Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com.
In most of the United States, we’ve been experiencing a record cold streak. Frigid temperatures and vast snowy landscapes are fuel for some truly delightful terrors. This month, we are embracing the cold and watching 4 thrilling films set in the not-so-wondrous Winter. From an underdiscussed found footage gem to a seemingly forgotten vampire gorefest to a thoughtful study on cold weather chills to one of the best King adaptations ever put to celluloid. Beat the cold by warming up with a nice cup of cocoa and a horrifying film that’ll get your blood pumping!
The Pick: Trollhunter (2010)
André Øvredal first started getting a good deal of international attention in most horror circles after his breakout indie horror The Autopsy of Jane Doe in 2016. This catapulted him into near household name territory once he got picked to helm 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. While these are both fantastic and fun horror films that achieve their scares in different ways, some of those genius horror master flourishes were evident back in 2010 with a little ole found footage film called Trollhunter (sometimes also credited as Troll Hunter, but not to be confused with the animated Netflix franchise). Today, we kick off our Thrills and Chills month in snowy Scandanavia, where we will join Hans in his hunt of the creatures that most people assumed to be nothing more than myth and legend.
The Team
Ed Travis
Honestly? I love pretty much everything about Troll Hunter.
That said, the movie itself is quite intentionally low key, and as such, it sneaks up on you just how great it is.
A team of students are attempting to film a poacher for a school project in the Norwegian wilds. They get more than they bargained for when they follow him too closely and get sucked into the hidden reality of his true assignment. The film is done in the style of found footage so often the film crew in the movie aren’t the most interesting characters, but rather the subject is: in this case, it’s Hans the troll hunter (Otto Jespersen). Hans is the most low key cinematic badass; a lone hunter who bravely protects the world from trolls, but also, like, a bureaucrat who is so sick of having to do this top secret shit on his own that he finally lets in this film crew not for his own glory, but because he’s seemingly just so over it. It’s a brilliant take to craft Hans as both a totally grounded and plausible real world troll hunter who’s an expert at what he does, and also as no nonsense and practical as a human being can possibly be. This isn’t the jacked up adrenaline junkie that, say, Matthew McConaughey’s dragon hunter character is in Reign Of Fire. No, Hans needs no recognition and gets no recognition, but he nonetheless engages in battle with creatures of absolutely massive size to protect humanity.
Bolstering this refreshing take on the central hero are the clever visual effects, incredible troll designs, and the practical implications of traditional troll lore and how they play out in “real life” in the film. I especially love the consequences surrounding trolls’ ability to “smell the blood of a Christian man”.
It’s no surprise that director André Øvredal has gone on to craft some major English language mainstream films such as The Autopsy Of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and The Last Voyage Of The Demeter. Troll Hunter does a lot with a little, has a style and confidence all its own, and stands out in a crowded and overdone subgenre as one of the better found footage films ever created.
Brendan Agnew
I’m a sucker for folk horror on the best of days, but there’s something special about André Øvredal’s found footage fantasy that really tickles my funny bone. Part of it is how natural the mockumentary format that frames Troll Hunter feels, dropping the viewer into the investigation of college trio Thomas, Johanna, and Kalle as they search for the true story behind a suspected bear poacher. What starts as something not far afield of Scooby-Doo gradually morphs from an engrossing (and wryly amusing) travelogue to genuinely exhilarating kaiju horror as the film cleverly contrasts the modern and the mythic.
The other major factor in this film’s success is Otto Jespersen’s Hans, the titular hunter of trolls. I’m not at all familiar with Jespersen’s comedic work for which he’s primarily known, but he gives a delightfully dry and worn down texture to his government-funded monster hunter. Where Ghostbusters’ genius hook of “paranormal investigators as blue collar exterminators” was played for ample laughs, the character of Hans balances a dry humor with a sad sense of loneliness (hence him allowing these students to tag along). He’s the last of a vanishing profession as his quarry is driven further toward extinction, unnoticed and unappreciated by those he protects, but demonstrating incredible courage in spite of his grumbling.
It also helps that the marquee monsters deliver, even on a budget and under traditionally “shaky” conditions. Øvredal rarely approaches the scale of Roar Uthaug’s Troll films, but delivers a compelling variety of creatures in increasingly tense set pieces that build to a genuinely epic showdown. The way the film balances the mundane nature of Hans’ operation with 21st century tools that can be used to topple giants makes for a genuinely unique found footage experience. Øvredal’s direction balances found footage verisimilitude with the kind of “invisible” filmmaking that make this subgenre sing, and shows off the chops he’d put to great use later in films like The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. And even years after seeing him flex, Troll Hunter remains a firm favorite of mine – especially among “entry level horror” movies.
Spencer Brickey
First revisit of Troll Hunter since its release, and found that, while I had forgotten large swaths of the story (I remembered a much different ending, apparently), I had remembered a pretty sizable amount of the larger themes, that of the cruel apathy of government bureaucracy and how everything can become mundane if it becomes a job. Also, that Norway is strikingly gorgeous.
Had also forgotten that it rides a pretty successful line of being both a sorta mockumentary, as well as dipping into out and out found footage horror. The moments where we know there is a troll out there somewhere, we just don’t know where, are genuinely tense, either waiting for a troll to slip out of the darkness, or the thundering footsteps from afar to come close enough to reveal the gigantic owner.
The best sequence here of that is of the final troll, an kaiju sized beast that announces his oncoming presence slowly; first through the fleeing of animals past the cabin our documentary team are staying in, then through the distant angry yells, then the booming steps shaking the ground below them, before emerging out from a hill line, looking as terrifying as you’d expect one to be from those old fairy tales. An absolute thrilling sequence, that leads into an even more pulse pounding climax.
Too bad the actual ending is a bit of a let down. The film doesn’t really seem to know how it wants to portray the government stooges that show up here and there throughout the film. They are portrayed mostly as only a step above being bumbling fools, consistently messing up their evidence planting and seemingly only days away from their big secret being revealed. Then, in the actual final moments, they swoop down like CIA spooks, whisking our camera crew away, only giving us a “they were never found” type final subtitle. Just a weird shift that felt more like “we don’t really know how to end this, so, The End”. Should’ve just had the big ol’ boy finish them off, would’ve been more in line with everything before it.
Beyond that, it’s still a pretty fun film. It knows how to evenly distribute laughs, thrills, and government satire. Makes sense that André Øvredal has had a pretty illustrious career as a director since this; a promising entrance into the international scene.
Justin Harlan
Two things you should know about me, which will shed light on why I picked this film… first, I’m a found footage junkie who even just launched a found footage film festival in the Philly/Allentown suburbs called FOUND in PA. Second, folk horror is my jam with folksy films set in Scandanavia often near the top of that list. So, it’s pretty easy to see why I selected Øvredal’s Trollhunter to kick us off this month.
The cold, snowy backdrop plays an important role in this film, as do the small but solid cast. But the creature design and camera work are really what make this film shine. From the moment I saw this a year or two after its initial release through today, I get a little nervous when I see the trees moving in a certain way – a heavy wind often convinces me that a troll is about to pop through the woods into my view. Of course, I have the same experience when I stare into the horizon at the beach and swear that Godzilla is rising from the depths, but the would-be troll sightings happen far more often when you live near hills and forests.
While this film will typically never be used as an example of a movie with a strong social or political message, it’s pretty perfect for what it is. Which is to say that it delightfully flirts with the line between straight and campy – never taking itself too seriously while, also, never jumping fully into farce. For me, it hits a real sweet spot – making it one of my all time favorite found footage films and an almost annual revisit.
To say that I’m thrilled to find that the rest of the team had fun too, would be a chilling understatement.
All month, we’ll be trying to heat ourselves up by watching some freezing cold terrors! Join in by sending your thoughts on any of the films above to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com or your favorite Cinapse staffer by early in the week listed above. Hope to see you all month long and try to stay warm!
