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[Image] 2010 (***1/2)

It's interesting that the promo material for Troll Hunter actually shows you one of the trolls — and not just any troll: the big one. No mystery there whatsoever. It's for the best, I think. When I first glimpsed one of the trolls I thought, "Awww, how cute!" If there's a way of making trolls frightening, this movie doesn't really try to achieve it. I mean, look at that nose! HONK!

Knowing ahead of time that the monster is cute lowers expectations — in a good way. Troll Hunter isn't intentionally a funny movie. It's not even really unintentionally funny. Nor is it cheap, bad, or amateurish. It's light, fun fare. It has everything that makes for a successful horror movie. The acting is good and earnest. The pace is good, although a few minutes could have been shaved off if there had been less footage of the lovely Norwegian countryside.

Most importantly, the monster poses a real threat — a believable one, in the context of this being a fun movie. The movie takes place primarily in the tall, stony woods of Norway, and even there, the trolls are strong enough to destroy shit. You can imagine nothing good happened to the person holding this camera.

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It's got better characters than Blair Witch and a lot more of the screen time is devoted to stationary shots, meaning the cinematography is not bouncing you down the road to migraines and barf. It's not scary, and it's not funny. It's just fun, and worth watching.