Article and teaser Here
Neat.
This looks awesome.
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I won't pay 20 bucks to see the movie, but I'll watch it when it winds up on NetFlix. Not that it will... This is not going to be something that comes out on theaters but only sold at conventions.
Netflix has all kinds of obscure stuff, some of which never saw a theater. I'm not saying that Dark Dungeons definitely will wind up on Netflix, but saying that it won't simply because it won't get a theater release is ridiculous.
I won't pay 20 bucks to see the movie, but I'll watch it when it winds up on NetFlix. Not that it will... This is not going to be something that comes out on theaters but only sold at conventions.
Hopefully nobody uses Mind Bondage to make you pay $20. :P
Having watched the trailer...I went to the wrong college.
Our gaming group was never that involved.
Sigh.
The things you miss by attending a backwater college like the University of Pittsburgh!
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dinofroz gives off a dark dungeons vibe
Boys discover game that takes them to the 'age of dinosaurs and humans' and battle evil dragons...all the while keeping the game secret in the real world.
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I have... mixed feelings.
Being from a Conservative Christian background, I read Chick Tracts often enough to know them - and then to question them whenever I compared them to any kind of fact-check at all.
I will say this: not all of his publications are as... off... as this one is, though several of them are just as out there or more.
It is painful to have all anti-gamer folk effectively characterized by this particular film.
Inversely, mind - the film depicts anti-gamers' supposed view of RPG gaming which, while technically accurate in some ways, effectively becomes a parody of itself, and thus is misleading.
Effectively, I dislike the existence of the film because it will do little good in the long run: it will only serve to widen the gap between gamers and those who are suspicious of gaming in general.
It is, by being played straight (and expanded into a film), one of the finest parodies - and thus one of the most potentially divisive and frustrating things for me to need to deal with.
I know many anti-gamers due to my background. The preponderance are not so absurd in their views as this movie would claim (or, in fact, Chick Publications can be). In fact, I've been able to make some headway with many.
This, however, has the potential to encourage ever more division, and make any attempts by me to bridge the gap ever-more-difficult.
Some anti-gamers will see this and be irritated by its obviously exaggerated portrayal (never-mind that it's how the tract presented it); this will, in turn, cause them to look at gaming culture more negatively (especially since ZOE is part of it).
Some anti-gamers - especially those who are younger or who have less exposure to fantasy or literature - will accept that things like Cthulu or the Necronomicon are, at face value, evil. Sucks for me to explain this to them.
Some anti-gamers will think this film is funny and leave it at that. Yay.
Some gamers will get the wrong impression about religious folk of all ilk. It happens already with the tract - making a film of it only increases its publicity and spreads the division. This is especially problematic for me, as I walk between gaming folk and those associated with anti-gaming attitudes (though those attitudes are hardly all that define them - in fact, they are a very minor part of their over-all view; such things are a footnote rather than a focus).
As it is, I've often received enough flak from both areas that this film fills me with deep-seated frustration.
I just... I don't know. I'm wanting it to go more smoothly than the above. I'm wanting this not to make my life more difficult in regards to my gaming. But I'm not holding out hope. (I can actually hear all the different arguments, speeches, and discussions forming now over this exact thing - on both sides.)
I don't really see this as effectively doing anything other than cementing or even increasing or inflaming bad feelings on all sides.
It does look ironically funny, however. So, there's that.
I get that this film hits home for you Tacticslion, but I think you are stressing out about nothing. I doubt this film will have much if any exposure to anyone outside the hardcore gamer community.
I submit that I may be overly stressed over nothing.
I've been on the receiving end too often from all sides to completely de-stress until it all shakes out.
I do appreciate the words of encouragement, however!
I also generally appreciate ZOE's work in all regards - I wish to say that I'm not angry at anyone about this film at all (except, perhaps, Chick Publications - but even that is more of a weariness and embarrassed yet sympathetic pity than anything else) just... kind of tired.
I do hope it works out well, though. :)
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@Tacticslion: there is hope and there is fear. The truth usually lies somewhere between.
When I asked my Mormon parents what they had against RPGs, this Chick tract came up. I was astonished, laughed at how ridiculous it was, and went through what was wrong with it. I said that the author was out of his tiny mind! They were unconvinced.
Then I showed them the comic he wrote about Mormons.
They were convinced then!
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@Tacticslion: there is hope and there is fear. The truth usually lies somewhere between.
When I asked my Mormon parents what they had against RPGs, this Chick tract came up. I was astonished, laughed at how ridiculous it was, and went through what was wrong with it. I said that the author was out of his tiny mind! They were unconvinced.
Then I showed them the comic he wrote about Mormons.
They were convinced then!
OMG this says so much on so many levels. Thanks Malachi, made me laugh out loud.
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Netflix has to pay for everything it hosts. they'll only stream shows which will turn some kind of profit. They don't even have Vampire Hunter D or Brisco Country Jr. on tap.
Obscure Netflix Films, Link #1
Obscure Netflix Films, Link #2
Obscure Netflix Films, Link #3 (although I will admit that some of these choices aren't obscure at all)
It's kind of like trying to argue that a film that didn't do well at the box office isn't going to get a DVD release. Maybe once upon a time that was true, but these days you can count on a DVD even if the box office was only in the triple digits.
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@Tacticslion: there is hope and there is fear. The truth usually lies somewhere between.
When I asked my Mormon parents what they had against RPGs, this Chick tract came up. I was astonished, laughed at how ridiculous it was, and went through what was wrong with it. I said that the author was out of his tiny mind! They were unconvinced.
Then I showed them the comic he wrote about Mormons.
They were convinced then!
I'm pretty sure if you go through the entire catalog of tracts and do all the math, you will discover that anyone not named Jack Chick is damned to the fiery abysses of hell for all of eternity.
I'm pretty sure if you go through the entire catalog of tracts and do all the math, you will discover that anyone not named Jack Chick is damned to the fiery abysses of hell for all of eternity.
I've read most of them.
Most of them end up with someone not him who is saved! :D ... :/
It's a real shame that the few things he does get right and do well have to deal with all his failures. :/
In case anybody is unfamiliar, there's a collection of Chick Tract "dissections" that can be quite funny, done by a person who goes by Jabberwok. He's done this tract twice, once as I believe his very first dissection, and again as an anniversary revisit. It (and the other ones) are fun reads.
Dark Dungeons Revisited
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So this little film has been released and my gaming group held a movie night to check it out.
Everyone in the room was cringing inside of the two minute mark, by the end we had resorted to dissecting the errors and Easter eggs in the film to stay sane.
I'd seen the tract before and thought it was ludicrous, this presented a whole new level of crazy. It was interesting, horrifying, and a couple of times personally offensive to me, and I'm saying this as both a gamer and a Christian. (Seriously? Calling C.S. Lewis' work a product of the devil? What?)
A couple of interesting tidbits I found out though, apparently they got permission from Paizo and several other companies to burn actual copies of their books during the bonfire scene at the end,(you can see a couple of volumes of Second Darkness burning merrily away in the flames), also Chick gave them the rights to make the movie at no cost.
Despite my gut response to this I'd have to recommend folks watch it. Not really for entertainment value, though if you are like my group you'll be laughing non stop at the sheer absurdity of it, but just to find out what people like this actually think about us and our hobby.
Thanks for the recommendation.
I'll... look into it, now. With trepidation.
Just watched it tonight. I thought it was HILARIOUS! And really campy.
I loved the Easter Egg references to...
- Fighting a gazebo
- Casting magic missile at the darkness
- Steam tunnels
- Ostog the Unslain
So this little film has been released and my gaming group held a movie night to check it out.
Everyone in the room was cringing inside of the two minute mark, by the end we had resorted to dissecting the errors and Easter eggs in the film to stay sane.I'd seen the tract before and thought it was ludicrous, this presented a whole new level of crazy. It was interesting, horrifying, and a couple of times personally offensive to me, and I'm saying this as both a gamer and a Christian. (Seriously? Calling C.S. Lewis' work a product of the devil? What?)
A couple of interesting tidbits I found out though, apparently they got permission from Paizo and several other companies to burn actual copies of their books during the bonfire scene at the end,(you can see a couple of volumes of Second Darkness burning merrily away in the flames), also Chick gave them the rights to make the movie at no cost.
Despite my gut response to this I'd have to recommend folks watch it. Not really for entertainment value, though if you are like my group you'll be laughing non stop at the sheer absurdity of it, but just to find out what people like this actually think about us and our hobby.
Apologies if I've misunderstood your comment, but you may have missed the point of the movie. It's meant to be a satirical adaptation of Jack Chick's comic, his attitude and others like him, and the whole Satanic Panic in general. The creators don't actually believe this stuff.
Yes, the website says that it's not a satire. That's part of the joke. It's like the Colbert Report and how some people really don't get that it's not meant to be serious journalism, because of the way it's presented. Given the fact that it a) premiered at GenCon and b) is being distributed by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (the guys behind The Gamers), I think it's pretty clear it's a joke.
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Apologies if I've misunderstood your comment, but you may have missed the point of the movie. It's meant to be a satirical adaptation of Jack Chick's comic, his attitude and others like him, and the whole Satanic Panic in general. The creators don't actually believe this stuff.
Yes, the website says that it's not a satire. That's part of the joke. It's like the Colbert Report and how some people really don't get that it's not meant to be serious journalism, because of the way it's presented. Given the fact that it a) premiered at GenCon and b) is being distributed by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (the guys behind The Gamers), I think it's pretty clear it's a joke.
I wish to clarify: it both is and isn't a joke.
ZOE are gamers. They clearly took the project because they, like many gamers, thought the original tract was hilarious and silly.
However, officially, it is not. It is, in terms of business, entirely serious in its presentation.
The tract itself is rather ludicrous, though... hence it's not going to come off as anything but serious... for most. There will be a few, though, who take it seriously because of its source material - which takes itself seriously.
Hence, it's both - depending on whether you're talking about it as a business or as a presentation.
Apologies if I've misunderstood your comment, but you may have missed the point of the movie. It's meant to be a satirical adaptation of Jack Chick's comic, his attitude and others like him, and the whole Satanic Panic in general. The creators don't actually believe this stuff.
Yes, the website says that it's not a satire. That's part of the joke. It's like the Colbert Report and how some people really don't get that it's not meant to be serious journalism, because of the way it's presented. Given the fact that it a) premiered at GenCon and b) is being distributed by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (the guys behind The Gamers), I think it's pretty clear it's a joke.
I wish to clarify: it both is and isn't a joke.
ZOE are gamers. They clearly took the project because they, like many gamers, thought the original tract was hilarious and silly.
However, officially, it is not. It is, in terms of business, entirely serious in its presentation.
The tract itself is rather ludicrous, though... hence it's not going to come off as anything but serious... for most. There will be a few, though, who take it seriously because of its source material - which takes itself seriously.
Hence, it's both - depending on whether you're talking about it as a business or as a presentation.
That's kind of my point about the satire bit. Look at Colbert. He'll straight up tell people that his show is serious, because it's part of the joke. That doesn't actually make it serious, it's still a joke. It means some people won't get it, but most people do. This is a bit of a variation on the standard, where satire usually exaggerates something to show the absurdity of it, it's kind of hard to exaggerate the absurdity of Dark Dungeons already, so there's less of that than usual, which could lead to some confusion I suppose. Though if anyone that honestly believes that D&D style gaming will give you actual magic powers, please have them contact me, I'd like to sell them a unicorn. High mileage but still plenty of life left in it.
I also suspect that part of the reason they didn't make it more clear it was a satire was that their agreement with Jack Chick to get the rights probably included that it needed to be a "faithful" adaptation. If they'd told him they were going to make a mockery of him (more so than just making the damn thing does anyway), I imagine they'd have never got the rights.
That said, given that Jack Chick's particular brand of religion appears to be of the "Anyone who doesn't follow my EXACT extremely specific sect of Christianity will go to Hell, Go Directly To Hell, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200" variety, those who take him seriously will most likely fall into my "Not worth paying any mind to" mental category anyway.
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Apologies if I've misunderstood your comment, but you may have missed the point of the movie. It's meant to be a satirical adaptation of Jack Chick's comic, his attitude and others like him, and the whole Satanic Panic in general. The creators don't actually believe this stuff.
Yes, the website says that it's not a satire. That's part of the joke. It's like the Colbert Report and how some people really don't get that it's not meant to be serious journalism, because of the way it's presented. Given the fact that it a) premiered at GenCon and b) is being distributed by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (the guys behind The Gamers), I think it's pretty clear it's a joke.
No apologies needed, but I can clarify a bit more. Like Tacticslion says this is done both in jest and at the same time in dead seriousness. I found it both humorous and horrifying. Humorous because of the sheer insanity of some of the preposterous BS that was shoveled out. I've seen ZOE's other stuff so it's easy to tell they don't take this stuff seriously. But I am/was/have always been horrified that there are actually people in this world who will or have taken this tract and movie as flat truth.
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Netflix has to pay for everything it hosts. they'll only stream shows which will turn some kind of profit. They don't even have Vampire Hunter D or Brisco Country Jr. on tap.I won't pay 20 bucks to see the movie, but I'll watch it when it winds up on NetFlix. Not that it will... This is not going to be something that comes out on theaters but only sold at conventions.Netflix has all kinds of obscure stuff, some of which never saw a theater. I'm not saying that Dark Dungeons definitely will wind up on Netflix, but saying that it won't simply because it won't get a theater release is ridiculous.
Do you even have Netflix? Because I did until May, and they show A LOT of Z grade horror movies, including flicks from as far back as the 40's. I mean seriously...I have watched these movies, and I can't imagine Blood Gnomes has a larger budget or better cinematography than Dark Dungeons.
The reason they don't carry some movies or shows is mostly down to rights; not all movie companies or TV networks have agreements with Netflix, and the rights for some shows might be tied up with other channels and places like Amazon Prime or Hulu. Other movies get a limited license deal, after which Netflix doesn't bother to renew.
Netflix has to pay for everything it hosts. they'll only stream shows which will turn some kind of profit. They don't even have Vampire Hunter D or Brisco Country Jr. on tap.I won't pay 20 bucks to see the movie, but I'll watch it when it winds up on NetFlix. Not that it will... This is not going to be something that comes out on theaters but only sold at conventions.Netflix has all kinds of obscure stuff, some of which never saw a theater. I'm not saying that Dark Dungeons definitely will wind up on Netflix, but saying that it won't simply because it won't get a theater release is ridiculous.
You can buy streaming rights from ZOE for five bucks. It's an HD stream. I hooked my laptop to my 42-inch TV, and it looked better than a standard-def DVD.
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I won't pay 20 bucks to see the movie, but I'll watch it when it winds up on NetFlix. Not that it will... This is not going to be something that comes out on theaters but only sold at conventions.Hopefully nobody uses Mind Bondage to make you pay $20. :P
I only really like Light Mind Bondage, the heavier stuff makes me feel cheap....
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Saw it.
Still wish it didn't exist.
Sigh.
:(
'dat ending. :/
I just wish Christianity could actually get its act together and produce good non-Narm-worthy stuff about itself sometimes.
EDIT: To be clear, the gaming references and in-jokes are pretty great. The acting was well-done (for what it was doing) and the values were great (for what they were going for).
The film was technically well-accomplished.
It was everything else that was honestly cringe-worthy to me.
Made it painful to sit through, and disheartening to watch.
Absolutely everything - everything - displayed at the end, is now fully tainted by the nonsense that preceded it and followed it.
Fasting and praying for others? Clearly the work of religious nutjobs that think gaming is the same as necromancy and Cthulu is real.
Receiving the touch of the Holy Spirit? Religious nutjobs.
Church? Dressing well? Preaching?
All of it is, by association, turned into a mockery.
It's made worse that the film treats that part of itself so seriously and portrays elements therein accurately while portraying the rest of it so... inaccurately.
This is why it's painful.
This is why I am so frustrated.
I get why it was done.
It's just a terrible thing all-told, and puts me in a greater position of mockery for my faith, undermining anything I'd say to fellow gamers as a witness by virtue of the production.
I mean, yeah, I kind of get that enough on plenty of other sites I visit, but this is more ammunition.
And don't be fooled - this sort of thing does influence views.
Now, when I see people in various religious situations, I'll undoubtedly think of scenes from the film. It's what happens - the way the brain works. This is more true because none of that was really exaggerated. (Book burnings fortuitously for all, aside.)