A New Horror - A New Hope?

HALLOWEEN is the time of year where, as everyone knows, you have to get out the horror collection.
But recently there have two new sub-genres that people can curl up in front of the tv with a tub of ice cream – torture porn and trolls.
The first of those is a category which I really don’t see the point because it really just likes to bathe in blood, and has no scary aspect about it.
The Saw franchise is similar in ways to that of the Final Destination saga – elaborate deaths portrayed as something clever but ultimately really predictable and boring. There is a morbid curiosity with all horror films, but while all the others inspire fear, torture porn just makes people go “oooh, that’s clever”. Well, no it isn’t.
At least the Final Destination was able to laugh at itself. You know that the characters won’t die as you first think they will and the humour is in how ridiculous the deaths become. The film makers can string out one death over the course of an entire film and it would be worthwhile, perhaps that’s where they’ll do next for their next film.
But the Saw and Hostel films are just plain boring without any thrills, just a fascination on blood and gore that really isn’t healthy. They just shock for shock’s sake while The Human Centipede is a one-trick pony that should be a ten minute short, at best.
But the second new sub-genre that I think has come about is trolls. Have we ever had a troll movie before? I don’t think we have. Recently I got to see Trollhunter for the first time. (Living in a “provincial city” means that we get most films a few weeks after everyone else.)
It’s a terrific film and one that really deserves to be shouted about and I hope that it will inspire other films of its type.
Yes, it lends itself to the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity films, but at least this one spoofs those documentary films and becomes a great mockumentary.
The comedy and the horror are blended perfectly to create a fantastic film that is at the right length, and really shows up the flaws of those films I’ve mentioned.
At every step of the way you feel for the characters despite knowing little about them, and Otto Jespersen’s performance is spot on.
Like Shaun of the Dead, I think it could really open up a new type of film and one that will see film makers across the planet making their own type. Here’s hoping that there will be more leaders than imitators.

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.