The Troll (2026) Review

There are ‘independent’ films, and then there are independent films like The Troll. Brianna Lee doesn’t just direct, write and star here. She also produces, edits, contributes to the visual effects and and it feels like she spent much of the production asking, “What still needs doing?” That level of creative involvement could feel like an exercise in control but here, it comes across as sheer determination.

Lee plays Bethany, better known to millions of followers as TikTok sensation Killa B. She’s an influencer whose relentlessly upbeat online persona begins to crack after a cruel anonymous comment hits a little too close to home. Instead of blocking the user and moving on, she does the exact opposite. She tracks him down, cleverly inserts herself into his life and gradually turns a petty online slight into something very dark.

We’ve had no shortage of stories about influencer culture over the past few years. Spree, Deathstream and Influencer are just a few examples of films about social media status going wrong. Many of the movies based on this idea arrive armed with the same talking points. Social media is toxic. Validation is addictive. Fame comes at a cost. The Troll certainly visits those ideas, but that’s not the most interesting thing about it.

Instead, the focus is definitely on Bethany. Lee plays her with an energy that’s difficult to pin down. One moment she’s delivering chirpy videos for her followers, the next she’s staring into space as though she’s forgotten which version of herself she’s supposed to be performing. The shifts aren’t always subtle, and they don’t need to be. Killa B is somebody whose entire existence revolves around performance, so it makes sense that even her moments of vulnerability feel rehearsed. And that contradiction is one of the most interesting elements.

The Troll doesn’t dig quite as deeply into it as it could. Bethany tells us about the damage caused by bullying and impossible expectations, yet we spend surprisingly little time seeing the public pressure that supposedly created this version of her. The result is that her obsession occasionally feels like it arrives before we’ve entirely understood the wound it’s growing from.

It’s easier to sympathise with Bethany than you might think. Greg Saridakis convincingly plays Josh as the sort of teenager who posts something cruel because it costs him nothing. The film  avoids making him into a cartoon villain, so once Bethany begins dismantling his life, the moral balance shifts in increasingly uncomfortable ways.

The thriller elements work reasonably well too. Lee knows how to keep things moving, and at barely over an hour the film rarely hangs around once it’s made its point. And without giving away too much, the ending has a sting in the tail that I genuinely wasn’t expecting, so there’s plenty to appreciate.

The low budget occasionally shows. Some scenes ask you to accept a level of celebrity that the production simply can’t quite visualise, and there are moments where the scale of Bethany’s online fame feels more talked about than demonstrated. Even so, the film often looks far more polished than productions operating in this bracket usually manage.

The film also makes you think about how quickly online outrage burns itself out. Today’s villain is forgotten by tomorrow morning. The Troll quietly pushes against that idea, suggesting that while the internet moves on in seconds, the people caught up in it often don’t.

The Troll doesn’t say anything radically new about influencer culture, and it sometimes reaches its destination a little too predictably. But, there’s a confidence to Lee’s filmmaking that leads to undoubted curiosity about what she does next. For a debut feature made with this level of creative ownership, it’s a fine piece of work that understands exactly how much story it has to tell, even if it leaves a few of its more interesting ideas just out of reach.

Movie Rating:

The Troll trailer