" THE TROLL HUNTER " ABOUT “THE TROLL HUNTER” “Fairy tales don’t always match reality.” --The Troll Hunter Trolls. Aren’t they those cute little things in the gift shop with the wide eyes, big bellies and fluorescent Don King haircuts? In Norway, they are anything but. So when commercial director André Øvredal was searching for a subject for his first commercial feature film, he drew on a topic all Norwegians know about – trolls. “I wanted to do a film about a Norwegian heroic movie character, but I wanted it to be grounded in something truly Norwegian,” he explains. “That meant placing the character in a world of trolls, but in a modern setting.” Øvredal, like most Norwegians, grew up hearing fairy tales which included a mythology of trolls. “When I was very young, my grandparents used to read to me from a book written in the 1850s called ‘The Fairy Tales of Asbjørnsen and Moe,’ half of which related to trolls,” he recalls. “They varied from cute little creatures to big monsters.” It was the latter which inspired the writer/director to create THE TROLL HUNTER. The book was filled with drawings made by a Norwegian artist named Theodor Kittelsen. “They’re mostly of these monster-like trolls. Some are cozier and kinder, but some of them are really terrifying – more terrifying even than the trolls in our film.” It was that sense of trolls that Øvredal wanted to portray for audiences. “It’s a part of the troll mythology that hasn’t really been utilized since that book was published. Every time you see a troll cartoon or go into a gift shop, you never see those – you’ll see those little cute, gnome-like things. I wanted to make a monster movie based around trolls.” THE TROLL HUNTER (or Trolljegeren in Norwegian – pronounced “troll-YAY-geren”), though, doesn’t focus on trolls as much as it does on their hunter, Hans (along with his three student observers). “It’s really a portrait of the troll hunter, more than anything,” Øvredal says. The director drew inspiration from the 1992 Belgian film, “Man Bites Dog,” which features a film crew following the exploits of a serial killer. “It has an extremely dark sense of humor,” something Øvredal and his cast brought to this film, as well. Hans is a burned out government employee who spends his days dealing with ferocious, gigantic and immensely dangerous trolls, but much in the manner of an Animal Control Dept. officer who might be called upon to dispose of dead possums left on the roadway. He even, like so many American hunters driving about in their trucks, listens to American country music while hunting for trolls. Notes Øvredal, “That culture is very much the same in Norway, believe it or not. I mean, people love country and western music here. So it’s probably not so dissimilar in demographical music taste.” But Hans has been at it too long. “He is really tired of his job,” Øvredal explains. “He actually has a spectacular job, but he doesn’t see it that way.” Thomas, the student “host” of the videotaping, regularly points to Hans’s exploits as no less than heroic. “He’s a guy who regularly – and routinely – does amazing things and should be recognized for it, but never is,” Øvredal says. Hans goes about his business, like a depressed Eastwood or Wayne, simply taking care of business and doing the dirty work no one else will – or can – do. Though it wasn’t his original plan, Øvredal decided to create the story using a mockdocumentary style, similar to that seen in “Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield.” In this case, the story is viewed through the lens of one of the students, Kalle, whose character is operating the video camera through which we observe the story unfolding. “The documentary approach actually came later – more out of the necessity of wanting to create something that should feel like a big budget effects film – but, unfortunately, without the big budget,” he laughs. But unlike “Blair,” which he notes had a rougher look to it, Øvredal sought to back away from the handheld look of that film, and to preserve more of the storytelling he wanted to portray, as well as capture the beautiful natural scenery and, of course, the trolls themselves. “It’s structured exactly according to classic three-act structuring,” he explains, noting that the first troll isn’t revealed until the second act of the movie. “That transition is the first big transition of the film – to turn Hans and have him decide to allow the three students to accompany him. Then we needed to turn them, to believe what he knows.” An important balance had to be struck between a “tag-along” documentary and a real movie. “We needed to make sure that it felt like a documentary, but it needed to drive like a motion picture. Following that, then the documentary madness could take care of the rest.” The documentary approach is key to telling the story – and is perhaps the only way to give the audience the sense that trolls, in fact, exist. “It brings an incredible sense of realism,” the director explains. “We’re insisting that this is real. The trolls are part of a dirty reality.” The insistence on reality, in fact, is what has made the film so incredibly popular since its release in October 2010 in its country of origin, Norway, where it is considered by fans as not simply a monster movie, but as a dark comedy. “These are figures from fairy tales being explained scientifically, in a matter-of-fact manner, as if they really exist. I mean, we’re explaining how a troll works, why they turn to stone, and the actors deliver it perfectly. You have to be completely dry about it – the flatter the delivery, the funnier it is. And the Norwegian audiences see this, and they laugh, because it’s so ridiculous to have all this explained in a film that pretends to be so serious.” Otto Jespersen in TROLLHUNTER, a Magnet Release. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
TROLL HUNTER: TRAILER (VOSTFR) - FILM CLIPS (VOSTFR): " ils tentent d'échapper à un troll géant" - " les jeunes tentent d'approcher le chasseur de trolls" -