Trollhunter

A few months ago, I read about a Norwegian movie by the name of Trollhunter.  While it sounds like a bad 80s horror movie, it's actually a recent piece that was quite good.  The film is supposedly footage shot by some college kids who end up following a man who hunts trolls.  Now, trolls aren't common knowledge in this world, as it is current day Norway.  The filming style is handheld with full on shaky cam at times.  In most movies shot in such a way, the only scares provided are provided by random elements jumping out at the viewer, often accompanied by a spike in noise. Trollhunter never stoops to those lows, but still maintains a tense atmosphere when required.  

With most movies that are supposedly genuine footage, they often start out slow.  Trollhunter is not exception to that particular role, but just when I started to believe the film wouldn't be very tense, that I wouldn't really believe the characters were in danger, the movie did just that.  All of a sudden, you were worried about who was about to eat it.  Or get eaten.  However that works...

Some people will stay away from Trollhunter because you are forced to read subtitles unless you are versed in the Norwegian language.  If you let that keep you away, you'll be missing out on a fine film.  Here in the states, monsters like vampires have been overdone and domesticated.  It was interesting to see a monster get a film that hasn't had wide exposure here.  Granted, everyone knows what a troll is, but there aren't that many movies that focus on them.  An interesting study would be to research trolls as they are portrayed in Norwegian culture and how it differs from this film.  If you have almost two hours to spare and don't mind a bit of reading, check out Trollhunter.  You can find it on Netflix.

(Moved from FB - January 6, 2012)