Trollhunter

Andre Ovredal's 2010 Norwegian film outdoes the realism of #10 by grounding its fantasy in bureaucratic absurdity. The trolls, rendered by 150 visual effects shots, are rendered 30 feet tall with a scientific consistency that makes them feel photoreal. The hunter's weary performance, backed by 90% practical creature effects, achieves a deadpan believability that makes the premise—a government cover-up of mythological beasts—feel documentary-level plausible. It runs 103 minutes with no wasted scenes.