It’s no secret that The Troll Hunter, André Øvredal’s Norwegian found-footage mockumentary, was the film from this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival that I was most anticipating. Following Finland’s excellent Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale and off the back of King of Devil’s Island (review coming shortly), I hoped that these two Scandinavian successes might have rubbed off on Øvredal’s film. With critics already deeming it “amazing”, I was positively rabid with curiosity.

Anyone under the impression that the found footage method had peaked with REC and Cloverfield, or even earlier with The Blair Witch Project, will soon be eating their words with The Troll Hunter, which is a thrilling revival of the format that strikes a delightfully successful balance between ultra-low budget subtlety and Hollywood frills. Director André Øvredal has triumphed with a movie that delivers on just about every level.

Opening with a trio of students seeking to document the work of supposed bear poacher, Hans (Otto Jespersen), it is soon revealed that the budding filmmakers have bitten off far more than they can chew. Tracking Hans down to a stretch of woodland, they are finally introduced to their subject as he flees from the trees screaming “Troll”. Believing him deluded, the group – consisting of Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Johanna (Johanna Mørck) and Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) – join the titular “troll hunter” on his mission to track down escapees from a selection of designated territories around Norway, uncovering an inept government conspiracy along they way.

The Troll Hunter is a breathtaking piece of cinema, with stolen glimpses of the stunning Norwegian landscape as the foursome travel the country by car giving the film a macabre fairytale quality as the audience awaits what is to be just one of many impeccable money shots. With an estimated budget of just ,000,000, The Troll Hunter is a film punching far above its weight, with spectacular production values often simply the result of accomplished cinematography and the geological beauty alone. One shot in particular, almost immediately following our introduction to the the movie’s first troll – an imposingly three-headed Tusseladd – exquisitely reveals what initially appears little more than a tree trunk to be the towering beast in question.

The Troll Hunter’s crowning achievement, above its expert handling of tension and polished sheen, is the jaw-dropping creativity evident in the troll designs. Split between two types – mountain and woodland – and distinguishable by their choice of self-destruction, there is a truly incredible amount of variety and imagination on display. Each variation proving more ridiculous than the next, and yet steadily more horrific at the same time, the otherwordliness of the setting somehow allows these behemoths to merge seemlessly with their stark surroundings. Undercut by some note-perfect Nordic humour, and with a winning irreverence to its own stupidity, The Troll Hunter amounts to an unmitigated success.

Let down only by a generous running time and jarring lack of character development – a number of potentially dramatic plot developments are all but ignored by the actors in question – The Troll Hunter is an absolutely outstanding piece of filmmaking that overcomes considerable budgetary limitations with enormous zeal. Exciting, effortlessly eerie and completely unabashed in its portrayal of the trolls themselves, Øvredal’s film deserves all of the attention and praise that can be lavished upon it.

[Rating:4/5]