Scandinavian directors used to be known for their very long, very serious films. But in recent years, Swedish, Finnish, and Norwegian filmmakers have all turned in top-notch horror flicks. (See: Let Me In, Rare Exports, and Dead Snow, respectively.) With Trollhunter, Norway’s given us another great, tongue-in-cheek monster movie.(Opens June 10, and available now on iTunes.)
Like a lot of other post–Blair Witch Project horror movies, Trollhunter is a “found footage” film. (In this case, it’s footage that three Norwegian college students are supposed to have shot as they followed a professional troll hunter into the woods.) But the pacing, sensibility, and humor are fairly site-specific (which is to say, lighter, and funnier, than those of your run-of-the-mill summer blockbuster), and the visual effects are unusually witty and surprisingly good (which is to say, the trolls look fantastic). It’s not exactly a Bergman movie. But it is a lot of fun.
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