Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
“Deep in the Dovre mountain, something gigantic wakes up after a thousand years in captivity. The creature destroys everything in its path and quickly approaches Oslo.” Director: Roar UthaugWriters: Espen […]
“Deep in the Dovre mountain, something gigantic wakes up after a thousand years in captivity. The creature destroys everything in its path and quickly approaches Oslo.”
Director: Roar Uthaug
Writers: Espen Aukan, Roar Uthaug
Staring: Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Flack, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Rated: NR
Release Date: December 1, 2022
What got my into Troll (2022) was this awesome poster/thumbnail. Do you see this? I am already a sucker for B-rate monster movies, and when you build it up with a marketing image like this, I am going to be all in.
Amazingly this is the second Norwegian based troll movie I have seen. A well made found footage story was made in 2010 called Trollhunter, which I rated a B- and gave three stars. Trollhunter is a better made movie (if my memory serves me right), but damn if I did not enjoy Troll way more than I thought I would. Really the first half is its strongest, but there is enough entertainment value throughout to make you want to finish it and read all the subtitles.
So what is Troll about? Well, it is pretty simple. We begin the movie with a young daughter climbing a mountain with her father where he explains the legends of the trolls in Norway. Fast forward some years and we meet this young girl as a young women and a hungry archeologist. Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) is not deep into the lore like she once was as a child, but she has to quickly dive back into her childhood mindset when she is suddenly called upon by the Norwegian government to give her opinion on a strange video outside a mountain driller site.
What was the catalyst for a mountain imploding and killing dozens of individuals? Well, a troll of course. Nora sees something she never thought possible and now she has to figure out what to do next. The government wants to kill the thing (whatever it is because they don’t want to believe the troll story), but Nora teams up with the prime minister’s aid Andreas Isaksen (Kim Falck) and military officer Kaptein Kristoffer Holm (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen) to try a different solution.
Once Nora and her friends wrap their heads around what they are dealing with, the trio make acquittances with Nora’s estranged father. Tobias (Gard B. Eidsvold) is an expert at trolls, so much so that it drove him insane. However, what is the best way to deal with an obsession everyone called you crazy for? Getting proof that you were right all along.
Troll is a monster movie. Plain and simple. It has a beast that is misunderstood but is still terrorizing innocents so someone needs to do something. We have a hero that is thrown into a situation where she seems most out of place, but with the aid of a young comedic side kick and a hard-nosed rational man, she finds herself in a winnable scenario. Naturally though, the beast isn’t the only monster. What about the government and humanities crazy need to be violent themselves? What about the hungry quick-for-solutions military advisors that don’t want to listen to any advice?
It fits all the tropes you need for an enjoyable quick-paced monster flick. Troll is not going to win any awards and it is going to be forgettable, but if you need about 90 minutes to turn your brain off and watch a Norwegian version of Godzilla, then I would put Troll in your queue. Give yourself this one. Don’t worry about all the Oscar nominees or award discussions. Sometimes you just need to watch a movie for you, and that is what Troll was for me.
It also should be noted that the ending of Troll had a pretty obvious sequel possibility with the line along the lines of “Do you think there are any more out there.” and then a post credit scene of a mountain site filled with rock shrapnel and echoing monstrous howls. Now Troll 2 or whatever it is going to be called has not been green lit by Netflix, but the director Roar Uthaug and producer Kristian Strand Sinkerud have both expressed interest for another Troll installment.
I, for one, would be all in. I had fun watching this movie like I did the random horror movie Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight (2020). Is it the best made horror movie in the world? Oh, very far from it. But is it stupid enough to lasso me in? You betcha. Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight got a sequel that I will eventually watch, so I hope that Troll does too.
STANKO RATING: B (3.5/5 Stars)
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