Before this year, the last time I recall a Scandanavian country unleashing a giant monster movie upon the world was 1961, when Denmark gave us Reptilicus. A couple of years before that, drive-ins across the globe featured Sweden’s Terror in the Midnight Sun (aka Invasion of the Animal People). That had pretty much been the sum total of the region’s contributions to cinema involving huge creatures destroying shit. Some 50 years later, Norway is finally catching up with The Troll Hunter, an interesting and well-done mockumentary-style horror-fantasy film.
Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud) leads a trio of student filmmakers who learn about an alleged bear poacher in Western Norway and decide he would make the perfect subject for a documentary. They track down the reclusive Hans (Otto Jespersen), who wants nothing to do with them at first. Undeterred, the group follows him and eventually learns the truth. The bear poachings are a cover for Hans’ real job, that of a government-sanctioned troll hunter. Weary of the years on the job and disenchanted with how he’s treated by his superiors, Hans decides to let the filmmakers hang around, in hopes that the world can learn the truth (because apparently, the existence of trolls all these years is the one secret any government in the world has been able to keep). With his new unexpecting assistants, Hans then has to figure out why the trolls are breaking out of their containment area and attacking local civilized regions.
With his tired eyes and grizzled looks, Jespersen carries the film almost singlehandedly. That’s not to say the others aren’t competent, but with Hans as the focus of the camera, he has to be the film’s anchor and Jespersen does this admirably. The story itself is adequate, with no real unexpected twists or turns for the most part. The special effects – while not on the level of, say, Spielberg – are pretty neat and the way the trolls are presented in a myriad of differing species is a welcome addition. The designs of the creatres take a little getting used to, as they look like they stepped out of the pages of an actual mythology book or maybe Where the Wild Things Are (or early 80s Jim Henson film now that I think about it), instead of the sleek style we’re accustomed to seeing with today’s film monsters. The ending of the film left a little to be desired, sticking to the tried and true formula we’ve seen in too many horror mockumentaries (Blair Witch, Quarantine, Cloverfield), but overall, the film moves along at a great clip, which is surprising given how quiet and slow it seems at times.
The trolls are the main attraction though, and the film doesn’t disappoint once they start showing up. I half-expected the film to be along the lines of certain other “Troll” films when I first heard about it, but this is in another league all its own. If you can get past the typical “camera being jerked around while the characters run and scream in panic” parts, Troll Hunter is fun with some really unique creatures running about in it.