The Dwarves of Demrel

I might have been more lenient if not for the misleading title and first minute showing a CGI dragon that has absolutely nothing to do with the story. This has "click bait" written all over.

Except for that, it's a very low budget movie with 3 dwarves wandering in a cave, doing arbitrary things, talking about any odd thing, with random events occurring out of the blue, including a rehearsed shaky cam sequence of the Blair Witch kind.

Nice costumes, decent actors but no scenario to speak of.

Three beards are trapped inside a mountain because of a mine collapsing. They have to find a way out but they're running out of rations and light. Various tunnels lead to dead ends but they find generators inside with little juice left. Some creature is living inside the caves and a woman appears, heavily masked and covered as she's not able to breath inside the caves as the dwarfs are. A very talky film, claustrophobic and frustrating. A mundane story, well acted and leaving one wondering.

This is an original and currently fairly unique addition to fantasy. Real people's lives, not stupid adventurers with no substance.

I know they put dragon in the title for marketing but it _hurts_ it, takes it away from it's slow building core.

Everything about this is done well.

Not big. Not flashy. Reliable. How many more Dwarven descriptions can we fit in? I want more of this world, but somehow without losing the charm...

Raney's film is well produced, straightforward and engaging as far as writing and character development. He offers a potentially captivating story-arch, focusing on these characters and their dire situation as they struggle to survive in a subterranean "prison". The atmosphere is ominous and suspenseful with plenty of opportunity to excite and build a thrilling story. For the most part, though, we are only teased mildly, with little gratification.

"Dragon Mountain" is filled with a lot of missed opportunities to become the titillating watch that the synopsis suggests. First, no dragons- well a really cool fly over the mountain chain by a quality CGI lady heading to her den takes place in the opening scene. But that is it- technically the dragon is eluded to a couple of times through dialog. Beyond that the movie pulsate as a character study of crises.

There is fantasy, but subtext and suggestion reigns supreme to get you there. The dwarves are recognizable and familiar. They take the main stage in Raney's movie, but they could easily be replaced subconsciously with human persons going through this struggle. There is a creature in the tunnels with them and a human in killer Cosplay steampunk gear, however both are little more than cameo characters and missed before they really ever fill the screen.

Overall "Dragon Mountain" is kind of a let down. Toss aside the fact that 'no dragon' in a movie whose title sells you on dragons. Forgiven. With the actual story- four guys trapped in a clasped mine- the writing and acting is top notch. The cinematography is okay, lighting issues plague crucial moments that were necessary to amp up the entertainment value. Unfortunately it all boils down to bad moods, grumpy dialog and emotional anxiety between disgruntled workers that seems to put a drag on the fluidity of the movie's pace, making it a rather boring movie.

... and I'm not proud of myself for doing so. It ends with a long list of crowdfunding contributors who wasted their money. I cannot think of a single redeeming value for this travesty. Mushy plot. Pointless. No character development. No resolution. Don't watch it. Instead of direct to DVD this one should go direct to trash.