Directed by André Øvredal. Starring Otto Jespersen, Hans Morten Hansen, Tomas Alf Larsen 15A cert, lim release, 103 min
SEPTEMBER IS that special time of year when movie studios launch campus-friendly comedies and found-footage horrors. Luckily, coming hot on the heels of last week's lacklustre Apollo 18, Troll Hunteris the genuine article.
Writer-director André Øvredal's breakthrough international hit takes the viewer right back to the original thrills and spills of The Blair Witch Project,with a cast of unknowns, mockumentary murk and neat digital approximations of Ray Harryhausen's old-school stop-motion monsters. And not a studio executive in sight.
Never mind the vampire vogue; Troll Hunterhas an entirely fresh mythology in its armoury. Inspired by the Norwegian folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe, a teacher and a minister who together chronicled 19th-century Norse fictions and traditions, the film proves an invaluable guide to the hunting and dispatching of underpass ogres. Did you know that trolls can smell the blood of Christians? Or that the existence of trolls is covered up by an agency working on behalf on the Norwegian government?
As this engaging fake opens, a group of film students think they have uncovered a hot story when they start following a man they believe to be a bear poacher. It soon transpires that their subject (essayed with flair by Nordic comedian Otto Jespersen) is a faithful civil servant in charge of troll population control across his nation’s vast tracts of woodland.
Øvredal finds cunning ways to work ordinary power lines and landscapes into an increasingly elaborate tapestry of lies. He's similarly canny about the subgenre, with direct curtseys to Heather's to-camera meltdown in Blair Witchand fun, obscured shots.
Hell, we’re even prepared to overlook the end credit that reads “No trolls were harmed in the making of this picture”.
Former Harry Potterhelmer Chris Columbus has already snapped up the remake rights. Please take time to see the original before Hollywood mucks it up.
