Right, well truth be told then I hadn't really expected much of anything from the 2018 movie "The Dwarves of Demrel". I had anticipated that I would be in for another horribly low budget fantasy movie that would seem more like someone having brought a digital camera to a LARP (Live Action Role-Playing) session somewhere than I would be in for an actual movie.
Still, I decided to sit down and watch "The Dwarves of Demrel". And I am actually glad that I did. Because it turned out that this 2018 from writers Zachary Amundson and Chris Raney actually turned out to be a rather amazing fantasy movie.
Sure, it wasn't a high fantasy movie with lots of magic, dragons, orcs, battles and what you would otherwise expect from a fantasy movie. But it was an interesting approach to the fantasy genre, and it was refreshing to see a fantasy movie that revolved around the dwarven race and taking place in the subterranean setting entirely.
One might argue against the movie taking place in a subterranean setting and being with so few actors and actresses on the cast ensemble. But it actually worked out quite well, taking the concept of the storyline into consideration.
While we are on the cast, then the movie essentially only revolved around three actors, John Hutton (playing Calcas), Brent Bateman (playing Ordryd) and Robert Morgan (playing Brenn). Not only were these three gentlemen nice actors, but they had also gone through a nice transformation in props and make-up so that they looked like archtypical dwarves from a fantasy setting. That was really enjoyable and added so much to the movie. And the wardrobe also really was great and also did add a good layer of enjoyment to the movie.
The atmosphere of the movie was amazing, and it really felt realistic with the dwarves being trapped inside the mountain. It was like the audience was trapped in there with them. And the fact that they had limited light sources really worked so well for the movie, because it brought out such a realism that it was just good to witness. And I loathe movies that are supposed to take place in the dark, but for some reason there is a light source illuminating the scene from left or right, where there should be no light source. Good thing that director Chris Raney opted for realistic lighting. And it really felt like the dwarves were inside a real mountain, inside the mines, because it didn't look like horrible carboard or styrofoam props resembling stone.
Now, the synopsis says 'steampunk fantasy', I would say that the steampunk elements are very small and weren't overshadowing the movie in any manner. Which was a good thing, because steampunk is not really something that translates well into movies.
I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of this movie, and it turned out to be a rather enjoyable addition to the fantasy genre, where a great many movies fail most horribly. This was such a positive surprise of a movie, and it is indeed a very nice addition to the fantasy genre.
