Name : Jette Kernion / Alias : indieWIRE
Only James McAvoy's multi-faceted performance saves the movie from complete mediocrity.

Name : John DeFore / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The director ties themes together at the end with more finesse than usual, letting a couple of meaningful visuals speak for themselves where he might have thrown in a line or two of explanatory dialogue.

Name : Katie Rife / Alias : AV Club
Split is a solid example of the type of elevated B-movie potboiler at which Shyamalan excels, and to which he thankfully seems to be re-committing his energies.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
With impressive technical credits, stunning fjord and forest locations and a winking ownership of its own absurdity, "Trollhunter" manages to be at once spooky, satirical and endearing.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A monster movie with a love for mountainous, tree-lined Scandinavian scenery and an even greater love for setting memorably ugly, hulking and destructive mythological creatures against it.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Like the folks who dreamed up lycanthropy, the Trollhunter writers either have an abundance of imagination or they've been smoking a controlled substance.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
As the stoic titular slayer, Otto Jespersen is the one actor who holds you.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Andre Ovredal's enjoyably goofy scare-pic purports to offer real footage of real horror - in this case, a variety of forest and mountain trolls.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An enjoyably off-kilter hybrid of The Blair Witch Project and Where the Wild Things Are.

Name : Eric Kohn / Alias : indieWIRE
Yes, Troll Hunter is derivative, but Ovredal seamlessly assembles his reference points with a steady ability to do them proud.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
It can't seem to make up its mind about whether it wants to frighten us or make us laugh. It does a little bit of both, to be sure, but not nearly enough of either to make much of a lasting impression.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : NPR
Genially simpleminded and more sweet than scary, Trollhunter never settles on a tone. Fairytale fantasy, supernatural comedy, serious horror? All are sampled, to the detriment of the whole.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
The film takes off into a witty realm of nonplussed responses and folklore made roaringly real.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Successful on multiple levels, with a brisk pace, excellent location work and a strong lead performance by Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
A drily comic blend of irresistible ingredients that gets better as it goes along.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Enormously entertaining chiller.

Name : Roger Ebert / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
They spend a great deal of time roaring, bleating, squealing and snorting at a very high volume, which is, after a point, too much of a muchness.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Trollhunter" has a lot of down time as the crew treks to the fjords, but it's also got dryly subversive humor and, eventually, some impressive special effects.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
This is what happens when the Norwegians try to make their own "Blair Witch Project": We get three-headed trolls that hate Vitamin D and references to "Deliverance."

Name : Nick Pinkerton / Alias : Village Voice
As de-mythologizings go, Trollhunter has neither the wit, nor art, nor social insight to honor the legacy of George A. Romero's Martin.

Name : Mike Hale / Alias : New York Times
One of the many pleasures of the Norwegian director Andre Ovredal's clever and engaging mock documentary "Trollhunter" is the way it plays with the idea of the supernatural rule book.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Once again, material for a great short film has been expanded to feature length at its peril and ours. Still, this is clever stuff and surprisingly engrossing on its own terms.

Name : Nigel Floyd / Alias : Time Out
Given that the cast improvised all the scenes live on set, the dialogue has a surprising ring of truth, and is shot through with an unexpected, often unsettling, humour.

Name : V.A. Musetto / Alias : New York Post
You'll want to catch this clever movie before Hollywood ruins everything with a dumb remake.

Name : Noel Murray / Alias : AV Club
Here's what's not so good in Troll Hunter: the actual troll hunting.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Those fog-draped fjords provide a distractingly pretty backdrop to this tale of mysterious, massive creatures who roam the forest by night, searching for Christians on whom to munch.

Name : Michael Wilmington / Alias : Chicago Reader
The film is shot with handheld cameras in the standard mockumentary style, but the content is often hilarious, especially when the trolls show up.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It's so steeped in troll and paranoia lore, it risks boring you with the details at times. But it also makes you more inclined to believe it, and the frights are real enough.