Dark Dungeons (2014)

 Regular visitors know I usually wait until the end of the month to give a recap on what shows/movies I've watched. But after seeing this, I felt it needed its very own post.

When JR Ralls (writer) won $1000 in the lottery, he decided to do something special with it. That thing was to adapt the Chick tract of the same name into live action. The Kickstarter got him enough attention that Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, known for their comedic films about RPGs, jumped on board.

If you're not familiar with Chick tracts, they're preachy, illustrated religious pamphlets. You can read the original Dark Dungeons one right here. Somehow I wasn't aware of this despite it having a cult status in the RPG community for how ridiculous it is. As someone that got into D&D around the age of 13, I can assure you there is nothing nefarious going on at the gaming table...at least not in the games I played (cue mysterious music).

 

They managed to produce something that's true to the source material but also comes across as a satire because of how over the top the original is. Going into the movie, I had only known it was adapting a Chick tract and while I had no trouble believing someone suffering from Satanic Panic would see this as a warning, it became apparent that they were poking me in the ribs as if to say "Can you believe this?"

If you don't at least have a toe in the RPG community, you probably won't get as much enjoyment out of it as someone that knows the difference between a d10 and a d100.You can watch the entire 40 minute short on YouTube.

Roll for intiative!