Trollhunter
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: June 10, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
3
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
IndieWireEric KohnJun 6, 2011
The Troll Hunter offers high-caliber entertainment despite a low-budget production. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 5, 2011
Enormously entertaining chiller. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanSep 5, 2011
You might need to take a Norwegian guide along to explain various local references and identify the specific trolls, but Troll Hunter's proud cultural identity - tremble, a US remake is in the works - is its strongest suit. It's wry, spectacular fun. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderMichael WilmingtonJun 23, 2011
The film is shot with handheld cameras in the standard mockumentary style, but the content is often hilarious, especially when the trolls show up. There's also a marvelous deadpan comic performance by Otto Jespersen as a troll-hunter and tireless dispenser of troll lore. Read full review
80
The New York TimesMike HaleJun 9, 2011
One of the many pleasures of the Norwegian director André Ovredal's clever and engaging mock documentary Trollhunter is the way it plays with the idea of the supernatural rule book. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosJun 5, 2011
Troll Hunter may be a relatively low-budget fantasy but the film looks epic in all the right sequences. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 5, 2011
The Troll Hunter injects inventiveness, folkloric idiosyncrasy and deadpan humor into the overexploited faux-documentary trend. A generous dollop of "Jurassic Park" inspiration doesn't hurt either. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 30, 2011
It's contrived, but that doesn't keep it from being kinda nifty. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 30, 2011
Before Trollhunter is done with, the truth about these fairy-tale creatures - they gnaw on trees and truck tires, can be turned to stone by exposure to light, and have something against people who believe in Christ - is revealed. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubJun 16, 2011
André Øvredal's dry horror-comedy Trollhunter is successful on multiple levels, with a brisk pace, excellent location work and a strong lead performance by Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. MusettoJun 10, 2011
You'll want to catch this clever movie before Hollywood ruins everything with a dumb remake. Read full review
75
MovielineMichelle OrangeJun 9, 2011
The casting of Jespersen, with his sub-Wookie intonations and granite stare, is key: If this pillar of masculinity says there be trolls, I don't have to be bitten by one to believe it. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 16, 2011
Plays like the Brothers Grimm meets "Cloverfield" with a hint of Monty Python-esque ridiculousness. For a small indie film from Norway, Trollhunter rocks it gargantuan style and then some. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJun 8, 2011
It was an effective choice to shoot these majestic creatures vérité-style, with a jittery camera, but Trollhunter, unfortunately, is such an under-imagined knockoff of The Blair Witch Project that whenever the trolls aren't on screen, it verges on tedium. Read full review
65
NPRJeannette CatsoulisJun 10, 2011
A surpassingly silly monster movie with a side helping of satire, Trollhunter beckons mainly for its stunning Norwegian scenery and slyly effective government-bashing. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 1, 2011
Trollhunter has a lot of down time as the crew treks to the fjords, but it's also got dryly subversive humor and, eventually, some impressive special effects. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 30, 2011
What Trollhunter isn't is particularly scary, but in its defense, it's not trying to be. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 22, 2011
A lot of Trollhunter - but not enough - is funny. I imagine the best way to see the movie would be the way it was presented at Sundance, at a "secret" midnight screening at which the capacity audience allegedly has no idea what it is about to see. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 7, 2011
As with so many modern fantasy films, the sequences here seem designed to go viral on YouTube in a flash of coolness, not necessarily linger in the mind or heart. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJun 9, 2011
The trolls are the best part of Troll Hunter; they're funny and creepy. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJun 7, 2011
As de-mythologizings go, Trollhunter has neither the wit, nor art, nor social insight to honor the legacy of George A. Romero's "Martin." Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 30, 2011
The film's real problem is that it can't seem to make up its mind about whether it wants to frighten us or make us laugh. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinJun 5, 2011
Injecting some down time to intimate a vast internal life is one thing, but needlessly approximating patches of wasted time is another, and Trollhunter's dully drawn characters suggest that the latter is closer to what André Øvredal came up with. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJun 8, 2011
The Trollhunter writers either have an abundance of imagination or they've been smoking a controlled substance. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 10, 2011
This is what happens when the Norwegians try to make their own "Blair Witch Project": We get three-headed trolls that hate Vitamin D and references to "Deliverance." Read full review
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