Darkon

2006

1h 33m

Documentary

Fantasy

List

89%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

65%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Fantasy role players use Baltimore re-imagined into a medieval world called Darkon. The adventurers combine character-driven storylines with physical re-enactments. Each person creates an alter ego complete with rich emotional, psychological, and social lives as well as elaborate costumes for use in court or on the battlefield.

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Audience Member

Everything you ever wanted to know about living role-play but were afraid to see.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Funny and fairly revealing, but I would have liked to see more about the actual mechanics of gameplay.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Following a group of Live-Action Role Playing Gamers, this documentary does little more than follow their exploits in their fantasy world. However, what the film divulges from it's subjects (although it's hard t tell how much the film is doing, and how much comes from my knowledge of fantasy players) is the importance of fantasy not just to them, but to the human condition. It gives them an opportunity to learn the skills society requires without having to confine themselves to the often unforgiving environment people have created within America which is anything but fair. While the film spends way too much time trying to get us involved in their players' made-up story and mythology (it succeeds in doing this with only a fraction of their footage, so it became overkill), it is still able to take a humane, and fair, picture of all involved, giving them the chance to explain their escapism. And they do so well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Now I know I'm not a loser. Thank you, Darkon.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Didn't change my mind on anything, only made me feel sadder. I fully respect the particpant who basically told Skip that it was just a game.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not as engrossing as DRAKMAHR

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

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Luke Meyer

Director

Andrew Neel

Director

Skip Lipman

Bannor

Daniel McCarthur

Trivius

Rebecca Thurmond

Nemesis

Kenyon Wells

Keldar

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Grady Hendrix

Slate

Joins the ranks of movies like Hoop Dreams and Murderball as one of the great documentary dissections of how Americans play.

Nov 12, 2007

Full Review

Los Angeles Times

By approaching the subject without a sense of ironic distance, Neel and Meyer get at something elemental, a variation of the American Dream at work, in which everyone can live out their life as they see it, even if that's as a medieval elf.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 26, 2007

Full Review

Jeannette Catsoulis

New York Times

Eloquent and occasionally touching, Darkon is haphazardly photographed but unfailingly generous toward subjects who exhibit an astonishing degree of self-awareness.

Rated: 4.5/5

Sep 22, 2007

Full Review

Dorothy Woodend

The Tyee (British Columbia)

It might sound ridiculous, and occasionally it is, but there is also something deeply moving about people's desire for experience that is bigger and more thrilling than ordinary life. Valour! Passion! Glory! Giant foam swords!

Aug 23, 2017

Full Review

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

First-time documentarians Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel avoid what might have been the obvious tact here of making fun of these folks, which is a treat...

Oct 18, 2008

Full Review

Chris Hewitt

St. Paul Pioneer Press

How can you not like a movie where a guy says, completely without irony, "During my third campout, I was assassinated seven times."

Rated: 3/4

Feb 8, 2007

Full Review

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Synopsis

Fantasy role players use Baltimore re-imagined into a medieval world called Darkon. The adventurers combine character-driven storylines with physical re-enactments. Each person creates an alter ego complete with rich emotional, psychological, and social lives as well as elaborate costumes for use in court or on the battlefield.

Director: Luke Meyer, Andrew Neel
Producer: Christopher Kikis, Thomas Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz
Genre: Documentary, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 10, 2017
Runtime: 1h 33m

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