Movie Review: Trollhunter
Some college students filming a documentary on strange happenings in a wilderness have disappeared without a trace and their footage has been recovered. Sound familiar? Post-Blair Witch Project (1999) found footage horror is a genre unto itself at this point – Cloverfield (2008) and the Paranormal Activity (2007 & 2010) movies breathed new life into age-old scary movie themes with the jittery intimacy of the home movie experience. A new Danish entry into this trend, Trollhunter (Trolljegeren) offers a gentler approach by cutting back on the terror, favoring a Ray Harryhausen meets Jim Henson creature feature with a small body count.
Animals are being slaughtered in the countryside, locals are sure that it is the work of bear poachers and the Volda College student film crew led by Thomas (Glenn Erland Trosterud) are determined to follow the chief suspect: a grizzled character heading deeper and deeper into the countryside in an SUV covered in a slimy substance and huge gashes torn into the metal (you know, typical bear hunting collateral damage). Sorry to spoil the title if you haven’t figured it yet, but Norway is apparently lousy with giant races of nocturnal trolls and always has been. The hunter (Otto Jespersen) is one of the few experts in Troll Control – fully sanctioned by an Area 51-style government conspiracy. A bit of a maverick in the organization, he agrees to take the kids on his latest mission provided none of them is an avowed Christian (trolls can smell their blood).
What we are all waiting for in a movie of this ilk is the first appearance of the monster and this one has decidedly mixed results. “Trooooooollll!!” shouts the intrepid hunter running out of the forest with his trusty light bazooka (a sun-like ray that turns them to stone) closely followed by a towering three-headed, phallic-nosed creature resembling a Dark Crystal-era Henson creation. Unless you suffer from some deep-seeded troll trauma, you will likely not find anything scary about the easily-disposed, lumbering giant. Since it isn’t scary, Trollhunter’s greatest charms come from its old-fashioned innocence – the tone is more campfire lark than encroaching doom.
After an opening which takes a while to build steam (too many languorous driving scenes make you wonder if Vincent Gallo had a hand in this), the ragtag group engage in a series of episodic troll showdowns. Tracking the lean and mean Ringlefinch in the second of these encounters, the Trollhunter decks himself out in medieval armor and is determined to get close enough for a blood sample. The ensuing fight with the bridge-dwelling creature is the most exciting set-piece in a movie that takes too long between such fun battles.
While waiting for the next breed of troll to attack, we are treated to a lengthy socio-political discourse on the government’s complicity in the troll problem – the bureaucrats make it difficult for a troll-huntin’ man to get the job done – which may be why the hunter has grown weary of his job and it may be “time for a change in troll management.” So, with his “Trolls Gone Wild” crew in tow, a snowbound climax with the biggest monster yet will decide the fate of the gruff veteran and his troll stench-drenched chroniclers.
If you are in the mood for a goofy, well-made creature feature, Trollhunter has much going for it after its patchy early scenes give way to a charming and educational look into a folklore unfamiliar to us Americans (now we should return the favor and give the world a Chupacabra epic).
Writer’s Note: This rating would probably be a full 5 if you are enrolled in a troll anthropology course!
Gregory Fichter
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