Reel Advice from the Video Store Guy
By Steve Anderson
June 1st , 2012

Troll Hunter

Norwegian horror film Troll Hunter
***
DVD
Directed by Andre Ovredal
Written by Andre Ovredal
Starring Otto Jespersen, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Naerum
2010
PG-13
103 mins

We've all seen great horror from countries other than the United States. Japanese, Korean, French...right on down the line. And the Scandinavian countries have been no slouches themselves. Today we've got one piece of Norwegian horror that many have had an interest in for some time. Today we're talking Troll Hunter, and this one...well...this one's not like anything you've seen lately.

Troll Hunter takes up out in the woods, where a group of students has gone investigating recent reports of bear killings in said woods. Naturally, anything that can kill a bear is something to not be taken lightly. Since bear hunting permits are extremely rare, that makes the whole thing even more unlikely. But when the students discover just what's been killing the bears, and just what all is going on out in the woods, it's going to be a lot more than they bargained for. And while they may not get out alive, their footage will survive, and that's what we'll be seeing here.

Think one part Skyrim, one part Jurassic Park, one part Blair Witch Project, and shoot all of it in the part of Norway that takes two ferries to reach known in the original Norwegian as "Assendanowhere", and you'll have a pretty good idea of what we're in for in terms of the overall plot and presentation.

Fair warning, this is in the original Norwegian, so for those of you who don't like subtitles, well, I feel bad for you, son, because you're about to have 103 minutes worth of problems. But for those of willing to work with subtitles, well, there's very good news ahead for you indeed, because this one's going to be a piece of work unlike anything you've ever seen. It's actually pretty thrilling, tailing these enormous monsters, never knowing if anyone will actually manage to survive the various encounters with the massive, carnivorous monsters. And seeing how close they come to the fictional version is also pretty impressive; you'll likely be astonished when you see what happens when UV light hits these things.

It's a surprisingly fun piece of horror fare, a little light on the thrills and chills, but with plenty of action and some good laughs thrown in for variety. And the sheer uniqueness of the proceedings only makes things better.

The ending is something of a surprise, but only something, because you probably had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen when regular humans with minimal weapons and armor went up against things easily eight or ten times their size.

The special features include a necessary set of English subtitles, a set of audio options, a blooper reel, deleted scenes, a visual effects featurette, photo galleries, and trailers for 13 Assassins, Hobo With A Shotgun, Good Neighbors, and The Perfect Host.

All in all, Troll Hunter is going to put up a very unusual, and very unique, bit of horror action that should be sufficient to impress. The subtitles won't always be pleasant for some, but the end result is worth any inconvenience they'd bring.