Is Troll Hunter Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 3.5 out of 10. It's found-footage tension with a lot of dry humor and some very large trolls.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
3.5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
The feeling is gone by the end of the credits.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Fine for most teenagers, and best watched with someone who can explain what a Jötunn is.
Troll Hunter runs 104 minutes and is filmed by a group of Norwegian film students who think they are chasing a bear poacher. The poacher hunts something else, and the bear tracks looked odd to the local hunters from the start.
The premise, briefly
Three students trying to film a suspected bear poacher follow him into a forest at night and learn that he is employed to hunt trolls.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The hunter turns a giant Jötunn to stone, the government agents confiscate the tapes, and the last footage ends with Thomas on a road with a truck coming. The students never turn up again.
The scene you're dreading
In the middle, the group is trapped inside a mine by cave trolls. The trolls smell Kalle, the cameraman, and he is caught and killed while everyone runs for the daylight.
The dog
No dog dies in Troll Hunter. Live goats are used as bait on a bridge.
It is an adventure with a dry sense of humor and one genuinely tense chase, and knowing the plot loses very little.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A wildlife board with a very busy cover story
Three students from Volda University College, Thomas, Johanna and their cameraman Kalle, start a documentary about Hans, a suspected bear poacher. At the site of an illegally killed bear, local hunters say the tracks look odd, and Finn Haugen of the Norwegian Wildlife Board waves away the idea that anyone faked them. Hans keeps refusing interviews, so the students follow him into a forest at night. They see flashing lights and hear roars, and Hans sprints out of the trees yelling "Troll!" Something bites Thomas during the escape. Their own vehicle has been wrecked, so they flee in Hans's Land Rover. Hans admits he does not hunt bears. The students ask to interview and film him, and he agrees on one condition: they follow his instructions exactly.
The next day Hans asks the students about their religion, because trolls can smell Christian blood. His weapon is a flash-gun, which gives off powerful UV rays that imitate sunlight. Depending on the troll's age it turns the troll to stone or makes it explode. Hans flushes out a three-headed troll and turns it to stone. He says he agreed to the filming because he is tired of working for little pay and wants the truth out. Finn's team arrives, plants a bear carcass with fake tracks and says the students' tapes will be taken. Finn works for the Troll Security Service, whose job is to keep trolls secret. Hans's job is to kill the ones that come near towns. He says the trolls have been leaving their territory more often, so he baits a bridge troll with live goats and takes a blood sample to a vet.
A mine with a very bad tenant
The scene people dread comes in the middle of the movie. Hans and the students follow tracks from a farm to an old mine, and it turns out to be a cave troll lair. The trolls come home while the group is inside, so everyone is trapped. The trolls pick up Kalle's scent, since he is a Christian, and that gives the group away. Everyone runs for the entrance and the daylight outside. Kalle does not make it and is killed by the trolls.
A Jötunn with a very long walk to the highway
The students get a replacement camerawoman, Malica, and Finn orders Hans north to troll territory to deal with the problem. Signs of a Jötunn turn up, a mountain troll that is between fifty and a hundred metres tall. Thomas, who was bitten days earlier, falls ill, and the troll blood sample comes back positive for rabies. After several tries, Hans fires a rocket-like projectile that turns the Jötunn to stone, once he has sent the others off toward the road. Finn and the TSS agents arrive to confiscate the tapes. Thomas runs off with the camera and ends up beside a road with a truck coming, which is where the footage ends.
The ending, explained
Hans kills the Jötunn with a rocket-like projectile that turns it to stone, once he has sent the students off toward the road. Finn and his Troll Security Service agents arrive to take the tapes, but Thomas runs off with the camera and ends up beside a road as a truck approaches. The footage stops there. An epilogue says the students were never heard from again. The film closes with a news clip in which the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, appears to admit that trolls exist. The reporters do not pick up on it.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed either way whether there is a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Troll Hunter scary?
Somewhat. Troll Hunter is a 3.5 out of 10 with little dread afterward, built from found-footage tension, dark humor and a few chase scenes. The trolls are large and the film is not very gory.
How does Troll Hunter end?
Hans turns a giant Jötunn to stone, and Finn's agents confiscate the tapes. Thomas runs off with the camera and ends up on a road with a truck coming, and an epilogue says the students never turned up again.
Does the dog die in Troll Hunter?
No dog dies in Troll Hunter. A bear carcass turns up, and live goats are used as bait on a bridge.
Is there a post-credits scene in Troll Hunter?
Nobody has confirmed either way. The film's last scene is a news clip about the Norwegian Prime Minister.
What is the Troll Security Service in Troll Hunter?
It is the agency that keeps trolls secret, and Finn works for it. Hans kills trolls that come near towns, and the Troll Security Service plants fake bear tracks and carcasses to cover it up.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Troll Hunter is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You do not have to follow Hans into a mine to know what happens in Troll Hunter. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
