This is the final writeup of my time at Nine Worlds 2015, and unlike the previous two, it’ll be quite brief and completely without sketchnotes.  This isn’t a deliberate absence of sketchnotes – I just didn’t really go to anything that made sense to take notes at!

In fact, most of my time was spent socialising – I think the only programme item I went to was the “Night of the Trailers – Morning of the Trailers” slot in the film festival.

11:45am – Night of the Trailers – Morning of the Trailers

I have a soft spot for terrible, terrible movies… and I used to work in a video store, so I’ve seen a few.  I even own a fair few on VHS. I also have a soft-spot for entertaining trailers – and this session delivered.

For a change, I arrived in time to get a nice comfy beanbag-based-spot on the floor down the front, with a good clear view of the screen.

As I recall, this session largely broke down into three chunks:

  • Entertainingly bad trailers
  • Re-cut informational broadcasts, promos and internal company instructional videos from the 70s and 80s
  • Just plain awful trailers

Highlights

The entertainingly bad trailers were fun, often verging on hilarious.

The re-cut informational broadcasts, promos and instructional videos were fun, but dragged too long, I thought.

The bad trailers were BAD. Very bad…

But for me, as a long-established gamer, a particular highlight was the inclusion of one specific trailer.  Sat on my beanbag on the floor, I was watching a terribly made and acted trailer that looked like it was for some kind of urban fantasy knock-off.

Then I heard the name “black leaf” come out of the speakers, and I immediately knew exactly what I was watching. I squee’d a little inside. Possibly outside, too.  You’d have to ask folks from beanbags near me.

 

What was on the screen was the trailer for the movie version of “Dark Dungeons” – which started life as an appallingly bad faux-Christian anti-D&D pamphlet (The link is to a page about the strip, not the strip itself).

I say faux-Christian because whilst Jack Chick (who created the pamphlet and other terrible rubbish like it) claims to be a Christian, his work basically ignores pretty much all of the key points of Christian faith (y’know, love, forgiveness, tolerance – he’s far from alone in ignoring them, but ignore them he does) in favour promoting bigoted, homophobic and other universally repugnant bullshit.

It may be dire, it may be offensive, and it may be utterly repugnant in every way, but Dark Dungeons holds a special place in the hearts of gamers around the world.

The Rest Of The Show

The informational videos didn’t do much for me, alas.  There was a bit of fun there, but not really enough to keep me engaged.

But they screened the trailer for Dark Dungeons. So I’ll give them a pass.

It made my heart want to chant “R… P…G!   R… P… G!   R… P… G!   R… P… G!” until the summoning is completed!

Departure

There were other things I thought about going to, but there were long gaps, so after a while spent chatting, we hopped in the car and fled the scene of the crime.

You can find out more about the convention by visiting their website.

You can find out more about The Duke Mitchell Film Club by visiting theirs.

You can also visit the website of the “Here Be Dragons” Film Festival (the video program at Nine Worlds).