NEW Trollhunter (DVD)

This film demonstrates how mockumentaries should be made. The film never takes itself too serious and is just plain fun. The trolls look like doofy monsters from the Grimms Fairy-Tales and are not like the monsters you see in animated kid flicks. As Troll Hunter explains, fairy-tales and real life are not the same. Trolls are just dumb animals and as animals they act on their instinctive behavior. And why are the trolls in the movie being hunted down? Well, you will see if you watch the movie.

Now even though this movie is just for fun, do not think it is all people trying to kill trolls. There are some clever elements thrown in for people that pay attention. I found the way things were explained how trolls are affected differently by sunlight interesting (hey, for a fake movie the logic made sense). I also like the way some classic fairy-tale elements (think of some goats and a bridge) and Norwegian folklore were brought in to explain troll behavior. I also like the fact there are different kinds of trolls instead of the same CGI creature reappearing over and over again. Each troll has a distinctive personality and level of danger. I also liked the way natural occurrences people take for granted throughout the film are explained cleverly as troll behavior.

The action scenes are well worth the wait and the acting is good for a low budget independent film about hunting down trolls. Is the film an Academy Award winner? By no means! Is it a fun movie to sit back to and enjoy? Absolutely! I would recommend at least finding a way to rent this movie. It's well worth 1 hr and 44 minutes of your time.

The Troll Hunter or Trolljegeren is a Norwegian monster movie portrayed as if it is real recovered footage of a man who hunts trolls and the student journalists who follow him. It is written and directed by André Øvredal, a name to keep an eye on for sure. Here is a film that works with a modest budget and takes an absolutely absurd concept and somehow forces it through as realistic a lens as possible. Sure, it's easy now to just brush off these mokumentary movies as gimmicks, because there have been quite a few of them from Man Bites Dog to The Blair Witch Project and to the more recent Quarantine (or the superior movie [Rec] that it was based on). There have been misses of course with this method but more often than not its use has been effective in making a scenario seem more authentic and the horror of it all the more compelling and enjoyable. I'm past believing the mokumentary set-up is hackneyed now. It seems to me a very legitimate way of making movies seem more real, especially in an age where computerized images dominate big budget Hollywood pictures and unwittingly request that real cinephiles stretch our suspension of disbelief well beyond at least my own comfort zone. So I'm a proponent of the possibilities of the mokumentary horror film after watching this little gem that contains all the elements to make every frame fun and believable. It is particularly highlighted by Otto Jespersen's Hans; the film's title role. His dead pan demeanor and casual actions in bizarrely twisted situations bring a welcome dry humor that had me chuckling regularly as I enjoyed The Troll Hunter. Jespersen offers up a Bill Murray-like performance in a role that is clearly not written for a comedian, but is most definitely and quite potently delivered by one. He is terrific in this movie.

A group of naive student journalists sets out to track down and document a supposed bear poacher. This is Hans (Jespersen) and he is very reluctant to respond to their inquiries about his activities. They follow Hans all over Western Norway until they finally discover what he is really doing. After they figure this out he lets them follow and film him as he goes about his unique occupation. The moment when the students know for sure what Hans is really up to will test your imagination or make you laugh hysterically, or maybe even a little bit of both. At that moment I wasn't really sure what I was watching but I knew one thing; I loved it.

The natural performances by the rest of the cast are not to be overlooked. These are talented young actors that help make the film much more than a simple one trick monster movie. The Troll Hunter should also be commended for being shot on location in the mountains of Western Norway. It couldn't have been an easy shoot for anyone but again it lends itself in an attempt to make an off-the-wall concept filmmable and compelling. I suspect massive international attention for The Troll Hunter soon enough, and it deserves it. This has cult classic written all over it.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I set down to watch this film.

'Found lost tapes' style movies are hit or miss with me, and this definitely qualifies as a lost tapes movie. The camera work is wobbly as expected but not so much as to make you queasy (Blair Witch and Cloverfield...). The premise is fun: a student film crew investigating bear poaching instead find a man with an unusual profession. While the characters don't really develop and there is not a speedy-fast plot, I still enjoyed myself a great deal more than I expected I would. The CGI effects are very nicely integrated and definitely give the movie a feeling of quality production value.

I wouldn't call this movie horror but it is definitely fun. As an added bonus you get to see parts of the world you normally would not. I guess I have to wait until the August dvd release to see it again.

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