decent amount of set-up before they can really get going.  Get a handful of troll-stench and get out and hunt down Trollhunter!