Guest blogger Ian Barr shares his thoughts on The Wild Hunt, which had its Australian premiere at the Festival.

For the first 5 minutes of The Wild Hunt, unsuspecting Possible Worlds festivalgoers would forgiven for thinking the theatre’s projectionist mistakenly slipped in a reel of Centurion instead. With little fanfare, we’re plunged into a world of Vikings, princesses, heavy armour, huts, guttural yelling… until someone breaks character, dropping an F-bomb in a weedy Canuck timbre, revealing everything to be an elaborate charade.

Yup, we’re now in the uber-geeky world of medieval Live Action Role Play (henceforth known as L.A.R.P), and as soon as that setting’s established, it becomes evident as to how perfectly apt these environs are as the basis for a film – it’s a world of make-believe that neatly dovetails with the world of movies itself.

Writer/director Alexander Franchi uses another film as a template; it’s John Ford’s The Searchers, with a fresh-faced blonde kid Erik (Ricky Mabe) seeking his girlfriend Evelyn (awesomely named Kaniehtio Horn), after she’s been lured off to the L.A.R.P world as fresh meat; the latter unable to copy with the looming presence of Erik’s ailing father who he has to take care of. Erik’s bubble-bursting appearance in the backwoods gaming world, however, turns this elaborate fantasy into an Orwellian nightmare, revealing the lower depths of human nature and turning the titular event terrifyingly real.

Though some might question what people this attractive are doing in the libido-free world of role-play games, it’s to Franchi’s credit that he doesn’t go the route of turning his characters into fish-in-a-barrel objects of comedic scorn. Most of the wry sense of humour comes from Erik’s early bemusement toward the L.A.R.P. shenanigans, with the almost Dogme ’95–like camerawork & natural lighting keeping us in his Earthbound shoes. The film pulls off a tricky tonal shift, as a grueling thriller emerges organically from the vividly sketched delusion among the game’s participants.

At 90 minutes, and with a few plot strands up in the air (I haven’t mentioned the relationship between Erik and his brother Bjorn, the latter already a gamer before the former’s arrival), it almost feels as if Franchi has bitten off more than he can chew, and the film is best delivering thrills in a setting unfamiliar to cinematic representation rather than making grand statements about human nature and illusion vs. reality. But above all, The Wild Hunt is an original beast that thoroughly entertains, demonstrating a talented indie filmmaker beating Hollywood at their own game.