By Dalton Silvernail

I will be the first to say that I don’t enjoy subtitled movies. It’s far too difficult for me to sit for an hour or two trying to read everything said while watching the events of the film. That being said, every so often it is worth it. Norway’s The Troll Hunter (2010) by André Øvredal is easily one ,if not the best, example of this.

Set in Norway, primarily taking place in the remote forest and mountains of the country, the movie is shot by a team of college students following a man whose job it is to kill trolls. From deep woodlands to deserted mines to the camping trailer the hunter lives in, the varied locations of the film are fantastically chosen and manipulated to give the appearance of the trolls’ presence within them. The migration from one setting to another also avoids the issue of film monsters being present in one place only; a premise I consider to be a major pit fall in monster films given that if people spend decades looking for the Loch Ness Monster they would do the same for whatever creature the film is portraying.

Taking a page from The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, the visuals and audio of the movie are recorded by the characters. By having college journalism students record the events, they avoid the issues of bad picture and audio quality and poor camera handling. This simple act, of putting control in the hands of people with access to better equipment and at least some training in its use, drastically improves over movies in this format that become two hours of video that looks like it’s from YouTube.

The handling of the details about trolls, as well as the organization keeping them secret, is explained in fairly believable ways, keeping the viewer from having to disregard the film’s events as unrealistic.

Throughout the movie, the film crew slowly gets information from the hunter about the trolls and those keeping them secret. And while certain characteristics of the trolls, such as a potential 1,000 year life span and their ability to smell the blood of Christians more readily than that of other people, are a bit more fanciful than scientific, the explanations for things such as multiple heads and their rather extreme reaction to ultraviolet light are explained in ways far closer to realm of possibility.

As for the secretive TSS (Troll Security Service), I found the choice of refraining from explaining the full extent of their government connection and motivation behind their work to be more than satisfying. For instance, it’s oddly satisfying that when asked why trolls were kept secret, the hunter admitted that he didn’t know exactly why. The lack of focus on the ‘why’ of things left much more time to explore the emotion and humanity of the hunter with a lonely life and a job that he does because he must, not because he wants to. It also forces the film crew to have reason outside of wanting to expose the governments secrets (a rather cliché concept) as they continue putting themselves in danger.

Separately, these elements improve on a plot that is, for the most part, the basic monster movie story. What brings them together and what truly sets this movie above so many others of the same variety is the acting. Every actor portrayed their character so well that they truly appeared more real than acted. The director’s choice to refrain from the standard overly shocked reaction at the existence of the trolls, which is present in monster movies both good and bad, made the characters much more organic.

Overall, this is one of the best films I have ever seen. It may not be the most exciting, have the best graphics, or be a film I’d watch on a regular basis, but it’s an amazing movie with a great plot and some of the most realistic characters I have ever seen. This movie is a fantastic reminder that film was once thought of as a medium of art more than a medium for fame and wealth.

I won’t say it’s the next movie you should watch, or that you’re going to want to watch it over and over, but this is a film in the form of art rather than just entertainment. I will say you should certainly take the time to watch it at some point—much like I would say you should take a break from looking at funny cat pictures online and visit a museum once in a while.