When you search for the “found footage” genre on Wikipedia you’ll see that once The Blair Witch Project came out it caused an explosion of titles which also used the technique. Most of those movies are titles you’ve never heard of and that’s probably for a good reason. Making a found footage movie can be done cheaply. You don’t need great equipment for the images to look good and the way the camera itself is used doesn’t have to be tight (shots don’t always have to be in focus or steady). Of course there are various exceptions of movies which did have a budget and chose to use it to tell the story in an effective way (Cloverfield, Chronicle, End of Watch and Europa Report are a couple of examples). The Norwegian film Trollhunter recently appeared on Netflix over here and also has been shot in this style. Is this a better way of approaching the Norse mythology than the horrible Trolls did?
To quickly answer that question: OF course! But at the same time that isn’t that hard. Trollhunter approaches it all realistically and follows a group of students who does research on illegal bear hunting. They suspect Hans (Otto Jespersen) of it, a man who isn’t very open and is not willing to give them any insight into what he is doing. The students decide to follow him however and discover more is going on. Hans is not hunting bears, but is kind of a security guy to make sure that the trolls stay in their own areas so the public doesn’t notice them. He’s there to keep Norway safe, which means he sometimes has to fight these very aggressive creatures, which exist in various forms.
Thanks to the dark humour, but also tense moments and logical explanation for various phenomena, Trollhunter manages to convincingly make it a believable world. Because the cast is also a joy to watch you feel the fear they go through when they face these creatures who are able to kill them with one blow. The way it’s filmed also adds to that of course, because as a viewer you face the same, something unknown and supernatural. A world Hans has been working in for years and who comes across as a guy not scared by anything. It results in an exciting, thrilling and enjoyable drama/horror/comedy, in which the trolls have been brought to life in a frightening way.
One of my fave found-footage style horror films. I love the dry sense of humour throughout the film—gives it a great tone that’s hard not to like.
A missed opportunity I thought. Not scary enough, not enough on the Trolls and a bit too low budget to live up to its potential.