Troll Hunter Review

'Troll Hunter' (2010).

Director - André Øvredal

 

 

So your a Norwegian college student doing a film course and you've got an assignment, you gather your crew and decide to make a film about bear poachers. So off you pop, following some guy called Hans in his beat up Land Rover. You try to get him to do interviews to which he refuses point blankly. So you and your crew follow him into the woods. As you fumble around in the woods, in the dark, you see something running towards you, frozen in your tracks you wait and from the darkness appears Hans, and he only has one word to shout from his trembling lips......'TROOOOLL!!!'

 

                                                                       

 

  I have to say that I am a fan of 'Cam-films' (Blair Witch, Cloverfield, Rec etc). I know its not everyone's cup of tea, but I can honestly say this is the best I've seen yet. Troll Hunter (or trolljegeren as its officially known) isn't scary like Blair Witch, it's not as silly or loud like Cloverfield, but it does share with the epic Rec realism. First off, Troll Hunter is a documentary, not a horror, it takes a realistic view at an obsurd concept and then slowly shows you logical and realistic reasoning to it. By the end your convinced that trolls could possibly exist (they don't). There are of course flaws, things the Uber film geek would pick up, but these are nowhere near enough to spoil anything about the film. 

 The acting is genuine, and Otto Jespersen (Rikets Rost- TV series) is outstanding as Hans. The cinematography is excellent, and not 'jerky' except where it works with the concept. The CGI is outstanding and the short amount (€2.5m) budgeted for it has been used brilliantly. My only criticism would be that there is a lack of emotion in key points, but that is hard to judge emotions with subtitles, so has probably just been lost in translation.

 I have to say I was blown away with Troll Hunter, it has everything, and even though its a 15 (UK) I could even see it being a family film (parents watch it first, of course). and if you get bored, or its not to your liking, just sit back and enjoy the breath taking beauty that is Norway. If you haven't seen this film, do, because this is now, one of my favourite films. 9/10

 

 

 

 Disclaimer- Please don't sue me for using the pictures, I have no money.