Dir. Andre Ovredal, Norway , 2011, 103mins, in Norwegian with subtitles
Cast: Otto Jespersen, Robert Stoltenberg, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Morck
Review by Matthew Rodgers
One of the more intriguing “found footage” movies of the last few years, Trollhunter is a cracking premise that is never fully realised. As the ramshackle jeep careers around the Norwegian mountain terrain, you get the feeling that the enthusiastic filmmakers came up with a truly great concept. But they didn’t really seem to know how to sustain it over the course of a feature length film, and as such it only remains a film of moments, but some brilliant ones at that.
Essentially an extended episode of Scooby Doo minus the CGI dog, we are asked to climb aboard with a group of students making a documentary about a rumoured spate of bear killings. They begin to follow a mysterious hunter, intent on uncovering him as a grizzly killer, but discover that what this straight talking eccentric is pursuing is something altogether more mythical: the menagerie of trolls that dwell in the hills of Norway. Billy Goats Gruff this ain’t!
Belying its tiny budget, this is visually spectacular stuff, similar to Gareth Edwards’ Monsters last year. Clever masking techniques are used to shroud the limitations of the special effects: night vision goggles and many a thick forest. But we also get a snow capped finale that bests anything Michael Bay achieved with his billions of dollars and metallic Transformers mayhem. It is epic in scale and execution, a master class in using a small budget to big and indeed monster effect and makes impressive use of the now tired shaky-cam technique. Unfortunately that’s where comparisons to Edwards’ brilliant effort end.
Following the initial set-up and time spent with the students (who are indistinguishable from each other), Trollhunter really kicks into gear with the first excursion. The excitement is palpable, though failing to be scary or terrifying, which is a tone that sadly the entire film never manages to achieve. Then we see the first troll and it’s downhill from there. Each encounter offers up a different species of troll, which is interesting in a David Attenborough kind of way, but the problem is that at no time is there any feeling of threat or real engagement with these creatures, so each supposed moment of fantasy enchantment falls flat.
There is a lack of a strong narrative thread, as the group simply stumble from sighting to sighting following a largely annoying and possibly insane man. Their actions are not plausible based on the events that occur. We need a reason to believe that they would continue on the path they choose, and as such it remains episodic and rather tedious.
The government intervention adds a welcome X-Files style twist to proceedings, and there is an environmental message, which is thankfully never forced home, but both these contribute very little meat to the bare bones.
A US remake has already been green-lit, which will no doubt lack the subtle Norwegian charm of Ovredal’s film, but will hopefully up the ante when it comes to momentum, and fulfil the potential hinted at in this middling little oddity.
