The Plot

The story opens with an adorable scrap-book-esque retelling of the historical relationship between Trolls and Bergens.

"The Trolls are small creatures who live in an almost perpetual state of happiness, singing, dancing and hugging all day. However, they are discovered by the Bergens, large miserable creatures, who can feel happy only after eating a Troll.” - Wikipedia

THIS IS THE BASIS OF THE WHOLE MOVIE! BERGENS EAT TROLLS! I’m just gonna slap Cannibalism Superpower and Eaten Alive tropes down here. In this story, Trolls are the protagonists and they are trying to NOT GET EATEN by Bergens.

Horrific.

As part of the backstory we find out about a Bergen prince who was old enough to eat his very first Troll and experience 'true happiness' for the first time. It seems like the whole kingdom has gathered around the Troll tree to witness the young prince’s initiation into happiness.

These monsters even have a holiday called Trollstice where they eat Trolls en masse!

Horrible.

Thankfully, the young prince eats a wooden dummy instead of the troll princess, Poppy, and we find out the Trolls have escaped their horrible fate just in the nick of time. The Bergens have been denied their feast and the Trolls can live happily ever after.

But wait.

Our story ACTUALLY starts twenty years later when Princess Poppy, now twenty-three, decides to throw a big party. After twenty years of peace and safety from Bergen-horrors she doesn’t even think twice about making it the biggest, loudest party ever; despite one Troll, Branch, warning her of the danger.

We also find out that Trolls are conditioned to hug one another every hour through flower bracelets they wear that light up and make a noise.

Suuure, hugs aren’t really a horrific thing unless you’re Branch. Or an introvert. Or there’s some sort of virus being spread via hugs. But it still counts as conditioning.

Blah blah the Trolls make so much noise it attracts the attention of a Bergen who kidnaps a handful of Princess Poppy’s friends. Now Princess Poppy must go through the scary forest to find a way into Bergentown to rescue her friends. In the forest we encounter the following tropes:

Giant Spider 

Man-Eating Plant 

Nature Is Not Nice 

Spiders are Scary

All Webbed Up 

Basically, this is a forest of horrors and creatures other than Bergens seem to think Trolls would make a tasty snack.

Then Branch joins her. Branch, we find out later, has a Dark and Troubled Past which is why he doesn’t sing like other Trolls and why he is grey and dour.

More things happen, the Trolls are sort of rescued but Creek, Princess Poppy’s crush, has a few tropes of his own before the movie ends.

Enemy Rising Behind

Mysteriously Premature Death Declaration

Cruel and Unusual Death

Death by Mocking

Turns out, Creek is an asshole and he gets eaten in the end. After being set on fire. Along with the Bergen he allied himself with to save his bacon.

Yay happy endings!

SHEER HORROR THERE!

The Cast

Okay, so the plot had a lot of tropes but what about the cast? Prepare yourself….

Cooper

Trolls have a lot of colour variation but this nightmare looks nothing like any other Troll we see. He fits both the Long Neck and the Beast with a Human Face tropes! But srsly, WTF is Cooper? His entire body is covered with Troll hair according to Dreamworks!

Satin and Chenille

Usually, Conjoined Twins are connected by the body somehow but these two are connected by their hair; a major organ to Trolls. (The official Dreamworks site also says they’re conjoined twins.)

Branch

Oh, Branch. Branch, Branch, Branch. You poor bastard caught in a prison of Personal Horror. When he was a child, Branch caused the death of his Granny. (Notice how bbBranch was blue? This incident changed him profoundly and he lost his colour.)

This Creepy Child

This creepy child Troll has no name that I could find but omg. So creepy. 

Conclusion

Look, I know Trolls is billed as a computer-animated, buddy, romantic, musical, comedy film but over a dozen horror tropes applicable to the show also means it’s a HORROR movie.