Troll Hunter

Shaky cam mockumentary style films are very much a love or hate style. Personally I don’t like the vast majority so on the odd occasion that a movie like Troll Hunter comes along and actually makes the style work it’s a welcome surprise.

Like the vast majority of films made in this style Troll Hunter purports to be found footage of real events, in this case three Norwegian university students who set out to try and get an interview with a suspected bear poacher.

The first act really is all set up as little tidbits are revealed to show that there’s something more going on than the students really suspect until the eventual reveal that (spoilers) Hans is really a troll hunter and the only one in the country directly employed by the government to hunt down trolls who wander outside their designated living area.

Part of the problem with these mockumentary style films is that often the audience is only shown brief glimpses of the monsters and as a result they never seem real. Thankfully Troll Hunter offers enough static shots as the students try to hide from the trolls that we get some great shots of them and for some reason the almost cartoonish appearance actually works in the films favour and syncs up perfectly to the fairy tale descriptions of trolls.
Not only that but the often contradictory descriptions of their appearances are explained by Hans when he explains that there are actually five sub species of trolls, why some have three heads, why some turn to stone in sunlight and why some explode. It’s an extremely nice touch that adds some credibility to such an outlandish idea.

The story itself is well written and is mostly Hans’ story not the film makers and his desire to change the system the government has put in place for dealing with the trolls. He is also the only character we really gain any personal insight of as he interacts with the handful of other people who are aware of the trolls existence.

The humour is mostly spot on and plays on the skepticism and beliefs of both the film makers and the audience and our refusal to believe in things which are seen by most people as just old folk stories. There’s one scene in particular where the film makers meet up with a new member who is a Muslim and launch into a brief theological discussion about whether it is just Christian blood that trolls can smell or all religious blood that end with Hans perfectly seriously saying “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”

One major fault with this style of film is sadly still present – the lack of a proper ending. Because they are always presented as found footage and therefore unscripted there’s no real sense of closure. For some people this will be interesting and for others infuriating.
It's a shame because apart from the very final scene the climax of the film is so well done that it ruins what is otherwise an amazing ending.

Overall this is definitely one of the better films made in this genre and a good monster movie in its own right regardless of style.