10s Movie Review - Troll Hunter

Director: André Øvredal
Genre: Adventure/ Fantasy/ Horror/ Thriller/ Drama
Runtime: 103 minutes
Year: 2010
Starring: Otto Jespersen, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Nærum, Glen Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørk, Tomas Alf Larssen, Urmilla Berg-Domaas, Hans Morten Hansen

Description: A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learn that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter (Otto Jespersen), learning that he is actually a troll hunter.
Review: For a year, a team of researchers studied this material to see if it was real or not. The conclusion was that it was real. This film is a so-called mockumentary, to make it look like a documentary consisting of found-footage, but it’s 100 % fiction.
In the first twenty minutes, “Troll Hunter” seems to explore the now familiar path of the fake documentary. A group of students goes out with a camera and accidentally ends up in a dangerous area. Shocking, dark images in the woods, panicking, and then suddenly a gigantic three-headed troll appears from behind the trees. It’s not very scary, but witty. Especially when we learn more about troll hunting and the wat the Norwegian government tries to keep the creatures secret from society.
The students go out with an employee of the TSC (the Trill Security Service) who tells them the ins and outs of his profession. As bait, he uses the blood of a Christian (trolls hate Christians) or a bear clip with a brick of charcoal (irresistible to trolls). “Troll Hunter” is full of those hilarious details that are casually used to make the world of troll management alive.
The film is mainly meant to mock or makes us laugh, but becomes more intense towards the end and has some memorable moments. The scene in the cave was actually really intense and scary, as is the car chase scene with a giant trill in the rear-view-mirror.
Apart from those two moments, “Troll Hunter” is seldom scary, but it’s more about the humorous approach. Films like “The Blair Witch Project” of “Paranormal Activity”made their story more eerie by making the viewer doubt whether he was looking at real footage. “Troll Hunter” uses that idea to make it more absurd. It results in an original and witty mockumentary.

Rating: 3,5/ 5