Review of Dark Dungeons

"Dark Dungeons" is a 40-minute short film that actually consists of four episodes which were released in August and September 2014. Episodes 1-3 run for eight to nine minutes, while the final episode is slightly longer, but also includes end credits. The director is L. Gabriel Gonda and the writer is JR Ralls. The entire thing is based on a Jack Chick comic from several decades ago. Lead actresses are Alyssa Kay and Anastasia Higham, while Tracy Hyland plays what you could consider the main villain. The film is about two girls who enter the world of RPGs, but actually in real life where they become characters you usually find in fantasy games. When one character dies, serious consequences happen. But this is also where the film is at its weakest. Not only do these fantasy elements in the last episode feel completely out-of-place, also the fact that tragedy strokes is just a minor thing apparently. The game leader doesn't care. Her best friend still keeps playing and lets be honest. These were two normal girls, they did not seem prone to addiction. The moment when the game master hits one of the girls in the face should have been where they stopped it immediately. And the girl who kills herself never seemed like an unstable character. You cannot justify this by the generic "sometimes things are not the way they seem". So yeah, these last 14 minutes almost destroyed this solid film. I do believe they really messed up the final developments. But I also do believe that it is a solid watch before that final chapter, thanks to the solid acting in here. Overall, i still give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.