Trollhunter
TROLLHUNTER (TROLLJEGEREN) (15)
D: André Øvredal
SF Norge (John M. Jacobsen & Sveinung
Golimo)
Norway 2010
103 mins
Fantasy/Drama
W: André Øvredal
DP: Hallvard Bræin
Ed: Per-Erik Eriksen
Otto Jespersen (Hans), Hans Morten Hansen (Finn), Tomas Alf
Larsen (Kalle), Johanna Mørck (Johanna)
The 'found footage' subgenre finds its way to World Cinema for
this Norwegian dark fantasy.
A
group of film students plan to make a documentary about a man they suspect is a bear poacher, but they soon discover that what he really hunts are trolls, giant creatures that live in the remote
woods.
The troll species range from docile to mean and deadly, and
the hunter, Hans, is hoping to find the biggest one of them all in a glacier-filled mountains.
A
plot device involving the Norwegian governments complicit knowledge of the troll-hunting activities briefly takes the story in a different direction before it gets back on track.
Though found footage, mockumentary style films have become
rather stale and formulaic in recent years, director-writer Andre Øvredal puts a fresh new spin on it by tying it into his country's centuries-old folklore. The visual effects are little less
quality than you'd expect from a Hollywood production, but on the whole aren't too bad, though those which appear in the finale are rather underwhelming.
6/10
