Angie B's 31 Horror Films in 31 Days Concludes With... TROLLHUNTER.
TROLLHUNTER
(2010)
STARRING: Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Morck.
DIRECTED BY: Andrew Ovredal.
RATED: PG-13.
Thomas (Tosterud), Johanna (Morck) and Kalle are three young students making a film about a recent rash of bear poachings near Volda. After interviewing several of the government-sanctioned bear hunters, they begin following a mysterious man they believe to be the poacher. But things start to get out of hand when they discover the truth: the enigmatic Hans (Jespersen) is in fact Norway's sole troll hunter, tasked with keeping the population of these monsters in check while the TSS (or Troll Security Service) covers everything up as simple bear attacks.
I first heard about this strange little gem through Entertainment Weekly, which did a small article on it several months ago. It was lauded as being imaginative and well-made, with decent acting and effects for such a small budget foreign film. The overall reviews for it were very favorable, so last night Luke, Sarah and I decided to check it out. And lemme tell you: the praise is well-deserved. This was very fun, interesting, and exciting -- largely because of the faux documentary style used.
The movie opens with a few title cards explaining that the following footage was sent to a Norwegian television studio in 2008. Specialists spent over a year trying to verify the film's accounts, or disprove it all as a practical joke. They decided it was authentic, and the resulting film was slightly edited and shown in chronological order. Following the end of the film, there's even more title cards like this -- it's, in effect, the Norwegian take on the Blair Witch Project.
Trolls are way worse than witches though, don't you think?
AND IT WORKS. It almost shouldn't, given the outlandish set-up. But there are so many beautiful shots of the wild Norwegian wilderness, with its vast forests, huge waterfalls, and craggy, snow-topped mountains, that we can't help but accept the absurd possibility that yes, perhaps giant creatures like trolls actually could be living out there. Norway is very like New Zealand in that aspect: there's so much nature that's been largely untouched that you half-believe there are fairies and monsters living out amongst those trees.
It also helps that Hans comes across more as a working man or haunted soldier than a superhero, despite Thomas' many assertions that he's Norway's Superman. He has to fill out paperwork after each kill; he has to obtain blood for a veterinarian to test; and he describes the monsters of fairy tales as simple animals that "eat, mate, shit". This fake documentary has a real ring of authenticity in the way everything is so thought out and grounded in science -- even if it IS pseudo science. For instance, a vet explains why trolls turn into stone when exposed to sunlight in understandable, medical terms. Of course, there's still plenty of the mythical here. Trolls can somehow smell a Christian better than any other human -- this is never addressed, but by then we're already so caught up in the story that we don't really question it that much.
And of course everything comes to a head when the group faces off against a troll as big as a mountain -- literally.
There's a lot going on in this film: the inter-weaving stories of the film crew of students and the battle-scarred Hans; the government coverups and conspiracy theories connected to the TSS; the idea of protecting nature while also protecting the humans that invade upon it. Hans is a really sympathetic character, and we grow to like the initially disbelieving teenagers, too, who get incredibly invested in Hans' work.
And as for the trolls themselves? They're at times creepy and at other times quite impressive. The special effects surrounding them are quite good, and the pseudo science that reduces them to simple animals was one of my favorite elements of the entire film. I have to applaud the writers and director for tackling such an underused monster -- and one that's so central in Norwegian mythology -- in such an interesting way.
I feel like this is a must-see if only because how often do you see trolls in monster movies? Having seen this and Dead Snow, I must say that Norway is becoming one of those countries to watch in terms of genre films. (Luke and I were actually half-expecting the cast of this film to run into the unlucky coeds from the second. Nazi zombies versus trolls? That wouldn't be a half-bad face-off, really. Definitely better than some of the shit SyFy comes up with, bless.)
FINAL SCORE: I'm going to give this Norwegian outing an 8 out of 10.
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