The Troll review
Revenge is a dish best served in style.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Troll
Directed by Brianna Lee
Written by Brianna Lee
Starring Brianna Lee, Alena Acker and Katy Frame
The Troll Review
If you’ve read other reviews on this site you know that I have a gripe with influencer horror. Influencer horror, at least as I define it, involves characters whose in universe careers involve…being an influencer. The reason I have a problem with it as a sudden subgenre of horror is that it is incredibly rare for anyone to find anything new to say about it. We get it. Influencers are easy targets. They’re phony…they’re vapid…they’re self-obsessed. While it’s fun on paper to use them as fodder for a murderer…or flip it and have one be the antagonist…it simply hasn’t found the range to sustain the number of stories that employ them as a device. The Troll does find something new to say about them. And it wastes no time getting right down to business.
The influencer in The Troll is a bit of a phony too…but in a far more interesting way. While most movies would portray the character as putting on a fake act because it’s what their followers expect…The Troll’s lead character does it because it’s what she NEEDS to do. Her own happiness and self-worth are so wrapped up in those likes and fans that her self-esteem and inner thoughts turn against her the moment they stop. That might not sound like a huge difference…but it is one. This way paints a far more relatable character that isn’t the punchline of the bit. In fact, when a particularly triggering mean comment rocks her to her core…she becomes the driving force in delivering the punches herself.
Killa B (Brianna Lee) is a TikTok megastar. She’s self-conscious about everything but actively portrays a strong exterior. When a comment on one of her videos manages to hit all of her buttons…she sets out on a course of complete and total revenge. Revenge might not be the right word. Reckoning might be a more apt description.
The Troll clocks in at just over an hour…but it doesn’t waste any time. We meet Killa B, understand her internal trauma, and watch it become unlocked in short order. What follows is what makes The Troll such a refreshing influencer story. Killa B seeks out the commenter and systematically destroys everything in his life. She finds the weaknesses in everyone around him and exploits them. Just like his negative comment has done to her.
The comment involves all of Killa B’s insecurities. It calls her old…ugly…mannish…washed up. We hear the memories of similar comments from her childhood bouncing around Killa B’s head. The comment tells her that no one is watching her. And that can’t be allowed to stand. Killa B’s reckoning is impressive for how completely committed she is to bringing it about. She becomes a crack detective using pictures on the commenter’s profile to determine who he is and where he lives. She finds out who his parents are and what their most exploitable issues are. We’re talking…going undercover at an AA meeting to befriend his mother and send her back off the wagon. That level of reckoning.
But the commenter is her true target. Which, honestly, makes the way she psychologically destroys his parents incredibly wild. When the time comes to turn her attention to him…she names him her superfan and invites him to a private meeting. He walks himself right into his own kidnapping. During the scenes that follow the commenter asks why she’s doing this. He’s asking about his abduction, of course, but he might as well be asking about her career as an influencer. The confused look on her face would probably be the same either way.
The Troll does something new with the influencer based story. Killa B is more complex than the characters we normally see. You can relate to her but you’re going to end up on a ride of vengeance that you know isn’t justified. The level to which she sinks to harm people who have done nothing to her is impressively psychopathic. Brianna Lee wrote, directed and starred in The Troll. She makes Killa B an impressively three dimensional and oddly likable monster. What makes it interesting is that it isn’t the phony parts of the Killa B character that you’re drawn to. It’s the real parts that she buries in dance routines and elaborate revenge schemes. All the same.
Scare Value
The Troll is a character study without easy answers. Killa B bucks traditional influencer character archetypes by being the most interesting person in the story. She has to lie to herself…not her fans. Convince herself that she’s worthy of their attention. When a random mean comment pierces that bubble…her insane commitment shifts towards something far darker. If you’ve given up hope on influencer-based stories like I have…The Troll is worth a look.
