Darkon (2006)

Directors:

Luke Meyer
Andrew Neel

Writers:

Luke Meyer (writer)
Andrew Neel (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Fantasy

Tagline:

Everybody Wants To Be a Hero

Plot Keywords:

Family Relationships | Role Playing Game | Weapon | Baltimore Maryland | Battle

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Skip Lipman	...	Himself / Bannor
Kenyon Wells	...	Himself / Keldar
Daniel McArthur	...	Himself / Trivius
Rebecca Thurmond	...	Herself / Nemesis
James Iddings	...	Himself / Saruk
Gary Black	...	Himself / Malkin
Domenic Prince	...	Himself / Arfex
Andrew Mattingly	...	Himself / Shapwin
Frank Kanach	...	Himself / Otto
Leah Kanach	...	Herself / Ilya
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Wells	...	Himself - Kenyon's father
Nancy Lee Wells	...	Herself - Kenyon's mother

Runtime:

USA:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Ovie Productions

Movie Connections:

Features Excalibur (1981)

Not As Esoteric As It Appears

I found Darkon fascinating, but the subject matter is limited. There is subtle humor that I believe only a gamer would understand, and whilst I have that advantage, I can see that it could be frustrating to an outsider. However, I believe the directors gave an extraordinary effort to open up a naturally reclusive niche of individuals. The film is divided much like the people are, in two genres and styles, documentary versus Hollywood action, a fictional world versus everyday life. The balance between the two belies the truth that LARPing is escapism. Every individual acknowledged that it was a game, but when they were in the game they made the most of the fiction, just like the cinematography makes the most of unconventional documentary shots, favoring angles that are closer to an action film. The close relationships between the subject matters duality and the films stylistic duality are, in my opinion, the most compelling. Frankly, the scenes of battle are both slightly frightening, because of the full on combat that is not staged but also, and probably intentionally, humorous when you catch a glance of a score board or mini-vans.

I found the individuals endearing in there own mundane ways, it was a relief that they were not portrayed as particularly charismatic, or humorous. The intentional inclusion of daily routine, of personal insecurities, of reality places the people where one would expect them.

For myself the most compelling subject touched upon was the insecurities of the individuals in the real life, because some might expect them to be bolstered, but seeing the differences of how they act in and out of game, down to how them carry themselves, show how profoundly fictional Darkon the game is. They can be bold and brash because it is not real, failure is unimportant, but success helps many of them build confidence. And although, the subject matter of LARPing is foreign to most, if you can just use that as a vehicle to get to these themes the film suddenly is not just a bad action movie, or an esoteric documentary. Anyone can relate to it. It is an honest film documenting a fictional story with real people.