MovieChat Forums > The Wild Hunt Discussion > NOT Mazes and Monsters for LARPers. (spo...

NOT Mazes and Monsters for LARPers. (spoilers within)


I can see how people could make the comparison. It occurred to me myself when I was watching it. But this is NOTHING like Mazes and Monsters.

Mazes and Monsters is an unfair, prejudiced, over the top, uninformed bit of hysterical paranoia and shrill reactionary knee jerk propaganda.

The Wild Hunt is an intelligent, beautifully done, tense, emotional, sometimes funny, bit of cinematic wonder.

The Wild Hunt is about a LARPing event gone horribly horribly wrong, but as the film progresses we see that the film makers aren't saying "All LARPers are maniacs clinging to sanity by a thread." Actually the majority of the LARPers are good, decent people who like to have fun, I mean, honestly the film is practically an ad for LARPing. It shatters the notion of stupidly dressed dorks in a field hitting each other with wiffle ball bats wrapped up in pillows and makes it almost impossible to not want to get involved somehow.

The violence that happens isn't because LARPers can't tell the difference between real life and fantasy, it's because we live in a world with sick, sad people and they find their way everywhere. See the film "The 49th Parallel" or "The Village", the messages are the same, you can't hide from the evil of the world.

The villains in "Wild Hunt" are, first off, "under the influence" when the real bad badness occurs, and secondly, even though the whole gang of Murtagh's warriors take part in the initial fire and frenzy, the shocking act of violence against Eric brings the majority of them out of it.

The film treats LARPers with a respect that's impossible to beat, they show the community like aspects, and the pure fun of it, the descent into violence and cruelty isn't a reflection of the game, it's a reflection of humanity.

This is a one of kind, AMAZING film and wonderful experience. I had good movie buzz for hours afterwards.

reply

Well said and so true... It's a Lord of the Flies meets Lord of the Rings saga, also a metaphor for the breaking of our social contract as the rules keep changing, yet the rich get richer and the poop - poorer...

reply

Are you ready for this? It's so good and obvious I hesitate to part with it:

"LARP OF THE FLIES"

reply

I disagree almost entirely. It does look fun, but I don't think there is any generalized messages about mans inhumanity to man. Lyn's despair over her *beep* home life with Erik and Bjorn's escapist investment in his hobby when he has a dying father at home are the real messages.

Almost everyone portrayed is dysfunctional in some way. You have the geeky wannabe viking with no real friends, Tamara with her crush on Bjorn and his clique, Lyn getting off on all the male adoration and escapism in general instead of her *beep* life, and Bjorn's seeming complete descent into this fantasy life of a Viking warlord (of a clan that uses his real last name) while he has real world familial duties he's not attending to. Then there is Murtagh living alone in a barely furnished cabin leading what was apparently on the borderline of being a real cult instead of a play one.

Murtagh's brief time with Lyn created this psychological investment in her that wasn't warranted because he probably has no real life, which basically seems true of almost everyone in their club. Hence everyone involved being so abusive to Bjorn for ruining their 'war' despite him not really doing anything wrong. They are so wrapped up in this hobby that they are basically junkies. Abusing real people in real life just to get their fix.

The movie isn't saying that 'this could happen to anyone'. It's portraying something that happened with specifically dysfunctional, extremely lonely, or overly invested people.

I say this as an ex-LARPer (specifically I was a member of Darkon http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462246/ some years ago and still have friends that attend). It is fun, and I've never met a real-life Bjorn, but I've certainly met the real-life archetypes that he is exaggeratedly based on and I can totally believe that other more 'in-character' clubs that focus on the RP more than the combat have people further along that escapist spectrum.

Based on the various caricatures I'm going to assume that the writers have either LARPed or did a fair amount of research, because they hit the nail on the head, although with a bit of an exaggerated hammer.

reply