Review of Troll Hunter (2010) by Halfwelshman — 26 Jan 2012

Troll Hunter is the latest in the rapidly tiring trend of handheld camera mockumentary films. It documents a group of students following a mysterious poacher (Otto Jespersen) who turns out to be a troll hunter, tasked with keeping the population of these mythical creatures under control, and to prevent them coming into contact with humans.

This story is intriguing at first, and there's some nice allusions to folklore woven into the narrative (trolls turning to stone in sunlight, their tendency to hide under bridges), but it rapidly deteriorates into drudgery.

The trolls that are so central to the plot are very convincing, and some great visual effects and sound design has gone into their creation, but the film's limited budget means we don't see them on screen nearly often enough.

I also question the decision to make the film a mockumentary - though this style is entertaining enough at first, and makes the story slightly more believable, it is far too limiting a filmic device in terms of what the viewer can actually see, and especially in terms of characterisation.

Had Troll Hunter been filmed simply as a conventional narrative film, we might have had more opportunity to get to know our characters, but as it is, they remain enigmas, both when behind the camera or when running for their lives in front of it.

The story as a whole, primarily due to the way it is filmed, is very uneven in terms of pace. Whenever any kind of momentum or tension is successfully built up, it is lost in the very next scene by some clunky expositional dialogue or a scene that is particularly jarring in its change in tone from the rest of the film.

What Troll Hunter does get right (though, again, you would appreciate it more in a more conventionally filmed movie) is that it makes the most of the stunning Norwegian landscape in which the story is set.

The action (at least, what action there is) takes place in a huge variety of atmospheric locations - from dark, creepy forests to claustrophobic caverns to open, mountainous plateaus. The film's stunning finale takes place in the latter setting, and this desolate, snow-covered vista is perfect for the final showdown with a particularly big, particularly nasty troll.

Troll Hunter has an interesting premise, and the production design, sound and visual effects are top-notch, but an unevenly paced plot, underdevelopment of characters and the use of a tired format detracts from the overall viewing experience.

I sincerely hope the trend for mockumentaries is close to dying out, as it's becoming a bit of an annoyance, and unless you're the rare exception to the rule (Cloverfield) it's just an excuse to film things badly, and dispense with character altogether.