The Troll Hunter
aka Trolljegeren
2010
Written and Directed by André Øvredal
Norway has become the new darling of the cult movie world. It joins former darlings South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, and Turkey, but being the darling is a fleeting honor. Every one of those previous darlings have gone through movie quality slumps, and a few are still mired in mediocrity and cult movie fans are forced to watch the films of yesteryear (or in the case of Turkey, who became a darling decades after the films that made it a cult movie powerhouse were thrown in warehouses and forgotten, dig up previously lost/unknown gems of yesteryear).
Norway has an advantage in that there is little preconceived notion of Norway or Norwegian film in America. Had I asked 100 people on the streets about Norway and Norwegian film, people would probably tell me things related to whaling and vikings. That’s assuming people had even heard of Norway, this is America, land of people unable to find America on a map.
So going in on watching Troll Hunter, all I knew was Norwegian film is really hot right now, and this one is the only one of those hot films I had any remote interest in seeing. Yes, I’m too jaded for you, Norway!
Troll Hunter is a found footage film where trolls are real and their existence has been kept secret by the Norwegian government for reasons not explained much in the film. Our heroes are some college kids investigating bear hunters, who stumble across a mysterious man the hunters are unfamiliar with, and the more the follow him the more questions they have. Eventually, we run into a real live troll, who thanks to night vision and running camera work looks far more terrifying than you would think. These are not those big haired naked troll dolls, these are the trolls of legend.
|
