Trollhunter

(Andre Ovredal/2010/Norway)

A superb mockumentary using found footage about covert operations in Norway’s woodlands attempting to keep trolls away from the hoi polloi and to also control their population. It builds from innocent naivety to complicit partaking in the troll hunting like a mash up of Blair Witch and Man Bites Dog, it is a worthy successor of the style of both those movies. It’s also wonderfully droll, depicting official mismanagement and bureaucratic negligence as all the while the hunter complains of his lot. All the fairy tale tropes are there, 3 goats on a bridge, trolls turned to stone, smelling Christian blood etc but it lifts itself out of parody with the subtext of state sponsored censorship and secrecy being imperative to keep the status quo and all funded by the unknowing public. Hugely funny and deftly executed with all parts acted impeccably, this is a favourite of mine.

(4/5)

Priest

(Scott Stewart/2011/USA)

Inspired by a Korean comic series this film version is a mash up of styles that tips the titfer to the comic straight off the bat with an introductory animation sequence that backgrounds an old war between men and vampires on a post apocalyptic earth. A war waged by assassin priests. There are the wastelands and there is the urban hell of human remnants gathered in crumbling cities. A mutated religious fervour has taken over humanity but the assassin priests have disbanded since wiping out the vampires. Cue the return of those nasty bloodsuckers! 

This film is all sheen, it looks brilliant, but it makes no sense at times, there are apparently no priests left but 4 can be found at the drop of a hat to take up the gauntlet of the plot for example? It’s definitely a switch off the brain affair and is thoroughly enjoyable as spectacle once you’ve done so. The wasteland is the Wild West and the main baddie hams up the Clint Eastwood schtick. The action is terrific and fast paced particularly the sequence from the reservation via the hive guardian to the village with the train and bike scene referencing Mad Max and the Matrix. It’s style over substance but very watchable style all the same.

(2.5/5)

The Last Days on Mars

(Ruairi Robinson/2013/USA)

Don’t you just hate it when you’re about to finish up an exploratory science mission on Mars and one of the crew goes and gets infected with some microbe that turns everyone into zombie monsters? Hollywood has discovered how to convincingly depict the landscape of Mars; it just needs to discover how to write a good story around it now. This is a passable crossover of horror thriller into science fiction setting.

(2/5)