Synopsis:
Three students from a Norwegian college are making a documentary about Hans, who is believed to be an illegal bear poacher. However, when the students are eventually taken under the wing of Hans, they find that the truth is much more shocking than they expected. Troll Hunter is an edited version of their found footage.
The Troll Hunter is probably best described as a faux documentary rather than a mockumentary. It is probably best compared to The Blair Witch project and, more recently, to the likes of Paranormal Activity, in the sense that it supposedly composed of edited ‘found’ footage.
The Blair Witch Project was really the first of it’s kind and there was a sense that it was real; there was a lot of press coverage at the time debating whether it was actually real found footage and that probably has something to do with the subject matter too. But when a haunted woods in middle America is substituted for Trolls in the Norwegian mountains a little of the believability is lost. Nonetheless, suspend all disbelief for ninety minutes and watch it as it’s intended and Troll Hunter is a very good faux documentary playing on all the Troll folklore and mythology very well. Additionally, the filmmakers use a few real-life circumstances to substantiate the existence of Trolls; downed trees are evidence of rampaging Trolls and power lines are actually electric fences built to contain Troll populations.
While the tone of Troll Hunter is never mocking, there is a mood of humour the whole way through. For example the bumbling Polish contractors who deliver a Russian bear instead of a Norwegian one, or the government official who places incorrect bear footprints in trying to cover up Troll attacks.
