Movies
A Reckoning
“It is a powerful piece and one that will drive the viewer directly into the main characters shoes—which is the place where A Reckoning really lives and breathes. So, as this film becomes available to a wider audience, consider whether or not you are mentally equipped to take the journey laid before you by the cast and crew of this amazing little independent film.”
“The last thing to go is habit”
At the end of the world, when you look back upon the life you lived, would you have regrets? What would they be? What if you were the last man on earth? Would you be able to cope with that kind of desolation and isolation and learn to live (or rather exist) within the confines of your own emotions? First-time Writer/Director A.D. Barker’s film A Reckoning never distinctly addresses any of these heady questions—rather it dances like black-clad mime against a stark white backdrop around those themes, never offering any true answers to any of the films innumerable mysteries. A character study in the maddening disintegration of a man (Leslie Simpson; The Descent) who, by the time we meet him, is already completely insane.
The Man, is the possibly the last survivor of some horrific event that has left his small village a bleak wasteland of empty buildings trapped in a seemingly never ending winter. The film however, is careful to never reveal the time or place (only the man’s accent exposes his British origins, although the film never specifies it is set in the British Isles.). The time could be any, the place could be any, the man could be any. This is not a Hollywood interpretive of Richard Matheson’s doomed Robert Neville. There are no vampires to battle. There is no meditative Spielbergian quest with a Kubrickian twist on the end of times. There is nothing left in A Reckoning but nothing. Closer to Cormac McCarthy’s austere masterpiece “The Road” than perhaps even that film adaptation was—A Reckoning is bleak and hopeless and yet, in the end, there is hope to be had.
The film centers around two distinctly opposing forces. The pale blanket of grayish snow that covers the earth as dead as the landscape that wastes away around it, and the man who in the center of it all, jogs and builds fires and reads poetry and gets up every morning to teach school to a collection of life-size straw puppets he has accepted as his pupils. Was this man ever a teacher before? As he utters “habit is the last thing to go”, are we to believe that he just continues his daily routine, living, as it were, in a complete state of denial of all that surrounds him?
Once again, I believe the film is asking its audience, to accept what would (to our own minds) be the unacceptable—to feel and recognize and understand that if we had nothing left to live for, what would we have to live for. What would we do in the end of days? Would we just continue to sleepwalk through our lives? Would we get up every day and go to work and sit in front of computers that wouldn’t boot up, behind desks that were decaying, eating lunch in break rooms with no light, visiting parks that were devoid of children’s laughter and stopping to smell flowers that will never bloom? It drains even the viewer to comprehend a world that is so incomprehensible. Would we be haunted by the ghosts of our past, the way the Man in this tale is? Would we descend so far into madness that the dreams would become reality and the ghosts would manifest themselves as reality (or at least, our own twisted version of reality)? The concept is so foreign and fearful that it’s unnerving to even consider it.
A Reckoning is certainly not a film for all, Spartan and severe, the dialogue is limited, the action is minimalist and the plot is virtually non-existent. But it captivates in a way that is all encompassing. The performance from Leslie Simpson is a revelation—and he holds the viewer with every sunken-eyed stare. Rarely is an actor called upon to give so much to a role. Trapped in this forsaken place, Simpson has nothing and no one but his straw people to push his performance. It is a powerful piece and one that will drive the viewer directly into the main characters shoes—which is the place where A Reckoning really lives and breathes. So, as this film becomes available to a wider audience, consider whether or not you are mentally equipped to take the journey laid before you by the cast and crew of this amazing little independent film. Because, like it or not, it may force you to recognize your own mortality and drive you to consider what you might do, if everything and everyone you loved suddenly vanished.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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