Trollhunter
Trolleo and Juliet
The scariest villains and monsters come
from our oldest stories. They have been passed down over the decades
and centuries through word of mouth and stories. Even from a young
age, we know about vampires, werewolves, and the boogeyman. These
characters are so ingrained in our cultural that they're almost on
the same level as George Washington and Babe Ruth. One monster that
has been around for hundreds of years, but never received a lot of
attention from the horror world is the troll. I don't know why they
don't get a lot of attention. They're big, they're mean, they're
scary, and they eat cute animals. And no, Troll and Troll 2 don't
really count. It took a film Norway, land of the trolls, to bring
them into the spotlight.
Trollhunter is a 2010 Norwegian monster
movie shot in a found footage documentary style. The movie stars
Glenn Erland Tosterud as Thomas and Otto Jespersen as Hans. Thomas is
college student working on a documentary about a bear poacher with
cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) and soundwoman Johanna (Morck).
Bear poaching is a serious crime in Norway and Thomas is determined
to capture the culprit on film. They interview local hunters as well
as Finn Haugen (Hans Morten Hansen), the head of the Norwegian
Wildlife Board. Despite certain bear tracks looking odd, Finn
dismissed the idea that it could be anything but a bear. Their
investigation leads them to a secretive man named Hans who is known
to disappear into the woods every night. The film crew follow him
into the woods only to be surprised by Hans running up to them and
yelling “Troll!” Thomas is attacked by an unseen animal,
sustaining a wound on his shoulder. When they make it back to their
car, they find it completely destroyed. Hans takes the crew back,
admitting that he is actually a troll hunter. Tired of all the
bureaucracy and hunting, Hans allows them to film his work, no longer
concerned with keeping trolls a secret. The next night, Hans takes
them to find a troll that has left it's usual area. He asks the crew
if any of them are Christian or believe in Jesus and they all claim
not to. The troll, smelling Christian blood, finds them and gives
chase. Hans hits it with UV light, turning it into stone, and then
smashes the stone. Finn comes to the sight and has a crew bring in a
bear carcass to cover up what really happened. It is revealed that
many trolls have been leaving their usual areas and attacks on humans
are increasing. Will Hans and the film crew be able to find out why
and stop it before the world learns that trolls really do exist?
Oh, kopulere!
I have to say that I am very tired of
found footage horror movies. Trollhunter is made on a relatively
small budget, so having the movie done in the found footage style
makes sense. If you loved all the yelling and running through the
woods of The Blair Witch Project, you'll really enjoy Trollhunter.
There is a lot of the shaky camerawork during the action scenes which
tended to make me nauseous. It's good for cheap thrills and
excitement, but gets tiresome. Combine that with the cliché
nightvision and the movie tends to feel amateurish in look. What
saves the film from looking completely unprofessional is the quality
special effects used for the trolls. The trolls have a lot of variety
in terms of look, height, weight, and even names. It's fun hearing
Hans go through the different types of trolls, explaining what they
eat and how they live. The movie includes a fair amount of Norwegian
folklore, which is interesting, though I probably missed a lot of
nuances. The scenic beauty of Norway is on full display, ranging from
the fjords to the wilderness to the frozen tundra.
I hesitate to call Trollhunter a
“mockumentary” only because I don't see a clear mocking in the
movie's story. The movie is fairly light-hearted for a horror film
which I feel hurt the movie overall. When Thomas was injured from a
troll, I was expecting him to eventually turn into a troll. Sadly
this doesn't happen and takes a lot of suspense away from the movie.
It's essentially a dead-end plot point. The action is good when the
camera isn't shaking all around and there are some genuinely funny
scenes sprinkled throughout. Pacing is a bit of an issue in the film
as the character go from troll to troll almost like checkpoints in a
video game leading up to the big boss battle at the end. When they're
not dealing with trolls, I felt boredom creeping in. There aren't
many scares in the film, though there are some intense moments. The
acting is good with Otto Jespersen putting in the best performance.
He exudes a quite, veteran confidence that makes the movie far more
believable than one would expect.
"Go to hell, paparazzi! You make me sick, you parasite!"
There is nothing particularly brilliant
or innovative about Trollhunter. It's fairly flat in terms of
storytelling and devoid of much emotion. The main selling point is
that it's from Norway and features a monster not commonly used in
horror. The natural beauty of Norway is quite enjoyable to look at
while the film crew drives around the winding mountain roads. Thankfully, the movie is in Norwegian with subtitles rather than a terrible dubbing, like in fellow Norwegian horror movie Dead Snow. The
trolls actually look pretty good and have a lot of variety in their
looks. I didn't care for the shaky found footage-style camera work
and the multiple scenes of walking through the woods. If I never seen
another night vision shot in a horror movie, it will be too soon. The
acting is good enough to push the movie into a more believable light
and the direction is fine. While it was nice to see a movie from a
country not particularly known for it's horror and starring a monster
not known for showing up in scary movies, I just wasn't particularly
impressed with Trollhunter.
6/10
