Some of you diehard fans of the blog might remember a little write-up I did back in the day of a Scandinavian film called Rare Exports. Released in 2010, directed by Jalmari Helander, Rare Exports was a weird little combination of a Christmas movie and a horror film, involving a young boy and his father combating terrible trollish creatures who just so happened to have inspired the legend of Santa Claus. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, in fact I seem to recall the child protagonist being something of an annoying little shit, but it was entertaining, and a nice reminder that the U.S. is not the be all end all when it comes to cinema. Other countries may not have the same film budget or the resources of the States, but they have the imagination and the determination, and that’s really all you need when you’re making movies. Especially when it comes to the horror genre. A big budget might actually be a detriment in that case…
Now the Marathon has come around again and I find myself back in Scandinavia, Norway to be specific, for a film that was released the same year as our Xmas horror flick: Trollhunter. It’s a movie that’s been on my radar for a while actually, I’ve thrown it in the first drafts of two prior Marathons, but I’ve held off on watching it until now. I’m not sure there’s a concrete reason why, other than there are a whole bunch of movies out there and my mood changes like the tides. It can be rough at times, it lead me to watching Flesh for Frankenstein and Beyond Re-animator after all, but it’s to Trollhunter’s credit that it’s always been on the backburner, always in consideration. With a name like that it was only a matter of time.
Presented to the audience as found footage, Trollhunter presents the story of three journalism students from Volda College (an actual school, by the by), Thomas, Johanna and Kalle, as they film a documentary about a rash of bear poaching that has struck the area. What little evidence there is seems to point to a man known only as Hans, a mysterious fellow who constantly travels the land in a battered jeep and a small trailer home. When confronted with these accusations Hans ultimately reveals that he’s not a bear poacher at all, he’s a troll hunter, a conservationist of sorts employed by the TSS (Troll Security Service) to kill trolls that wander outside of their respective territories. Yes, trolls exist. Yes, the Norwegian government is aware of their existence and is engaged in an elaborate conspiracy to hide the truth. Yes, the Norwegian people apparently have never noticed 20 foot tall monsters walking around in their own backyard. Sounds like a groundbreaking and horrifically dangerous scoop if you ask me. Might as well film it!
Modern movie audiences are no stranger to the concept of the ‘found footage’ subgenre of horror films. Ever since the whirlwind success of The Blair Witch Project, you see these types of movies pop up every now and then and try to ride its coattails. Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, Monsters (by Godzilla director Gareth Edwards), you know the kind of movie I’m talking about. A cast of ‘real’ people, shaky camera movements like it’s a ‘real’ camcorder, more shots of things rustling in the background and people filming the ground as they run than showing the monster, and so on and on. I can understand it considered something of a change of pace, the ‘horror movie as documentary’, and that not seeing the monster is a major tenant of horror, but a glance at some CGI while the camera whips back and forth like it’s in a Home Depot paint mixer or watching a door open is not my idea of a good time.
Trollhunter still suffers from running sequences from time to time, but it counters that by devoting a lot of screen time to actually showing off the titular trolls. A very diverse collection of trolls too, from the squat, hairy Mountain Kings (who look like those one aliens from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Adventure) to the office-building sized, Marvel’s The Mighty Thor style Jotnars. All pretty obvious CGI of course, the choice of blockbuster and indie films alike, the the fact they do actually show the trolls and human interaction with the trolls heightens the realistic, documentary feel that the movie is going for. A bit like the Jurassic Park movie we all wish we had, rather than most of the Jurassic Park movies we got.
Of course the characters aren’t exactly what you’d call...interesting, or engender any emotion that would endear them to you in any way, except for Hans, whose multi-layered personality is covered in pounds and pounds of stoicism. Also I’m not entirely sure of the logic behind trying to define trolls in a naturalistic way, even giving a scientific explanation for why they petrify (or explode) in sunlight, but then also give them the ability to smell ‘Christian’ blood and react to Christian imagery. Which never gets explained at all. Two major scenes revolve around this Christian thing too, including the climax, so I don’t know why they would go to the trouble of explaining their gestation and eating habits and all of this real biological stuff and then throw some magic in there for shits and giggles. It’s bad writing. If you’re trying to make the supernatural into the natural, don’t stop halfway through.
Did Trollhunter live up to two Marathon’s worth of hype? No, not really. It was a fun little film for what it was though, and like Rare Exports, gives us a little glimpse of how our Scandinavian brothers reimagine their folklore for the modern age. Not really scary, which is something it has in common with most found footage films, but I give it points for a good concept. If you can avoid feeding the trolls, you just might something to watch this Halloween.
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