Chick Tracts Come To Life In Anti-RPG Flick DARK DUNGEONS

Andrew Mack, Editor, News; Toronto, Canada (@Mack_SAnarchy)

May 22 2014, 4:30 PM

If you have spent enough time in the Christian church, then you have comes across Chick Tracts. They are small, booklet-sized comics written and illustrated by Jack Chick. They are about as fundamentalist, right wing and white pinko as the Church can get, the Westboro of comic book literature. And they are unintentionally hilarious, too. I had a roommate in college who collected them, and during timeouts studying real Theology, we would marvel at their brashness.

And if you were coming of age in the 80s, you also came across scare media events; dragged to our churches to watch videos about the evils of heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons. They were, after all, gateways to Hell. In that heyday, Jack Chick made one of his most famous tracts, Dark Dungeons, which warned of the dangers of D&D and RPG gaming. And someone has gone ahead and made a movie based on that tract.

Dark Dungeons brings Jack Chick's 1984 masterpiece to the silver screen. Debbie and Marcie arrive at college unaware of the dangers of RPGing. They are soon indoctrinated into this dangerous lifestyle where they face the threat of learning real life magical powers, being invited to join a witches' coven, and resisting the lure of Ms. Frost, a vile temptress of a GM. But what peril must the two friends face when they stumble across the Necronomicon and their fantasy game becomes a reality game? Find out in Dark Dungeons!

A couple of decades later and a man in Portland, Oregon, JR Ralls, wins a small lottery and wonders what he can do with his winnings. He asks Chick for the rights to make a live-action version of Dark Dungeons, which Chick gives him for free. Then Ralls launches a Kickstarter campaign to raise a small budget to bring Dark Dungeons to life. And he gets it!

And what you have below is the result. A trailer for a dead serious adaptation of Chick's tract Dark Dungeons. It is not supported by any faith-based organization that I can see. The film is produced by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, a Seattle-based company that supports the gaming community with web series like Journey Quest and their association with the Gamers film trilogy. So their does not appear to be any slant on this project other than to present as true a depiction of the comic as is possible.

Watch at your own peril! For you may be opening a door - a gateway - into something awesome. A movie like this could really take off in the cult film circuitm another The Room or Birdemic.

Dark Dungeons comes out in August on digital download and DVD.