I almost have to like Troll Hunter for one reason alone.
It has no shrieking women. There are some hysterics from a male cast member, but a hungry troll puts a quick end to it. The women are delightfully scream-free. (My reaction to the archetypal screaming starlet is to urge the monster to, “Kill her, kill her now!”)
The downside is that it’s filmed mockumentary-style, with handheld cameras and all the nausea-inducing shaking that goes with film vérité. Besides making sections unbearable for those prone to motion sickness, it means that chunks of the film are just herky-jerky shots of the ground as the characters flee the trolls. The trick is suspenseful once, but gets old fast.
Han (Otto Jespersen) has a problem. He hates his job. (Who doesn’t?) The hours suck, he gets no overtime, there’s tedious paperwork and his coworkers…. Well, he has no coworkers. Instead, he has trolls; it’s his job to manage the trolls of Norway. (Given my experience with coworkers, I might prefer the trolls…)
Hans is a troll hunter for the super secret Norwegian Troll Security Service (TSS). Even today, Norway has a healthy troll population. At least it was healthy. Han’s job consists of driving across the scenic but icy landscape of Norway, making sure that the various species of trolls are staying on their reserves and behaving themselves. When one goes off reservation, rampaging across the countryside, eating livestock and staking claims on a bridges, it’s Hans’s job to kill it.
Thomas (Glen Erland Trosterud), Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) and Johanna (Johann Morch) are college students and budding filmmakers working on an expose about poachers. Mistaking Hans for a poacher, they follow him, hoping to catch him in the act. Instead, they are almost caught by the troll Hans is hunting.
Hans, seeing an opportunity to finally free himself from the job from hell, decides to let the kids come along and film him at work. It’s like Take Your Son/Daughter to Work Day, only at night, and with huge, bipedal, predators.
The film’s charm lies largely with its laconic protagonist. Hans is no buff Hollywood hero, toting expensive weaponry, dropping clever one liners as he dispatches trolls with ease. Instead, he’s a worn-down, middle-aged man relying on homemade gadgets (UV gun cobbled together from scrap metal) and a back woodsy knowledge of his prey. Faced with a charging troll, his usual reaction is to yell “TROLL!” and run like his ass is on fire. The three youths are along to provide the necessary “gee whizz, what’s thats?” and in one case, a snack for a hungry troll.
Yes, trolls do turn to stone in sunlight, this effect a problem with their blood, explains a veterinarian. (Troll vet, who knew?) They do have a particular ferocious attraction to the blood of a Christian. (Wanted: One troll hunter, atheists pref.) Later in the movie, the question arises: Is it just Christians, or other religions–Muslim blood–as well? Alas that question never gets answered.
The largest trolls are kept on a reservation in the remotest part of Norway, hemmed in by huge electrical powers lines. The final showdown is between one of these mighty beasties, the creature driven mad by a surprisingly mundane source.
Considering the film’s probably modest budget, the effects–the trolls–are well done. Maybe because trolls–lumpy, doughy critters–don’t require the hyper-realism of other mythical beasties like dragons. Some clay, plus a bit of hair and a decent CG program and–Presto!–you’ve got a troll. The film maintains a tone that strikes the necessary balance between earnestness and camp.
The plot holes, if you stop to think about the plot much, run as deep as troll caves and the movie leaves a lot of questions unanswered. But Troll Hunter is a fun way to waste 103 minutes.
