The Troll Hunter



The Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren) is a Norwegian Mockumentary released in 2010. The movie purports to be found footage, sent in to the film studio, and opens and closes with comments from the film studio about the fate of the footage and the film makers. The film follows three film students from a journalism college -- Thomas (presenter), Kalle (camera) and Johanna (sound) -- who are planning to make a documentary about a possible bear poacher and local eccentric identified only as "Hans". Hans turns out to be in the employ of TST, the Norwegian troll-safety department, as their government-sanctioned troll hunter (of the Norwegian folklore kind of troll) who hunts and kills trolls who come into contact with people. Although initially reluctant, Hans eventually agrees to take the trio with him on his latest round of troll hunts, citing tiredness with the current policies of the department and figuring it's about time the truth came out.

This film contains examples of:
"Thomas: Is that a land mine? Am I sitting on a land mine?"
 * Abnormal Ammo: Hans' weapon of choice is a hand-held UV spotlight. His car and camping wagon are both wired with dozens of the things.
 * All Trolls Are Different: According to the film, trolls exist in several races and subraces. All share the common traits of being nocturnal omnivores with a very low intelligence, whose primary diet consists of rock. In accordance with Norwegian folklore, they smell (and hate) the blood of Christians and turn to stone/explode upon contact with sunlight (or UVB radiation) due to an inability to properly process vitamin D.
 * Armour Is Useless: Completely subverted. Hans dons a full suit of what appears to be homemade plate armor, complete with helmet ("I hate this crap," Hans grumbles) in order to go toe-to-toe with a mammoth bridge troll and get a blood sample. The beast smacks him around pretty good, but he emerges bruised but mostly unscathed thanks to his protective armor.
 * Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever: The troll on the poster.
 * Berserk Button: Trolls really don't like Christianity, and can smell Christians.
 * BFG: More like Hans has a BFF.
 * Bolivian Army Ending: Debatable, but the finale certainly doesn't bode well for the filmmakers.
 * Camera Abuse: The camera lens is cracked by cave-dwelling troll, and stays that way until a replacement is found.
 * Casting Gag: Knut Nærum, a Norwegian comedian known for delivering sometimes odd jokes with a deadpan tone and facial expression and being fond of the Government Conspiracy as a topic of humor, plays a clueless power plant worker who has no idea why certain power lines are set up in a useless circle and tries to (futilely) rationalize it on-screen.
 * Crazy Prepared: Hans.


 * Deadpan Snarker: Hans, who constantly delivers Captain Obvious comments in a tone of voice so deadpan that you can tell he's just making fun of the others.
 * Doing in The Wizard: The story demonstrates and explains many of the mythological aspects of trolls in the form of animal behavior, with Hans dismissing stories of trolls wearing clothes and being intelligent as fairy tales. However, no explanation is given for the Trolls' ability to detect Christians by smell other than it's in the folk tales.
 * Don't Go in The Woods: First contact with the trolls ends up like this. And the second. And the third. And just... Whenever they meet a troll.
 * Foregone Conclusion: The film opens with an explanation by the studio that the footage had been sent in to them anonymously, and they have been forced to conclude that the events shown within are not doctored. It's fairly obvious things did not go well for the original creators.
 * Government Conspiracy
 * Green Aesop: The filmmakers have an environmental message: government-sanctioned hunters like Hans do, in fact, exist. They just aren't being led by secret conspiracies. Similarly, sometimes they're still expected to do what Hans mentions in passing, like kill every type of an animal in a stretch of wilderness for a road.
 * Historical in Joke: Many, but the primary is the prime minister of Norway (supposedly) admitting the existence of trolls in a clip near the end. The clip is the (at that time) prime minister speaking, and the lines come from an actual interview. The addition of the TST man is a camera trick, however, and the "Troll" the prime minister talks about refers to an offshore gas field.
 * In Universe Camera
 * It Got Worse: The crew start out trying to make a simple interview/documentary on what appears to be a bear poacher. They end up quite over their heads.
 * The Hunter: Hans, as per the title, hunts trolls. Though he's come to hate the job.
 * Kaiju: The Jotannar Troll, at 200ft / 60m in height.
 * Left Hanging: The final scene leaves most of the protagonists in peril, but the tapes end before any definitive fate is revealed.
 * Literary Agent Hypothesis
 * Loophole Abuse: The trolls hate Christians and sniff out (and viciously attack) them. Hans repeatedly asks the students if they "believe in God or Jesus" as a precaution, but is stumped as to whether a Muslim will incite the same reaction in a troll.
 * Lost in Translation: The old folktales would often have a troll declare that he could "smell the blood of a Christian man". This is a poetic way of saying he could smell a human nearby. The film takes this literally, to the bewilderment of those not familiar with Scandinavian folklore.
 * Made of Explodium: Younger trolls explode when exposed to sunlight.
 * Taken for Granite: The older ones turn to stone.
 * The Masquerade
 * Mockumentary
 * Naive Newcomer: The film students, to the troll-hunting business. A new character comes in just before the third act; when she invokes scepticism about trolls, the other students just stare at her.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: Much of the horror about the trolls happens, naturally, when you can't see them on-screen.
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: Finn, Hans' superior in the TST who's also in charge of covering up troll sites.
 * One Scene Wonder: The Polish contractor hired to place dead bears at the scenes of troll attacks.
 * Punch Clock Hero: While Hans is certainly a good man at heart, he makes it no secret that he hates his job. He takes no pleasure in what he does.
 * Red Herring:  never gets used.
 * Shout Out:
 * Kalle at one point states that if they meet any in-bred hillbillies in the woods, Thomas is getting it first.
 * The three billy-goats on the bridge.
 * There is a class of trolls called "Mountain Kings," a little nod to "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen. More popularly known for the famous "In the Hall of the Mountain King" orchestral composition by Edvard Grieg.
 * The Stoic: Hans.
 * Trailers Always Spoil
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: For a low budget movie, the FX for the trolls are astoundingly effective. They look cartoonishly absurd, yet life-like, they provide a convincing illusion that they hold tangible space in reality.
 * Wham Line: . Unfortunately spoiled by the trailer.
 * Your Trolls Suck: Hans explicitly mentions the Norwegian stories about trolls collected by Asbjornsen and Moe (the Norwegian equivalents to the Brothers Grimm) as being mostly fairy tales with wildly inaccurate information.
 * Zen Survivor: Hans. In one scene near the end he reminisces about having slaughtered an entire region full of trolls because the government wanted a tunnel in the area.
 * Zen Survivor: Hans. In one scene near the end he reminisces about having slaughtered an entire region full of trolls because the government wanted a tunnel in the area.