Probably NSFW and kids…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WENre45f13c&feature=player_embedded
Sorry if this has already been posted, I haven’t been reading the forums lately.
That’s all kinds of creepy. 
Agreed, and promulgates the hackneyed old meme about roleplayers losing their grip on reality and thinking the game is real. 
The movie looks like a good piece of film, and something I’d be interested in seeing. However, I worry about the image of LARPers that it portrays (at least of the antagonists). It’s a pity that it doesn’t portray LARPing in a better light, but then I suppose it wouldn’t be as much of a scare flick.
Yep, I agree it shows us in bad way, even though it’s typical for movies to pick on bad stuff (because it makes better plotlines), but I also once tried to watch this. Three minutes into the movie there was that scene where they fall out of character and start yelling about who killed whom, and there was so much bad language that I just stopped watching. Has anyone actually seen the complete thing? What would be the opinion?
All horror movies portray someone in a bad light. This one just happens to be set in a larp.
I suspect that, as with all these things, it depends on the reason for the scenario.
Does the film state that all LARPers are mentally deranged and just as likely to slip over into psychosis?
Or does it say that only this particular small group develops a psychosis for some reason?
Or is it perhaps influenced by some outside, maybe supernatural, source.
Only the first premise makes me concerned.
The other two are interesting takes on the scenario. After all, if we ran around like chickens every time some otherwise innocuous pass time was used as fodder for a horror scenario, then we’d never get anything done.
Although the world would have a lot more eggs… 
That may well be, but there is so few media representations of larpers out there, this can go significantly towards colouring people’s perceptions of us. Because of the relative scarcity of representations of us in the media, this could easily be the only representation many people see of larpers and thus form the entire basis for their opinion, i.e. “Everything I have seen about larpers suggests they’re crazy people.”
Conversely, a horror movie which paints a group with greater media representation in a bad light - soccer players, accountants, pilots, models, people from a certain country, prom queens - wouldn’t be so damaging because it wouldn’t be the only thing informing people’s opinion.
To try and make that clearler, if a horror movie featured a prom queen go beserk with a knife, there are enough other representations of prom queens out there that people will know that not all prom queens are psycho killers. If knowledge about prom queens were scarce, and that movie was the only thing people saw of them, they would likely instinctively form the opinion that “all prom queens are psycho killers.”
From what I hear the premise is “some larpers go Lord of the Flies nuts for no apparent reason”.
Which sucks both as a premise and for us, really. Funny thing is I seem to recall the makers were mates with some larpers, specifically the Bicolline crowd in Quebec who let them use their venue. Shame the larpers didn’t point out the gaping plot hole.
To try and make that clearler, if a horror movie featured a prom queen go beserk with a knife, there are enough other representations of prom queens out there that people will know that not all prom queens are psycho killers. If knowledge about prom queens were scarce, and that movie was the only thing people saw of them, they would likely instinctively form the opinion that “all prom queens are psycho killers.”[/quote]
Speaking as an ex jock. In my honnest opinion, prom queens are total nutters and I would not be remotly suprised by any one of them going psycho and killing somone with a knife.
as someone who suffers from chronic mental illness it would be nice if some of the larping community could use their use of the terms ‘psycho’ and ‘nutters’ a bit less lightly since ive had to face that shit all my life because of my disability.
anywho, this looks scary as shit. it’s sad that it shows larp in a dark light, but yeah it is horror. though we need better press too.
also, such a huge under representation of women in strong roles in larp, makes it look like larping is a mans game where women just play prostitues and captives. bah. anna would be pissed.
Interesting point, I’ve never considered that before. What would you suggest as an alternative phrasing when describing a movie plot where characters appear to suffer some sort of homicidal psychosis? Calling it “psychosis” like Norman did?
unless you’re a psych DR im not sure anyone is in the position to make that call.
the characters in this film i would describe as violent, wild, berserk, bloodthirsty, brutal, coercive, cruel, enraged, fierce, fiery, forceful, furious, homicidal, murderous, raging, riotous, rough, savage, strong, uncontrollable, unrestrained, vicious.
As much as I appreciate where you are comming from - you may wish to bring this up with Hitchcock first.
I’ve been trying to get hold of this film. It’s available on iTunes, but only if your account is set up as a US account. Trying with a NZ account fails.
It’s interesting that people believe it casts larpers in a bad light. It could equally be said that it casts males in a bad light; or Canadians.
I’d like to get this movie and watch it. All welcome.
It’s only US$16 on iTunes.
I gather you’re saying terms like “psycho” and “nutter” are slurs against people with mental illness and so should be avoided, because they reinforce negative stereotypes about mental illness. That’s actually a new concept to me but it does make sense, much like avoiding terms that are slurs against gay people, women, ethnicities, etc. I guess the casual use of terms like “crazy” as a generic insult is the most common issue.
The tricky part is finding alternate terms when a term in actually needed. Take Adam’s example of the movie “Psycho”. Is describing the villain Norman Bates as “crazy” offensive? He’s depicted as having multiple personalities, there’s even a scene at the end where a psychiatrist declares him insane (they actually say he’s schizophrenic, which had led to a popular misconception that “schizophrenia” means multiple personalities… it doesn’t). Presumably it’s not offensive to describe him as not just violent, but also also mentally ill?
I think I take your point about the Wild Hunt though. It’s hard to know whether the villains there are intended to be portrayed as “mad” or just “bad”, and they’re not the same thing.
it’s fine to describe a character as mentally ill or state what mental illness they are diaognosed with in the film as long as a value judgement doesn’t come along with it.
the main reason slurs like ‘oh they are mad’ and ‘he’s just mental’ are offensive in the first place is because society had a vested meaning the thoes words that doesn’t just mean ‘has mental illness/unwellness/differnce’ but also means at best ‘is eccentric and untaimed’ or at worse ‘is violent and subhuman’
[quote=“Derek”]I’ve been trying to get hold of this film. It’s available on iTunes, but only if your account is set up as a US account. Trying with a NZ account fails.
It’s interesting that people believe it casts larpers in a bad light. It could equally be said that it casts males in a bad light; or Canadians.
[/quote]
We all tend to see the things that we’re sensitive about. I do it. We all do it.
It’s like seeing pictures in the clouds or shadows. I usually try to take a step back and actually investigate the thing in question to see if my reaction is valid. It usually isn’t. At least, not to my knee jerk reaction. And when my reaction is valid, then at least it is somewhat thought out… I hope.
However, the general public have somewhat more exposure with males and Canadians than they do with Larpers. The general public have some idea already about what males are like, and also what Canadians are like, both from real life encounters and media exposure. But like Anna said, since there is so little knowledge of Larping in the general community, this could be some peoples first and, possible, only encounter with the concept of Larping. Therefore a negative portrayal of Larping will much more of an effect on peoples idea of the hobby than a negative portrayals of commonly recognisable activities and people. If you have only one reference for a certain subject, that reference is going to have a big influence of your view of that subject.
So I think that it is unfortunate that our hobby has such a minor media exposure and an a lack of general knowledge about it that something like this could be some peoples only exposure. If Larping was generally more well known I’d think it was good to have a move like this. And I do want to see it and may enjoy it as a horror movie, but would prefer that it wasn’t peoples first or only exposure to our awesome hobby.