Review: Troll (2022 – Netflix)

Troll is, in most ways, a very conventional kaiju movie. If you want the standard plot beats of a big monster stomping across the countryside and imperilling cities, the military overreacting and one brilliant scientist saving the day, then you’ll enjoy this.

The fresh twist is in the title and the film’s origin. The kaiju is a giant rocky troll, awoken when foolish humans try to blast a tunnel through his mountain. Fun, explosions and stomping on things ensue as the troll heads off through Norway on a mission of revenge against Oslo. Oslo, apparently, has had it coming for centuries but I don’t want to give too much away.

Aside from this, there isn’t much to say. The actors give it their all and the effects are sufficiently convincing and much stomping occurs, along with a range of increasingly bizarre military measures against the troll (church bell-wielding helicopters being a particularly novel one).

There’s an obvious comparison to be made with the 2010 found footage/mockumentuary Troll Hunter, another Norwegian movie that takes the idea of folkloric trolls at least semi-seriously as movie-worthy monsters with their own sets of rules and dangers. Troll lacks the subtleties of Troll Hunter though but knows that its audience wants things being stomped.