Troll Hunter

When a film comes out in the 'found footage' mould, one expects certain things. Primarily that it will be a horror, and that there will be plenty of shaky footage of not all that much with glimpses of whatever it is that's meant to be frightening us before a final big reveal. Well, chuck all that out the window. 'Troll Hunter' is a 'found footage' film that eschews the conventions of that genre. It's a black comedy in which a group of film students have recorded their time spent with Hans. Hans has a secret, he is employed by Norway's secret TSS (Troll Security Service) to hunt and keep control of that nation's native troll population. Hans is bored of his 'shitty job' and so allows the students to film him at work.

The students are initially highly skeptical of what Hans is leading them into, but on their first trip into the woods they encounter a massive three-headed troll. A troll that Hans tricks into the open and kills with artificial sunlight. The initial encounter with the troll comes across as standard handheld 'real life footage' stuff as the cameraman runs terrified through the woods with his night vision on. From there on though the film rapidly re-organises itself as a black comedy. Though the troll is undoubtedly a terrifying creature, the encounter with it is treated in a fairly slapstick way. From Hans' unlaboured attitude towards his own extremely dangerous work to the Polish contractors who turn up with a dead Croatian bear to plant as cover for the damage done, everything's just a little bit silly.

There are moments when the film almost pauses as either the sound girl or presenter look into the camera to share their incredulity at what's happening with the audience. Yet more evidence that 'Troll Hunter' is intented as a bleak comedy. A good amount of mileage is made out of references to Troll folk lore (they can smell Christians and seem to spend a lot of time under bridges) as well as the deadpan humour of Hans and his troll-hunting antics. In spite of the apparent low budget, the troll CGI is fine for this kind of film. In fact, all the trolls looking a little bit silly probably helps the comedy roll along.

As long as you're happy for this to be a dark comedy rather than a full-on horror in the Cloverfield / Blair Witch mould then you should enjoy it. I had to go to the cinema at 10:15pm to see it, since they're still showing The Inbetweeners at all other hours just now. There was literally no-one else in there so I don't think it'll be around for very long.