Trollhunter could best be described as a reality based horror film that starts in the tradition of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, only in Norwegian. A couple of students are making a guerilla film about bear hunters and start stalking one of the more closely guarded hunters. There’s plenty of handheld points-of-view mixed with discovery of something mysterious but not quite crystal clear in the woods.

After a cliché but revelatory first act the film changes gears and becomes less like its influences and more of its own animal. The sportsman eventually takes the kids under his confidence and enlists them in his mission to bag trolls, big ugly monsters that live in the forest. There’s a feel to the action highlighted by the fact that we’re in Norway. The backgrounds can vary from thick brooding masses of trees (and what that hides) to clear lakes bordered by mountains and foggy clouds. The monsters themselves are carefully introduced bit by bit while the foreign culture and its mythologies seduce the audience in an offhand manner. Trollhunter will be best enjoyed by fans of the genre, and rolls into the River Oaks Three as a midnight movie this weekend.

- Michael Bergeron