The Wild Hunt

Larpers (more properly L.A.R.P.ers, i.e. Live-Action Role Players, i.e. folks that dress up like goblins and wizards and engage in foam-sword combat in the woods) have been one side of a cinematic love affair, of late. Documentaries like Darkon and Monster Camp try and peel back the fake fur and face paint to see the real people beneath, while comedies like Role Models see in the admittedly nerdy hobby a wellspring of both laughs and weirdly noble self-realization.

In director Alexandre Franchi's debut film The Wild Hunt, larping is something altogether more serious, and much more sinister. Erik Magnusson (Ricky Mabe), a Canadian born to an Icelandic father whom he now reluctantly cares for, is bothered by repeated dreams of a banging door and the sound of his girlfriend Evelyn (Tiio Horn) crying out in fear. Evelyn has left him for the weekend, to role play a princess in Erik's older brother Bjorn's larp-group, a viking and troll setting Bjorn (Mark A. Krupa) has all but disappeared into. To win her back, Erik must navigate the confusing, threatening larp world, where he discovers that some of the players aren't just escaping workaday responsibilities but are instead building a framework to work out some of their darker, more violent fantasies.

It's an enjoyable film, troubled by a difficult script. On the one hand it's enjoyably novel: setting a murder-and-revenge story amongst the assumedly meek, awkward foam-sword and teva-sandals crowd is an entertaining twist, and Franchi, helped enormously by good Gothic set dec and often beautiful cinematography by Claudine Sauvé is able to wring surprisingly high drama out of the whole thing. On the other hand, in building up to the grand guignol finale the film strains and struggles, testing credulity both in terms of character motivation and in terms of basic emotional mathematics: it's hard at points to understand why Erik doesn't just dismiss the whole mess and go home. That said, there's rather more of the former dark beauty than the latter character weirdness, and the film (especially as a Canadian film artifact) is massively enjoyable on its merits, of which there are plenty. Missteps along a very original path are easily excused. 8/10

The story follows Erik, who "crashes" a LARP (Live-Action Role Play) camp in order to confront his estranged girlfriend, Lyn. The event is one that is held supposedly once a year, and the other role players are not pleased to have a modern non-player spoil their fun. Things escalate quickly during Erik's stay; acute conflicts arise between the players, and the game soon stops being a game and becomes a nightmarish brawl.

The main themes and motifs in the film are prevalent, yet not applied so thickly as to be too artsy and obtrusive to the enjoyment of the story. The most upholding traits to the film are the diverse characters and their realistic relationships with one another--Lyn literally says nothing about what she thinks, and even appears to be non-committal to her own feelings in the way she interacts with other characters. Erik is highly aggravated, brutally honest and unforgiving, yet he genuinely cares for Lyn's wellbeing, even though she shows no sort of reciprocation. And Bjorn, Erik's eccentric brother, is so in love with his Icelandic roots that he embraces the game as his reality, and cannot break the boundary between a time for play and a time for seriousness until it's too late.

I found myself trying to guess the next outcome in the string of events, and found that the story was, for the most part, unpredictable in a satisfying way. Just the right amount of popular archetypes were applied to the film to give it a comfortable feel of a typical story while infusing the realistic. Not all characters are heroes or villains, and not all humans see right and wrong in the same way.

I would recommend this film to just about anybody who wouldn't mind squirming in their seat, or watching something on the darker side. You won't necessarily feel like you just saw a double rainbow after watching this, but you may be able to walk away with something on the human condition.

The Wild Hunt is dark. The LARPers for the most part come across as craven, reminiscent of Vikings, nordic warriors and pub-dwellers alike.

The lovers are morose throughout. The actors in the background were largely mute. The real gems of acting come from the King, the Viking leader and Shaman. But these were inconsistent.

The film stood out because it evoked emotion and worry throughout, the soundtrack created mood and the well delivered tirades of screaming and begging encompassed tangible fear. The question of, "How far will they go?" really carried the film for me. Not wanting to have the dark side of humanity revealed but far too intrigued to stop watching.

The cinematography was realistic, with the tone and music really pinpointing the despair of being locked in a false reality at the behest of others.

There were moments where the film lulled to a crawl but this same failure, that of dragging time, really allowed the dramatic moments longevity.

While I didn't enjoy all of the movie, I give it 7/10 for the innovation and emotions it evoked.

I checked this out after I read some good reports from festival screenings. I really can't see the appeal of Live Action role-playing, so the film's greatest achievement is that it held my interest at all. I enjoyed the initial comedy of the absurd situations the non-playing lead character finds himself in, once he has barged his way into this make-believe environment. The plot shift and changes in tone from then on, which keeps it unpredictable.

The film is extremely well put together, especially for having been made on such a low budget. The cinematography and the unusual soundtrack are first class. There is some genuinely beautiful and haunting imagery, especially once the hunt gets underway.

For me the biggest problem with The Wild Hunt is that at its heart this is supposed to be a love story, but we never really learn much about the characters or their relationships. It's about a guy on a 'quest' to win back his girlfriend but she remains a cypher from the beginning to the end. I never understood her motivations at all, she just came across as unstable and selfish and therefore I never invested in what's at stake for him.

The other characters are underdeveloped as well and as someone who can't relate to the idea of LARP I would have liked to know more about what draws people to it other than the obvious implication that some do it to escape their real life problems.

this film is out of whack, but that is where it is supposed to be.

you have a real viking, rescuing a fake princess from a fake celt, and throughout, all become something they really didn't want to be when the game started.

they are nerds playing at fantasy violence without realizing that their modern skins mask a real violence hidden in their real history, and it just waiting for the right catalyst to prompt its release.

and then there is the ending. it is a mixture and manifestation of both fantasy and reality.

and that is the truth that surrounds us all. we all live in a mix of fiction and the other. and it is up to us which wins out and when.

when we give ourselves up to the impetus of a group, we also relinquish individual immunity from the crimes of that group--just ask albert speer.