Trollhunter

Written and directed by André Øvredal, this satiric thriller about the Norwegian government centers around three college students following bear hunters as they look to interview the allusive Norwegian bear poacher; from the title, you already know the man they encounter is not hunting bears. This film is one of the most surprising films I have ever seen. It is a foreign, handheld shot, documentary-styled film about the Norwegian government hiding the existence of trolls. It does everything right: it sets up its rules clearly, never strays from these rules for a second, provides interesting ideas and twists, reveals frightening monsters without the benefit of a big budget, and executes its medium of handheld camera to its fullest potential.

The shooting of this film needed to be as cost-efficient as possible, being André’s first major-production, so he chose to make it a mockumentary and have one of the actors hold the camera the entire time. Most of the scenes between action pieces, where they are driving from troll sighting to troll sighting, is improvised on the spot to show the beauty of Norway’s landscape and add more depth into the ways of a troll hunter. These scenes sew this story and its characters into the heart of Norway; the waterfalls roaring beside the highway, and the cliffsides and forests hiding behind layers of fog give the atmosphere to this already well-shot film. During the day, the characters talk and learn about what will happen during the thrilling scenes about to happen at night, and this sets up a very organic procession of events that build to the very end. This film knows a sense of scale that parallels Godzilla (2014) and the original Cloverfield, with far better camera work. The trolls tower over the camera and protagonists, and their every footstep makes the screen shake.

Being a mockumentary about the single troll hunter, the other characters only serve to extract his life story. They are entertaining, and the camera man does have an interesting reveal before the end that made the story far more engrossing, but they lack any reliability or significant arcs. The performances are believable and they do not detract from the man being interviewed. He is the only true protagonist, and his story deserves all of the cameras they could afford.

André Øvredal made this film for Norway. In his mind, he was creating the Hollywood perspective of his people’s culture, which is why it made its way on Netflix. The dialogue is Norwegian, but the subtitles are very easy to read and do not take away from the fear and wonder of the trolls. Do not let the subtitles stop you from seeing this film; it is on Netflix, and it is funny, clever, intense, and evolves organically into a story larger than the beasts it shows.

Story Rating: 8/10

Character Rating: 6/10