Trollhunter

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Under the Radar

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For the month of May, I thought I might aim my focus toward the overused, yet underappreciated found footage sub-genre.

Let's face it, the age of the found footage genre is starting to die away. I mean, to keep feeding us the "true story" horror gimmick, time and time again, gets really old really quickly. This is why movies like 'Cloverfield' and 'Chronicle' appeal to people like me a bit more. Their concepts are just different and more appealing than the usual paranormal activity movies like, well, 'Paranormal Activity'. For the most part, it's decided that the genre just wasn't played with enough. That is until I stumbled on some of the titles I'll be reviewing this month, staring with the surprisingly good 'Trollhunter'.

Now, I don't mean surprising as in "this is a Norwegian film with subtitles so I thought it would suck". I mean surprising as in "holy shit, something really original and interesting." If you do your homework, you'll find this on a lot of "Top Found Footage you Haven't Seen" lists (which is admittedly where I got the idea to do this month's theme). And not only does it make these lists, but it's always near the top at #1 or #2.

The basic plot involves a group of students who delve into investigating a strange case of bear killings in the area. In their sleuthing, they come across this mysterious hunter dude named Hans (Otto Jespersen). Eventually, the students learn that trolls are, in fact, very real, complete with a history, and a veterinarian's explanation of such allergic reactions these trolls have, such as exploding or turning to stone.

But I wanna just stop the description there, because as far as found footage movies go, I'll just say this one does plenty of cool stuff that a lot of other found footage movies don't. It's actually really well executed, all in all, even if there are certain gaping special effects. I actually feel like I can't criticize that aspect of it anyway 'cause it wouldn't be fair, considering I have no idea what kind of budget Norwegian films have. Quite frankly, if you just buckle up and enjoy the ride for what it is, it's one of the better found footage films out there, as long as you don't mind subtitles.

This is truly one of those hidden gems I'd love to see get out there more, so consider this review a recommendation for it as well. It was just a lot of fun, in my opinion. A good sense of humor is carried through, but there's some light horror aspects to it as well. It's really more of an adventure than a horror, if you ask me. All in all, worth checking out if you have a couple of hours to kill.

4/5

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