SIFF Review #1: TROLLHUNTER
The Hook: A group of film students follow a suspected bear poacher, in the hopes of getting a scoop for an unspecified film project. As everyone is I'm sure 100% surprised to hear, they get more than they bargained for: he doesn't hunt bears, HE HUNTS TROLLS!
Quickie Review: First off, the shaky cam. This is definitely my favorite faux documentary/shaky cam movie to date, but I think that's really because the ground has already been tread by certified blockbusters THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD. As such, they can minimize how much time they spend making you want to puke or watching a scene so dark that you have no clue what you're looking at. After playing with night vision a bit at the beginning, I think they spend most of the rest of the movie just filming with fairly subtle lighting to achieve reasonably dark shots that still allow you to resolve the action. Also, they don't bother trying to hide the action, allowing you plenty of opportunities to check out the TROLLS (although the darkness of the night scenes is certainly forgiving on the CGI).
The movie is definitely trying to be more action-suspensey than it is horrory, and I definitely liked it more than I would have if they'd gone the other direction. This is at least in part because the movie realizes it's premise is fairly ridiculous and is willing to run a bit tongue in cheek. See, for instance, the scene where a character is forced to explain that a series of sheep mutilations are due to a Russian bear that had wandered across Finland and Sweden into Norway--because they couldn't get a Scandinavian bear corpse on short notice--and then ends up having to further explain that Russian bears keep excess food for the winter stashed under bridges. You know, like squirrels do.
My number one complaint is that for all the pretense that our characters are a group of documentary filmographers, they often seem a bit incurious as to what's really going on. They do certainly ask questions of their subject, but there's a lot of things they don't ask and it really feels that it's just because the filmmakers didn't want to have to come up with an explanation.
Number One Unanswered Question: What is it with trolls and Christians, anyway? My theory is that Christians are trolls' natural predator, so they've evolved the ability to smell them. Makes as much sense as anything else.
Rating: four out of five Fuck Yeahs. Watch the trailer online. If it looks interesting, it's pretty much what it says on the tin. If you're on-demographic, it's definitely worth watching.
Quickie Review: First off, the shaky cam. This is definitely my favorite faux documentary/shaky cam movie to date, but I think that's really because the ground has already been tread by certified blockbusters THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD. As such, they can minimize how much time they spend making you want to puke or watching a scene so dark that you have no clue what you're looking at. After playing with night vision a bit at the beginning, I think they spend most of the rest of the movie just filming with fairly subtle lighting to achieve reasonably dark shots that still allow you to resolve the action. Also, they don't bother trying to hide the action, allowing you plenty of opportunities to check out the TROLLS (although the darkness of the night scenes is certainly forgiving on the CGI).
The movie is definitely trying to be more action-suspensey than it is horrory, and I definitely liked it more than I would have if they'd gone the other direction. This is at least in part because the movie realizes it's premise is fairly ridiculous and is willing to run a bit tongue in cheek. See, for instance, the scene where a character is forced to explain that a series of sheep mutilations are due to a Russian bear that had wandered across Finland and Sweden into Norway--because they couldn't get a Scandinavian bear corpse on short notice--and then ends up having to further explain that Russian bears keep excess food for the winter stashed under bridges. You know, like squirrels do.
My number one complaint is that for all the pretense that our characters are a group of documentary filmographers, they often seem a bit incurious as to what's really going on. They do certainly ask questions of their subject, but there's a lot of things they don't ask and it really feels that it's just because the filmmakers didn't want to have to come up with an explanation.
Number One Unanswered Question: What is it with trolls and Christians, anyway? My theory is that Christians are trolls' natural predator, so they've evolved the ability to smell them. Makes as much sense as anything else.
Rating: four out of five Fuck Yeahs. Watch the trailer online. If it looks interesting, it's pretty much what it says on the tin. If you're on-demographic, it's definitely worth watching.