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director/screenwriter: andre ovredal
category: park city at midnight
rating: 4 out of 5

this charming and satirical norwegian tale is a mockumentary mix of equal parts blair witch project and spinal tap, following three student filmmakers to remote locations in norway, trailing behind a "real life" troll hunter. hans, a crotchety mountain man mistaken for a bear poacher, is followed by the students, who discover their childhood legends about trolls in the forests are, in fact, truth. as a secret government operative, hans is tasked with concealing the existence of trolls from the unsuspecting public of norway. (so that's where all those stone fields come from!)
director and screenwriter andre ovredal works with conventions of the traditional suspense/thriller genre, using found-footage and documentary filmmaking motives to unveil both seriousness and humor. hans is the quintessential anti-hero ("hey, it's a living."); the trolls are not sensationalized CGI villains but, rather, gargantuan henson-esque beasts, lumbering through forests and under bridges at night. and each troll story from norse mythology receives a gentle shout-out. for the people of norway, the film is fraught with political and social commentary. for the audiences at sundance and, likely, america at large, troll hunter elicits laughter and gasps, with a well-crafted action-centric storyline, and splendid visions of norway (hey, it sure beats disney's norway ride.). maybe troll is the new vampire.