The Blair Witch on happy pills!

Went to see The Troll Hunter last night. Expecting a Blair Witch style jumpy gore fest, but got something so much more!

The film, although quite ridiculous in concept offers a subtle blend of docu-horror/slapstick-gore/comedy and modern day fairy-tale. Convincing acting and character development allows the start of the film to be nervy, edge of the seat stuff, we are expecting it to follow the same formula of other films in this genre, waiting for the creepy uncertainness of the Blair Witch to kick in or the jumpy anticipation of the Descent to take hold, but what is unveiled is much more akin to The Blair Witch on happy pills!

I was waiting to see the trolls and be terrified and impressed at their hideousness. But was fully aware that in many monster films once they are revealed and our imagination replaced with the "real thing" it never quite meets up to our expectations. But director André Øvredal is also aware of this predicament, so instead of trying to make the monsters as scary as possible (even tho the trolls are still pretty impressive and gruesome looking), he accepts this fact and plays on it. And this is where the direction of the film changes. Just before the reveal of the "terrifying" troll the first comedy line is delivered and we start to form huge grins across our faces as we follow the chase, and retreat of our main characters, hoping no one dies, not because its scary as such, although the suspense is still maintained, but because we want to see how the story develops. We want to see more troll deaths, and more troll characters, we are waiting to revel in all the different and wonderful ways in which they can be captured and killed. This helps to keep the suspense up, still keep us on the edge of our seat like a classic horror film should, whilst laughing all the way. And all along there is still a creepy undertone, of what if this was real?

This is definitely one to watch. Go along expecting nothing, and you'll come out grinning like a loon.