TrollHunter (original title Trolljegeren) is a Norwegian delight. Think Cloverfield meets Blair Witch Project meets REC … and you still haven’t quite got it yet. A pretty unique blend of horror and comedy with a very true-to-life portrayal of finding out that scary fairytales do have some truth to them…
The Plot
A group of students investigate a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter.
The Thoughts
I got to preview this film at the Empire Big Screen event last weekend, and what a joy – I still haven’t finished singing it’s praises yet!
TrollHunter pays an impressive tribute to Norwegian troll folklore mixing traditional fairytale fiction with very convincing scientific facts for instance explaining the reason why trolls explode or turn to stone when they come into contact with sunshine because their bodies can’t process vitamin D resulting in the ‘calcifying effect’ – all this attention to detail made it extremely believable.
Visually the film will leave many desperate to book tickets to Norway as soon as they leave the cinema, featuring stunning landscapes and scenery and what with the enhanced computer graphics combined with a mockumentary effect means the audience is sucked right into the scene. The great thing is that the mockumentary effect didn’t induce motion sickness like Cloverfield did which was a great relief and left you to thoroughly enjoy the thrilling ride.
We had the opportunity to listen to the director and main actor of TrollHunter talk about the film after we saw it – in which he revealed to us how much he wanted to stay true to troll mythology and that it did. We were given a troll guide with different trolls with name, size guides and ages – fascinating! FYI – when TrollHunter was released in Norway at the time (October 2010), it even beat Inception at the Box Office!
Realistic (I cannot emphasis enough how realistic it is), suspenseful and refreshing with a healthy dose of Norwegian humour seasoned very well with horror – I highly recommend you all to see this film when it hits UK cinemas this September.
The Film Buzz Official Rating: 
(7.5/10)
Director: André Øvredal
Writer: André Øvredal, Håvard S. Johansen
UK Release Date: 9 September 2011
