Troll Hunter

Film students investigating a bear-poaching case find a tired government contractor whose job is keeping Norway's real, huge, protected troll population in check and covered up.

André Øvredal plays the whole thing as bureaucratic comedy: the trolls are managed like a wildlife agency problem, the hunter is a burnt-out civil servant with paperwork, and the folklore is treated as an operational manual. Christians smell different to trolls, so the crew are asked whether any of them believe.

The creature design is very good and the scale is used well, the reveals held back and then delivered in full daylight against real Norwegian landscape.

Otto Jespersen, a Norwegian comedian, plays the hunter with total weariness, which is why it works.

Remake rights were bought immediately and nothing came of them, which is the correct outcome.