This verite styled, fake documentary, is both obviously raucous with funny dialogue, characters, and playful images, and thrilling as it centers on a long upheld conspiracy by the Norwegian government. The film starts as a documentary made by several college kids, looking for the identity of a bear poacher who has been killing rogue bears around the countryside. They end up meeting and stalking a man named Thomas (Trosterud), who seems atypical and suspicious. The rest of the film follows the wayward kids as they follow Thomas on his many missions through the cavernous mountains and lush forests of Norway, killing wayward trolls. Trosterud gives an interesting performance as the sullen and reserved Thomas. He always speaks with affinity, gives away information on his profession without seeming to care about the consequences, and is gruff and bad mannered at times. Though he seems not to care about what will come when he reveals all his secrets, it's obvious that there's a laid plan for what he will do once everything is unearthed. The trolls themselves are really well designed. They move like real animals, and they have castes and species differentiation that make them unique and tangible for the audience. The way they roam the mountains in family structures makes them as predatory as any frightening beast in nature. The other supporting characters are oftentimes officials and other people in the conspiracy, who don't want the tape to get out, but at the same time they are more concerned with the fleets of huge trolls killing off everything in sight. The documentary crew aren't seen very much, but they act like real college kids, with all the confidence of youth and the problems of that age as well. Some of the visuals are incomparable in how amazing they seem, how vivid and realistic they come across, and this movie is worth watching just for that. The Norwegian countryside serves as a moody backdrop as well as a beautiful setting. It's also pretty funny at times, whether it's a lewd performance by a Polish bear trapper, or Thomas' mannerisms during his interviews. This film can be highly recommended for a plethora of reasons, plus there are trolls. Very little to lose in watching this.

A trio of students from a local college follow a suspected poacher but when they discover he works for a state sanctioned troll management agency, he allows them to film him perform his secret work. Yet another faux "actual footage" pseudo documentary from the Blair Witch school, Troll Hunter at least has an inventive premise and a sense of humour about what it's doing. It's all very tongue in cheek and the cast are actually quite believable and naturalistic in their roles; Otto Jesperson's jaded hunter is good fun, playing his part like a dejected Crocodile Dundee fed up of his thankless task. But thanks to the format, all we really get is more wobbly cam footage of people running around in the woods and hiding in caves just like Blair With itself; in fact thanks to some spectacular Scandinavian scenery, a lot of the time it looks like a promo from the Norwegian tourist board. The biggest problem with it however is despite its sense of humour, it just isn't funny enough; it's mildly amusing whenever the government bureaucrat who's trying to cover up the existence of the trolls appears, but it's never laugh out loud funny and without any real drama or spectacle it needed more laughs. The closing battle with the giant troll is very well done and it would've made an amusing short, but a few computer generated muppets and some woodland aerobics just isn't enough to maintain the interest for nearly two hours.