50 Years of SIFF: Trollhunter
February 26 - March 10, 2024
When three Norwegian film students set out to make a documentary about illegal bear hunting, they soon discover their prime suspect isn’t a poacher—he’s a government sponsored troll hunter. FOOLS* CHOICE.
Seattle International Film Festival 2011 selection.
*The Fool Serious group (or “Fools”) is a group of fanatical cinephiles that gather throughout the Festival. The name is a play on the “Full Series” Festival pass, which they all purchase year after year.
"The polar opposite of Aki Kaurasmaki in Norwegian movies. Imaginative, fun and very chill… (because of the snow)”--Vince Miller, Fool Serious member
If you mixed equal parts The Blair Witch Project and Scooby-Doo, the resulting film would be a lot like Trollhunter. When allegations of bear poaching surface in the remote northern climes of Norway, three student filmmakers set out to document the investigation for their final project. Once there, they encounter the grizzled Hans, whose secretive actions soon lead the trio to settle upon him as their prime suspect. Unwilling to be interviewed, Hans escapes into the surrounding forests only to be secretly followed by the would-be documentarians. But their persistence lands them straight into the path of the real quarry: trolls—big, ugly, three-story tall trolls with a hunger for fresh meat, be it bear or human. Hans works as a black-ops government agent for the Troll Security Service, commissioned with protecting an unsuspecting general populace from these gargantuan terrors. Convincing Hans to allow them to film his work, the friends discover a dark, frightening fairy-tale world. Director André Øvredal eschews the formula set by other “found footage” horror flicks by showing off his monsters in their full, repulsive glory, while cleverly maintaining an intense, sardonic tone.
- Original Language Title: Trolljegeren
- Director: André Øvredal
- Principal Cast: Otto Jespersen, Glen Erland Tosterud, Hans Morten Hansen, Johanna Mørch, Tomas Alf Larsen, Urmila Berg-Domaas, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Naerum
- Country: Norway
- Year: 2010
- Running Time: 103 min.
- Producer: John M. Jacobsen, Sveinung Golimo
- Screenplay: André Øvredal
- Cinematographers: Hallvard Bræin
- Editors: Per Erik Eriksen
- Music: Baard Haugan Ingebretsen
- Website: http://www.trollhunterfilm.com/
- Filmography: Mortal (2020), The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), Future Murder (1997), The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
- Language: Norwegian
- US Distributor: Magnet Releasing
- International Sales: Magnolia Pictures