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Trollhunter (2010)
Magnolia Home Entertainment
DVD Released: 8/23/2011
All Ratings out of
Movie:
1/2
Video:
Audio:
1/2
Extras:
Review by Mike Long, Posted on 8/21/2011
Hey! What's going on around here?! After a few years of silence, we've recently had several discussions about "found footage" movies. From
Evil Things to the thematic shift found in Quarantine 2, we're suddenly talking about these often low-budget affairs. As we've previously pointed out, most Americans think that The Blair Witch Project originated this style, but it can be traced back to the 1980 Italian film Cannibal Holocaust. However, and from entries like [REC], we know that the U.S. doesn't have a corner on this market. Now, Trollhunter shows that northern Europe can get in on the act as well.Trollhunter introduces us to three college students, Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Johanna (Johanna Morck), and Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen), who are doing a report on bear attacks and slayings in the area. The movie is comprised of an edited version of two hard discs (?) which were found. The trio learns that a poacher is suspected of killing the bears (which is apparently illegal). They do some digging and find the camper belonging to Hans (Otto Jespersen). They attempt to interview him, but he won't talk, so, when night falls, they follow him into the mountains. After discovering Hans' SUV in the forest, the trio enter the woods, only to see Hans being pursued by something as he yells, "Troll!". Following this, Hans agrees to talk to the kids, where he reveals that he is a professional trollhunter -- an employee of the government who is paid to keep trolls and humans apart. The trio balk at this notion, until they join him on his next outing and learn that the giant creatures are quite real.
Co-Writer/Director Andre Ovredal has clearly studied the "found footage" genre, as Trollhunter almost plays like a greatest hits package. The trio of college students working on a project (with two males and one female) is very reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, while the use of giant monster visual effects in a "video project" movie harkens back to
Cloverfield. However, that’s not to say that Trollhunter doesn’t have some original ideas, as it does. We’ve seen “found footage” movies tackle a number of topics, but I can’t rarely any which brought fairy tale creatures to the forefront. We are obviously familiar with trolls to an extent in the U.S., but based on this film, I can only assume that they play a large role in Norwegian mythology. (I know that a troll in Finland appeared in an episode of Metalocalypse, so maybe it’s a northern European thing.) The film really delves into the whole troll canon, as we learn that there are different types of trolls and that they have specifics behaviors. (Although the movie never explains why trolls hate Christians. Was this something which I was supposed to know?) Some of the weapons which Hans uses are clever, and I really liked the notion of how high-voltage power lines get involved.The movie also gets a tremendous boost from the acting. “Found footage” movies aren’t known for any Oscar-worthy performances (typically people just scream and run), but the acting in Trollhunter helps to elevate the documentary feel. Thomas is the leader of the group and spends the most time on camera, and Glenn Erland Tosterud makes him very amiable and believable. Thomas is clearly an easy-going guy and while he doesn’t believe Hans in the beginning, he knows that they are onto something and we feel comfortable following him into this adventure. Hans could have come off as a gruff bastard, but Otto Jespersen portrays him as world-weary and lonely -- someone who is more than happy to share his story with the kids. So many “found footage” movies make the mistake of presenting us with unlikable characters -- I’m looking at you Paranormal Activity movies -- but Trollhunter avoids this.
However, Trollhunter suffers from one giant problem -- the trolls simply aren’t scary...at all. The first thirty minutes of the movie build up a nice level of anticipation and when the first troll finally appears, it looks like something out of
The Neverending Story or The Dark Crystal. The visual effects are solid and seamless, it’s the creature design which sucks any horror out of the story. The monsters simply look like giant versions of the sort of Muppet troll which we’ve seen in countless fantasy films and there’s nothing scary or even intriguing about them. This really pulled me out of the movie, and almost made it laughable. “Look out, it’s Sweetums!” The movie’s other major flaw is the running time. At 100 minutes, the movie certainly feels like a European film and it takes too long to wrap everything up. A section illustrating how mundane Hans’ job can be probably looked good on paper, but you don’t want the audience to be bored as well. It’s really a shame that the trolls didn’t work out, as Trollhunter gets so many other things right. But, at the end of the day, we came here for trouble, and giant Muppets doesn’t cut it.Trollhunter convinced me that every third word in Norway is in English on DVD courtesy of Magnolia Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. Of course, being a “found footage” movie, the image has the sort of defects one would expect -- blurring during running scenes, jagged cuts, and grain during nighttime shots -- but otherwise, the picture is stable. The daytime scenes are very clear and colors look good. The HD video brings out a nice level of detail and the image is rarely soft. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This is a muscular track and the surround sound and subwoofer effects during the troll attacks work very well. The subwoofer is necessary to illustrate the trolls walking, and these effects provide a nice rumbling. We also get nice stereo effects when the characters are in the forest. These effects help to add to the panicked feeling when the characters are fleeing from the trolls.
The Trollhunter DVD contains several extras. "Behind the Scenes" (23 minutes) contains seven sections which take us on-set to look at several aspects of the production process from physical effects, visual effects, costuming and what it's like waiting for something to happen on-set. These are simply "fly on the wall" videos, but they do contain comments from the cast and crew, and take us inside the production. "HDNet: A Look at Trollhunter" (4 minutes) offers a brief look at the film, and we learn that those behind the film can speak excellent English. The DVD offers five DELETED SCENES which run about 3 minutes. These are all obviously quite short and don't really offer anything new. We also get three EXTENDED SCENES which run about seven minutes and simply show longer versions of existing scenes, but again don't really bring anything new to light. "Improv and Bloopers" (2 minutes) gives us a glimpse of the loose nature involved in making the movie at times. "Visual Effects" is a four-part feature which takes us inside the CG troll effects, showing how they were added into master shots, as well as showing us a close look at the models for some of the characters. Finally, we have two PHOTO GALLERIES, "Troll Sketches" and "Troll Habitats".
Review Copyright 2011 by Mike Long