Saw this at the Santa Fe Film Festival. I knew little more than what I had read in the program and seen on the trailer. Not being a "Larper" (which is never fully explained) I never had a clear sense of the complexity of the activity. Overall, I thought that the film did a cursory job of presenting the characters and their motivations. Because the film takes itself so seriously, I felt we were laughing at the characters, not with them. All we really get from the characters is a reinforced theme of "at home I'm nobody, I'm not in control... at Darkon, I'm somebody, I'm in control" (not a direct quote).
Rather than documenting, this film seems to promote the activity, never taking the time to question whether or not participating in Darkon is always a good thing. It's more narrative than documentary, and the story simply isn't that compelling. I think this film thrives largely on the foreignness of the subject matter.
The editing is a little sloppy (the film could be about 15 minutes shorter), characters are a bit bland (give the subject, I expected more dynamic personalities), visuals range from professional to poorly shot/poorly exposed, the music is quite excellent... though it gives the film a pseudo "Lord of the Rings" vibe when it's really just Medieval Reenactment with padded weapons. Again, I felt this undermined the objectivity and made it Pro-Darkon.
The preview has all the best shots from the film, as previews often do. Most of those images have no context in the film itself, and are just visual asides.
Of course, independent film-making is no small task, so for that reason I'm giving this a 5/10. It was a good effort, but overall, I would not recommend the film. Boredom sinks in at about minute 15.
