Trollhunter

Director: André Øvredal
Starring: Otto Jespersen; Glenn Erland Tosterud; Johanna Mørck; Tomas Alf Larsen.

EVERY once in a while a genre defining film comes along – and Trollhunter is exactly that.
It is very difficult these days to come up with something new or refreshing but writer/director André Øvredal has done just that.
Recently there has been a truckload of zombie films, Jason Bourne imitators and other spy films.
But a film about trolls? That is something new. A fairy tale monster which rarely comes up on the horror radar is a sight to behold.
Trollhunter begins with three media students finding out about shootings of bears in Norway. Hungry for an assignment, they stalk a man they believe to be a bear poacher.
But when they follow him into the woods, they find that he is a hunter of an altogether different kind of beast.
From the start it turns out that the troll hunter or trolljegeren, Hans (Otto Jespersen who plays along with comic precision that would make Leslie Nielsen proud) has some very odd personality traits.
One of his first questions he asks is whether one of our trio is a Christian, because trolls can smell the blood of God-fearing men. Later, the question of whether trolls can smell the blood of Muslims arises, to which Hans’s answer is “I don’t honestly know”.
Then they have to rub themselves, including their nether parts, in troll scent. And because he can’t sleep during the night time, Hans sleeps on a sun bed. Clearly not very health conscious.
Trailing not far behind is the incompetent yet ruthless Troll Security Service who ship in dead bears from Croatia to make people believe that poachers are responsible for the deaths of cattle.
And throughout there is a light-hearted look at the situation. Everyone is asking themselves: “I mean, trolls. Really?!?!”
But despite a limited budget they’re illustrated with exquisite CGI and inspire real fear. Even when they fart.
A problem in horror movies is when to reveal the monster. If it is too early then it becomes ridiculous and the subject of humour.
Thankfully there are many different breeds of beast and beyond that each time is like the arrival of the T Rex in Jurassic Park - you know what’s going to come and it makes you want to change your pants.
The only thing that kills the trolls is intense UV light, so the nocturnal aspect creeps through with everything that made you scared of trolls when you were a kid, afraid that the troll would come out from under your bed.
What might put people off is that it is yet another one of those ”found footage” faux documentaries but in this film it is almost a spoof of that type of film.
But at the same time, the frenetic use of the hand-held camera adds to the fear of the unknown.
With a great Nordic monster, this film will add another layer to the horror genre. Hitherto unvisited, one wonders why it hasn’t done so before.