Troll wants to be a monster movie, a family drama, and a political satire all at once. It fails at all of them. The 2022 Netflix release, directed by Roar Uthaug and written by him and Espen Aukan, follows paleontologist Nora Tidemann as she investigates a massive troll awakened in Norway’s Dovre mountains. The troll is a genuine threat, but the film around it is a mess.
Trailer, via Netflix.
The Monster and the Mythology
The premise is simple and effective. A drilling operation triggers an eruption, killing workers and protesters. Nora, a paleontologist on her first major find, spots strange impressions in the rock that look like footprints. She’s right. A 164-foot-tall troll has been hiding on the mountainside for centuries, and it’s waking up.
The troll itself is the film’s strongest element. It looks genuinely threatening, and the scene where it emerges from the mountain is genuinely unnerving. That’s about all the film gets right.
The Humans Are the Problem
Nora’s father, Tobias, is a professor who believes in the existence of mythical creatures. He loses his job for it. Nora is desperate for validation, and the film leans on this father-daughter tension to carry the emotional weight. It doesn’t work. The relationship feels forced, and the dialogue is clunky.
The government response is equally bad. Prime Minister Berit Moberg and her advisor Andreas Isaksen recruit a team of scientists to investigate. The team includes Captain Kris Holm from the FSK, a Norwegian soldier. Their investigations are half-hearted, and the military response is a joke. Conventional weapons annoy the troll. Church bells, based on research into the mythology, are the solution.
That’s the film’s central problem. The troll is a real threat, but the humans are a collection of stereotypes. The paleontologist is smart. The soldier is brave. The politician is cautious. None of them are people. They’re functions in a machine designed to deliver a monster movie.
A Sequel Nobody Asked For
The film’s ending leaves the troll undefeated. There’s no resolution, just a setup for a sequel. That sequel, Troll 2, exists, though the source does not specify when it arrived.
The score is 3.0/10. That’s not a typo. The film is poorly paced, poorly acted, and poorly written.
Key Facts
– Director: Roar Uthaug
– Writers: Espen Aukan, Roar Uthaug
– Runtime: 104 minutes
– Release: Netflix, 1 December 2022
– Sequel: Troll 2 exists
– Troll height: 164 feet (50 m)
Troll is a disaster. The monster is good. Everything else is garbage.
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