evi1r0n
Baron
The Wild Hunt is an indie film about a LARP gone terribly wrong. The main character's life is falling apart at the seems. He takes care of his handicapped father and that is too much for his girlfriend. She joins a LARP that the main character's brother belongs to. She leaves for the weekend event after breaking up with him.
The MC is distraught and heads to the event to reclaim his lady love. Unfortunately his disdain for LARP and lack of "decorum" make him a target of ridicule and eventually violence. As he delves deeper into the world of the game (based mostly on Norse mythology) we see the fanaticism and unstable nature of some of the players unravel before us like a grown-up Lord of the Flies.
The movie has three major points which ruined the film for me. Two I shall go over quickly the other I will write about at length.
1. None of the main characters are likable. It's true the main character is a whiny jerk, his brother is delusional and his girlfriend is just a terrible person. The second you feel anything for the characters, they open their mouths and ruin it.
2. The movie can't decide if it wants to be drama, comedy or horror. The comedic parts are far overshadowed by the depressing nature of the film. The only message I took away from the film is: "crazy people shouldn't LARP." That's it. The funniest part of the movie is shown in the preview and seems out of place in the scope of the film.
3. No LARPs or players are anything like the film portrays. The ridiculously over the top portrayal of fanaticism and willingness to be scooped up into mob mentality of the players just doesn't happen. The second anyone strikes a player with anything more than a boffer they would get banned, in any game I play. The escalation to utter chaos is just unbelievable. The staff of the game seems to be made up of two NPCs who maintain zero level of control over any given situation.
I remember watching the film with a LARP friend of mine and as things switched from drama to horror we constantly were saying, "that would never happen. That would definitely never happen..." So on and so forth. The "game" they play just isn't what LARP really is. Women don't trade sex for coin, people don't punch each other in the face to throw someone off balance for a boffer strike. It's really unrealistic and any intelligent adult could make that conclusion.
I know some people are worried that the film may damage the perceptions people have of LARPers but it's just not gonna happen. Anyone who believes this is what happens at LARPs are the same people who think D&D is witchcraft or Jaws is lurking in their freshwater lake. The crazies are gonna hate what we do no matter what. This film adds little fuel to their fire.
The characters who are the catalyst to the terrible violence of the 3rd act are so far gone that they would be dangerous in any situation. Sure people get really into their game of choice but nothing like what is displayed in the film. 3 or 4 insane fanatics are trumped by 100 other sane players not the other way around. At no point did some one say, "hey Larry, maybe you shouldn't kill that guy with a rock, I mean he's kinda my ride home after the event."
I give this movie 4/10 stars. The flick overall was a boring, depressing mess with horrible characters. The acting was solid for what they had to work with and some of the film was really watchable up until the 3rd act. The epilogue was reminiscent of any "dark" genre movie but creative in it's own right, just not believable.
**Thought I would post this from my blog since people were talking about it a few months ago. These are merely my opinions so take them for what they are, opinions... Hopefully I avoided any blatant spoilers. The movie did have really awesome costume and weapon design so there is that.**
The MC is distraught and heads to the event to reclaim his lady love. Unfortunately his disdain for LARP and lack of "decorum" make him a target of ridicule and eventually violence. As he delves deeper into the world of the game (based mostly on Norse mythology) we see the fanaticism and unstable nature of some of the players unravel before us like a grown-up Lord of the Flies.
The movie has three major points which ruined the film for me. Two I shall go over quickly the other I will write about at length.
1. None of the main characters are likable. It's true the main character is a whiny jerk, his brother is delusional and his girlfriend is just a terrible person. The second you feel anything for the characters, they open their mouths and ruin it.
2. The movie can't decide if it wants to be drama, comedy or horror. The comedic parts are far overshadowed by the depressing nature of the film. The only message I took away from the film is: "crazy people shouldn't LARP." That's it. The funniest part of the movie is shown in the preview and seems out of place in the scope of the film.
3. No LARPs or players are anything like the film portrays. The ridiculously over the top portrayal of fanaticism and willingness to be scooped up into mob mentality of the players just doesn't happen. The second anyone strikes a player with anything more than a boffer they would get banned, in any game I play. The escalation to utter chaos is just unbelievable. The staff of the game seems to be made up of two NPCs who maintain zero level of control over any given situation.
I remember watching the film with a LARP friend of mine and as things switched from drama to horror we constantly were saying, "that would never happen. That would definitely never happen..." So on and so forth. The "game" they play just isn't what LARP really is. Women don't trade sex for coin, people don't punch each other in the face to throw someone off balance for a boffer strike. It's really unrealistic and any intelligent adult could make that conclusion.
I know some people are worried that the film may damage the perceptions people have of LARPers but it's just not gonna happen. Anyone who believes this is what happens at LARPs are the same people who think D&D is witchcraft or Jaws is lurking in their freshwater lake. The crazies are gonna hate what we do no matter what. This film adds little fuel to their fire.
The characters who are the catalyst to the terrible violence of the 3rd act are so far gone that they would be dangerous in any situation. Sure people get really into their game of choice but nothing like what is displayed in the film. 3 or 4 insane fanatics are trumped by 100 other sane players not the other way around. At no point did some one say, "hey Larry, maybe you shouldn't kill that guy with a rock, I mean he's kinda my ride home after the event."
I give this movie 4/10 stars. The flick overall was a boring, depressing mess with horrible characters. The acting was solid for what they had to work with and some of the film was really watchable up until the 3rd act. The epilogue was reminiscent of any "dark" genre movie but creative in it's own right, just not believable.
**Thought I would post this from my blog since people were talking about it a few months ago. These are merely my opinions so take them for what they are, opinions... Hopefully I avoided any blatant spoilers. The movie did have really awesome costume and weapon design so there is that.**
