Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: The Gamers ::
by William the Bloody
To say that this is an independent film wouldn't really give other independent film much credit. This is an independent film in the sense that about 5 nerds got some film equipment and shot a 48 minute movie. It is obviously very low budget, with the occasional unnecessarily shaky camera and sometimes poor sound quality. The score, yes surprisingly enough it actually has a score, is pretty much one guy and a synthesizer.
However, if you can get past all that, you're in for a pretty good time.
This movie is about a small cadre of RPG players. Not your new-fangled collectable card game kind, but the good, old fashioned rule book and 20 sided dice kind of gamers. Any one who has ever played one of these RPGs or knows someone who plays, is going to get a kick out of this flick. It follows these 5 (or is it 6?) guys who get together in their college dorm spare room to play a medieval adventure. There's Rogar the Barbarian, Nimble the thief, Ambrose the mage in training, an elf archer, and Mark the Red (who couldn't be in most of the adventure because he has a date). This mighty band is on a quest to save a princess from the mysterious evil known only as The Shadow.
The movie goes back and forth from the players playing and arguing to the medieval setting. Those of you who have gamed know that everything the characters go through depends on that role of the dice. Its fun to see the game characters involved in a situation, we hear the role of the dice, and the DM says, sorry you failed, and the outcome changes.
This film is reminiscent of Clerks in its low budget-ness and writing style (complete with Star Wars references). It also smacks of the old Sam Rami Evil Dead films with some of the camera work and and the lumbering monster's acting. And it offers up some good Army of Darkness-esque one liners your bound to start using like: "Am I still unconscious?" "Blood, death, vengeance!" "I wanna steal his pants!" and everyone's favorite, "Called shot to the nuts!"
This one is very enjoyable to a select audience only probably, because if you're not familiar with Dungeons and Dragons style gaming then you may be lost. It's also hard to find since its made by such a small company (Dead Gentlemen Productions) but you should be able to get it for under 20 bucks if your retailer has access to Diamond Distributors.
But if your one of these D&D geeks and you can get it, I'd recommend it.
B+
