Movies to Game By: The Mist

Time for another movie review from the gamer perspective.

Thanksgiving behind us, Christmas fast approaching, weather getting chilly, holiday spirit... what better time for a suspenseful, creepy horror movie?

This weekend I set aside some time to watch The Mist. It came out in 2007, and I'm not sure how I missed (get it? ba-dump) this one.
Maybe I thought it was a remake of The Fog, and purposefully avoided it, I can't say for sure.

I wasn't expecting much to be honest, just some cheap chills and startles on a dark and stormy night.
But I was quite happy to be dished up a lot more than that.

As always, I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum: no more than what you might see in a trailer.

To start, this is a horror movie.  If you don't like to jump, if monsters scare you for weeks, if you don't like creepy, then this won't be for you.  A shame though, since there is a good chunk of philosophy, musing on human nature, religion, and theoretical science, which again, I wasn't expecting but was very happy to find.

As the title suggests, the main event is the encroaching of Mist on a small town, in the Pacific North-West.
As many people head to the grocery store to stock up on supplies after a storm, they find themselves trapped by a mist... and the thing or things that the mist might be hiding.

The tension is very well crafted by the film, and the pace of revealing more about their situation is well timed.
In addition to the slow unveiling of the danger they are in, the sub-plot of the ever-growing threat they pose to themselves from their fear and superstitions is just as interesting and entertaining.

Probably my favorite character was Ollie, a bagger, played by Toby Jones.  He has some memorable lines that I could relate to, which I'll put at the end, under spoilers.

I'd place this movie in the horror sub-genre of 'Apocalyptic Survival'.
Zombies are a popular and constant theme these days, but the world-changing nature this movie presents would make a Zombie Apocalypse look like a stroll in the park.  Speaking of Zombie Apocalypse, three characters in this movie are played by actors/actresses who are in Walking Dead.  Not surprising since Frank Darabont directed and wrote the screenplay.  He is also the creator of the TV series, The Walking Dead.  That should give you an idea, if you follow Walking Dead, for the kind of outer/inner threat balance of the drama and action.

The ending is one of the most bleak yet beautiful I have seen in any movie.
It will stick with you for a long time.
This is helped by the ideal music selected for the final scene: The Host of the Seraphim, by Dead Can Dance.

For the Gamers:

This movie has a wealth of ideas for gaming.

RPG is obvious: ideal for setting tension, as it's an easy thing to keep players in the dark (or mist) about what they see and can know.

For tabletop miniatures, this would make for great scenarios for skirmish gaming.  Any genre from fantasy, historical, on to post-apoc and sci-fi could make use of this idea.  Consider the entire table as covered in mist. Drop terrain out only when miniatures get close enough to see it in the mist. This could be done by a GM or use a randomizer table, or have one player play the monsters and use a predetermined map that the human player doesn't know.  For several players of the humans, they could be in different factions, with a core of minis in their control and the bulk as neutrals which the factions try to win over.  I could imagine each neutral having a "mental state" stat between 1-10, starting at 6 where 1 is calm and reasoned and 10 is given up to hysteria.  Every time a scary event occurs, the mini is attacked, wounded, sees another attacked, wounded or killed it must make a test: roll a d10: if it rolls over it's current stat it goes up one, if rolls under is goes down 1. The worse the scary event, the more the die roll is modified.  The religious zealot player gains more sway over minis that give in to hysteria, while the sane & reasoned player can sway those drifting the other direction.  A leader can spend a turn trying to sway neutral minis: rolling for a test to try to swing their mental state one direction or the other.

SPOILERS !!

-Not a lot, but if you don't like any hints, drop down to the RATING section below.



OK, should be safe to continue.

There are a lot of great creatures in this movie!  I had guessed the source of them before the movie revealed it, but, my mind already jumps to such ideas anyway.  A quick glimpse at an entire ecosystem is given, leaving me wanting to see & know more.

The religious zealot character, expertly played by Marcia Gay Harden, gave a theory that it was the 'end of days'.  While I love horror movies rooted in Christian Apocalypse Myth, I could tell that this wasn't one of them, and that she instead represented a more realistic interpretation of such concepts: she and her ideas are dangerous!

The character Ollie has some great lines, such as "Our species is fundamentally insane."  and when asked, "Don't you have faith in humanity?" his reply is "None whatsoever."



Rating

Spoilers off.

To keep in theme with gaming, my rating system is based on the old AD&D armor class system.
Armor Class 0-10. AC0 is some amazing full plate and shield : great armor, difficult time finding a hit with that: you're not going to like the movie. AC10 is no resistance: that common cloth won't prevent a hit.

I give this movie an Armor Class of 9.
It's holding a feeble wooden shield: easy to get past it's resistance and find a good hit.

If you can not be in the same room as a horror movie, I'd drop this to Armor Class 6
If you believe in an imminent Biblical 'end of days' handed out by a wrathful god, and that those who preach it are the best humanity has to offer, I'd drop this to Armor Class 5.
If both apply to you, I'd drop this to Armor Class 1: You will hate this movie.

Reasons: While not the biggest budget, the effects are more than enough to sell the visuals and create the atmosphere that's needed.  The writing and layered plot is deftly done.
This is not the pre-packaged cafeteria serving of horror movie that is the majority of what is offered out there.
The ending alone is worth a couple notches up.


Clips to enjoy! Both have the amazing music of Dead Can Dance: The Host of the Seraphim. 

Warning: This has scenes from the ending, so do not watch if you want to avoid visual spoilers! 





No Spoilers in the one below, just the song in its entirety. Enjoy 

Movies to Game By: Review of Conan the Barbarian

Another review for Movies to Game By. This time it's the latest telling of 'Conan the Barbarian', from 2011.

This movie got slammed by critics.  Rotten Tomatoes has critics at 23% and audience at 33%.  

Not a good sign. 

The original, 30 years ago, scores 75% and 66%, which brings up some interesting comparisons. 

For me, I enjoyed the movie.  I don't think a movie like 'Conan' is going to be general-audience.  I certainly can't picture my mother watching it.... or my sister, either of them- ok probably not even my father.. I'm now wondering if I am adopted. At any rate, I suspect that there are large segments of the population that would be adverse to this movie on genre alone, although the fact that audience rates the original twice as favorably makes me wonder if nostalgia has an influence. 

So, on to the movie: 

The cast is good.  Jason Momoa makes a convincing Conan, although there is a scene where he's asked his name and my MST3K trained brain replied "Drogo". Similarly, Ron Perlman makes a good barbarian father, but when he claims young Conan as his son, I did have a "I thought Jacks was your son?" moment. 

All that aside, the movie creates a very good atmosphere.  I didn't see it in 3D, but even in 2D the movie is rich with beautiful landscapes.  Snow covered forest, mountain forests, desert ruins, tropical coast, and more: lots of gorgeous settings.  That's one thing this movie has over the original: the setting feels more like an epic, while the original has that "Spaghetti Fantasy" feel to the setting, so common from the 1980's. 

There is one moment of unforgivable cheese that is just jarring.  A severed head falls to the ground, rolls, and suddenly the eyes open as if it is surprised.  Who let the director of "Tales from the Crypt" on the set? Someone needs to be kicked. Aside from that moment the rest was fairly high-road. 

The story is simple: one man's quest for revenge. He's very single-minded about it, even putting the heroine at risk for his pursuit. I'm guessing that lost a large part of the audience support.  A modern audience won't tolerate a hero that isn't selfless... he does come around a bit at the end though- but I won't give too much of a spoiler as to how.. it is a bit subtle and I think a lot of the audience probably missed it. There is also an undertone of incest and you're going to get some repulsion from that as well. 

The fight scenes are well done, special effects are good, and gore-level not over the top. 

This movie has some good gaming moments.  It makes me want to pick up some of the excellent 15mm Copplestone barbarians:

Copplestone's 15mm Fantasy

I can see two good table-top applications right away: 

The opening flight & fight scene would make a good con-style game: each player controlling a barbarian, with egg in his mouth, that must run an obstacle course of fallen trees, rocks, fend off non-lethal attacks from fellow barbarians and lethal attacks of the enemy tribe, with each challenge having a difficulty level.  A player that fails a challenge would have a difficult saving throw for the egg, if succeeding at the challenge an easy saving throw for the egg: a player could chose to add modifiers from a pool of luck that he starts with from the beginning. First to make it safely back to the village with the egg in one piece wins.

The desert ruin scene.  This has gaming written all over it. Great for tabletop and RPG both. The sand-elemental people are very fragile: hit them and they collapse back into sand, but they're also deadly: they can do damage and they pop back up somewhere else.  Making minis for these would be pretty easy. The Mantic ghouls, painted like sand would be ideal, and easy.  This would make a good solo-minis game as well. Each turn d3 sand elementals will appear.  To find their location, select the target hero, roll a direction scatter die and a d6 to find the direction and distance of the elemental's location.  To defeat the challenge, the hero must drive off the controlling sorceress, but getting there alive won't be possible if he ignores the elementals.  To make it more difficult, he also has to protect the woman he is with.  For an even greater challenge, if a 1 is rolled for the number of sand elementals, then there will also be an additional elemental appearing near the woman the hero is trying to defend: roll for distance and scatter in the same way as the others, except the elemental's location is based on her location.  

Speaking of the sorceress, Rose McGowen made a good & creepy one...

Would have made a great villain on 'Farscape' or maybe a Sith Lord. 

The rating system I use is based on old D&D armor class: the easier it is to hit, the better! So AC 10 is a winner, AC 0 is so hard to hit that you're likely to have no fun at all. 

I give this move an Armor Class of 6.  You get +1 to hit if you really enjoy visual atmosphere.  I don't think it's nearly as bad as critics have said and I think the polling audience is likely not the intended audience, or they were just expecting too much. There are certainly a lot better fantasy movies out there... this isn't Lord of the Rings by any stretch, but it's easily enjoyable. It also give a lot of ideas and inspiration for table-top and RPG gaming. I'd recommend it.

Movies to Game By: Review of Outlander

Like many people, I'm a fan of movies.  I like a lot of different genres of movies, but I'm as biased as the next person so I have some big dislikes as well.  But unlike the general movie-going audience, I'm a gamer, and chances are if you're reading this, you're likely a gamer too.  I can appreciate a movie in many ways, and sometimes one of those ways is 'as a gamer'.  There are times I've seen a movie and thought 'I want to game this" or "that would make an awesome army to build".  So a new feature here will be reviews of movies that I have this reaction to: Movies to Game By.

In Movies to Game By, I'll give my review of a movie, both for it's appeal as a movie in general as well as it's inspiration value for gaming. I'll try to refrain from any spoilers.  Every review needs a review system, and rather than steal from the D6Generation's d6 system (which I was tempted to do) I'll instead steal from classic Dungeons & Dragons.  The armor class system was from unarmored AC10 down to Plate Mail AC2, and below for even better or magical armor. The higher the number, the less armor- and in the case of the movie reviews, the higher the number, the easier it is to have a 'hit' & less resistance to adapting it for gaming.

Or simpler: 10 very good.  0 very bad.

On to the Review:

Outlander, from 2008.

Late arrival to the US it seems, and released in Europe for several years.
Starring James Caviezel, John Hurt, Sophia Myles, and Ron Pearlman.

This movie scratches the itch of two of my favorite genres: Sci-fi & Historical-ish.
A soldier of an intergalactic conflict crashes in Norway of the early 8th century. But he's not alone: one of the big bad nasty aliens is lose as well.  There are a lot of interesting interactions between what is essentially 'man of the future' and Iron Age Vikings. Without any of his technological advantages, it brings about the 'great equalizer' that a person is just a person, and it's his cunning and creativity that is what will save him (and others) or not.

Some details are a bit historically off the mark, the main hall looked too big... but did look very cool, and a few times people fired arrows in an incorrect manner, but overall it had a pretty decent level of authentic feeling to it.  The Norse people were not presented as bloodthirsty barbarians, but as people in a dangerous world, who were accustomed to it, but also references were made to the far flung trade relations they had.  Unlike many 'Action histori-fantasy/sci-fi' movies, the world and culture of the people did not feel as 'thin & false' as is typical for these genres.

The action was good and tension was appropriately thick in the right places.  It had a good amount of character insight moments and humorous moments so characters didn't feel completely two dimensional.  And there wasn't nearly the amount of "unfathomably stupid" actions so typical to action & horror movies.
The photography is beautiful.  There are some really nice scenes in the wilderness, that if it wasn't for the hulking hunting alien, it'd be nice to spend some time there.

This movie is high in the gaming factors.  It'd be very easy to adapt the ideas to the gaming table.  Skirmish games like SAGA, Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, Songs of Blades & Heroes, and others could easily be used, just add your favorite large alien beast. Really, the sci-fi elements are very low here.  It's an interesting background for the movie, but doesn't have a lot of effect on the gaming table: you're not going to equip your vikings with ray guns for example.  But if you watch the movie you can see how you might give some better weapons to some characters in some scenarios or in a designated turn.  In an RPG game it could be a great challenge to a fantasy setting world to have an alien creature that is not susceptible to the standard weapons and tricks the party is accustomed to. It could also be interesting to have a 'future world' human, stranded on their world as one of the Player Characters.

I give this movie an Armor Class of 8 (out of 10) for both enjoy-ability and for inspiration for the table top.
An easy hit and not much resistance to making for good gaming material.