[HorrorScience] Troll Hunter (2010)

From time to time we come across a film that we know nothing about, that was not announced or reviewed in the main media, that was not released in theaters, and that has been released directly to the home market in DVD format.

Some of those times the reason is that they are low-budget films, made by independent studios, and that have not had high grossing expectations. Other times it is because they are foreign productions (and not Hollywood) with a theme and/or aesthetic that is not considered commercial for our country. And there is a third case that is a mix of all of that: low budget, foreign, and with a strange aesthetic and plot. Troll Hunter It is classified in that third variant.

Trolljegeren, which is its original title, is a Norwegian film from 2010, belonging to the genre mockumentary, also known as a "mockumentary" and which I have already talked about on a previous occasion when reviewing the film Lake Mungo. This is a genre that has taken center stage since that experiment called Blair Witch Project and how much success he managed to have, trying to convince ourselves that what we are seeing is a real situation filmed by ordinary citizens to whom a certain amount of generally mysterious or supernatural things happen.

In the case of the film in question, we are informed at the beginning that on October 13, 2008, the Norwegian film company Filkameratene AS received a package without a return address, which contained 2 hard drives with 283 minutes of recorded material, and that this material is shown in this film without retouching and in chronological order. We're then told that for more than a year investigators have been trying to determine if this footage is real or a hoax. And they finally concluded that it is real.

It is clear that the mockumentary genre always tries to be as realistic as possible, taking into account that in itself The events that are happening lack scientific foundations. Some productions have succeeded more than others (again, Lake Mungo is an example of good work), but really believing what we are seeing is not a requirement to enjoy it, just as it is not a requirement to believe a fairy tale to like it.

The film begins with Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Johanna (Johanna Mørck) and Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen); 3 college students filming while traveling by car, looking to interview a local hunter to ask him about the mysterious bear deaths that have been happening. In Norway, bear hunting is permitted and regulated by the Government, and only those who have permission to do so can hunt them. That is why several bear hunters suspect Hans (Otto Jespersen) as responsible for the death of those bears, since he does not have a permit and yet he has been found a few times in hunting areas, in addition to Every night he goes into the forest and does not return to his caravan until it is dawn. We soon see that Hans lives in a fairly dirty caravan, and drives a Land Rover that has serious damage to the body, like large cuts caused by huge claws.

Of the 3 protagonists, Thomas is in charge of conducting the interviews, while Johanna is in charge of the sound and Kalle of the video, so Thomas is also the one who approaches Hans asking him some questions and receiving a bad-tempered response from the hunter while he locks himself in his caravan.

Later, the protagonist trio follows Hans, and on a night visit to the forest, the hunter discovers that he has been followed while he flees shouting "Troll!", to which the others respond by escaping from the forest as quickly as possible, including a camera fall and several trips. Thomas is left behind during the escape, and is heard screaming in pain. Seconds later he appears, but we see that he has a large wound on his back, which he says was caused by a bear attack. Hans reluctantly accepts the group, and disinfects and bandages Thomas' wound. Then he decides to take them in his Rover to the students' car, but when they arrive they see that it is overturned, most of the bodywork is destroyed, all four tires are missing, and it is covered in a rather unpleasant mucous substance.

Hans names the trolls a couple of times, which provokes laughter in the students, who cannot believe that an older person believes in these mythological beings. Despite this, the group tries to maintain their composure, especially seeing that the hunter takes the whole troll thing very seriously.

Hans then takes the young people in his vehicle, and on the way back he proposes that they accompany him the following night, to see him kill the thing that attacked Thomas, on the condition that they follow his orders to the letter. The students accept, and it is in this way that a series of encounters with different creatures begin to occur, each one more amazing than the last. And this hunter is actually an employee of the Norwegian government, in charge, together with a veterinarian, of studying trolls and killing those who approach the population in an attempt to hide the existence of these beings to the people of Norway and around the world.

And I use the term "amazing" instead of "terrifying" when referring to these mythological creatures for a reason: the technical section and the design of the trolls that appear in this film is remarkable, and even more so if we take into account that we are dealing with a relatively low-budget Norwegian production. Each troll that we will see appear in this film has a unique design and is very well done, finding the right point between the classic design of these creatures with a more realistic and credible one. In addition to not using the now classic resource of making a supernatural creature appear on camera very briefly and out of focus, André Øvredal chooses to do the opposite, and shows us these creatures long enough to see them clearly and feel that they are really there, that they are living, giant, threatening things. The use of lighting, the range of colors, some distant shots and the contrast with the landscape mean that the scenes in which trolls appear have nothing to envy of million-dollar productions such as cloverfield, and in fact here they are better achieved than in that American production.

André Øvredal has managed to make Troll Hunter a remarkable product. Its protagonists and all the other actors that complete the cast do a very good job, which together with the artistic section and the special effects gives us an incredible story in the most credible way possible. The photography in this film reveals some landscapes of deep Norway that are beautiful, and the use of Scandinavian mythology is a success since there is nothing better for those landscapes than giant trolls walking through dense, humid forests.

Three curious facts:

• The film has some references to Scandinavian folklore, such as the scene where we see 3 goats on a bridge and a troll living underneath, a clear reference to the classic story of the troll under the bridge, which has been reproduced and adapted countless times mainly in literature, taking as an example an adaptation by the well-known writer Neil Gaiman included in a compilation of his stories called Smoke and Mirrors.
• The rights for an American remake were bought by Summit Entertainment even before the film was released, but after 5 years nothing is known about that production.
• Varios personajes de la película están interpretados por comediantes noruegos: Otto Jespersen (Hans, el cazador de trolls), Knut Nærum (el supervisor de la planta de electricidad), Robert Stoltenberg (el distribuidor polaco de osos), y Hans Morten Hansen (Finn, el jefe de Hans) son todos comediantes reconocidos en su país.