Trolls & Monsters

Saw two intriguing flicks recently that seem like they belong in the same post.

Trollhunter is a Norwegian film that co-opts the Blair Witch/Cloverfield "found footage" aesthetic, spinning a quirky yarn about "real-life" trolls in Norway and the man who tracks them down.



Monsters is an American indie film about two tourists trying to make their way back to America from Mexico, through an "infected zone" that has been set up to contain the spread of a race of extraterrestrials who have found their way to Earth and effectively taken over northern Mexico.



Despite the marketing departments' predictably misleading trailers above, both are "indie" features made on relatively shoestring budgets, where the focus is more on the human characters and our society than gee-whiz effects or explosions. Neither is a masterpiece by any means, but their flaws at least stem from missteps in probing comparatively unturned ground, rather than following by-the-numbers Hollywood monster movie cliches. Both are on Netflix Instant right now. Check them out.