Geek Stuff From Foreign Lands: Trollhunter


Surprising as it may be to many Americans, other countries make movies too.  They even have their own geek-type stuff.

One such case comes from the 2010 Norwegian film Trollhunter.  Possible SPOILERS after the cut.

Trollhunter takes the form of a found-footage style horror/comedy.  It may be more comedy than horror, but I didn’t find myself laughing too much, so there ya go.

Anyway, the premise is a trio of Norwegian college students are out making a student movie.  They stumble across what looks like a bear poacher and follow the guy until they come across what he really hunts.  He doesn’t hunt bears.  Bear corpses make a good scapegoat for what he really hunts:  trolls.

Hans, the hunter, is a worldweary guy who hunts trolls for the Norwegian government. He’s pretty much the only guy doing it, and he’s tired.  He only really agrees to let the students film him in the hopes their movie will reveal to the general public that trolls are real and maybe he can get out of the crappy job he’s got.

Of course, he sets down some ground rules for the film crew.  First, they have to smear troll stench all over themselves.  That’s unpleasant.  Second, he makes it clear that he can’t take them if there are any Christians in the group.  Trolls smell Christian blood very easily.  Finally, they have to do as he says.

The movie’s main plot has Hans investigating the recent upswing in troll attacks.  Trolls mostly stay in their own territories, so why so many of them are coming out of the woodwork these days is a bit of a mystery.

The trolls themselves are fairly creative.  While the CGI isn’t the best there is, the trolls themselves come across OK.  Hans has biological information on trolls that he dispenses as needed, such as why some of more than one head, how to kill them, and how smart they are (to answer the last two, UV light and not very).

I’m not sure the joke holds for the entire movie.  It has some clever ideas, but didn’t work for me as well as it could.  Let’s say seven useless extra troll heads out of ten.

One thought on “Geek Stuff From Foreign Lands: Trollhunter”

  1. Trollhunter is hilarious if you watch it with a group of people. I watched it with my teenage sons and my brother-in-law, and we laughed our asses off. It is hilarious when Hans comes running out of the forest , shouting, “Troll!”

    I wrote a short essay on Trollhunter called “Four Aspects of Human Nature.” I interpreted the film as an allegory. If you would like to read it, here is the link: I am open to any helpful feedback.


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