World of Darkness (2017)

World of Darkness: Directed by Giles Alderson. With Dhaunae De Vir, Shane DeFreest, Oliver Dickens, Martin Ericsson. An in-depth look into how the World of Darkness and Vampire: The Masquerade created a phenomenon in the 1990’s – a zeitgeist that helped shape film, literature, fashion, club culture, and ultimately fans, whose lives it forever altered.

“This is essentially a documentary about the business side of White Wolf, a rise and fall of their company, interviewing the company heads and lead creative people behind their immensely popular game, Vampire the Masquerade. Throughout the documentary, there are interviews with fans of the game, particularly the live action version (called LARP).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe fan interviews left much to be desired. They basically talked to people who found a sense of belonging with the game and community, and showed scenes of them dressing up in costume and at Vampire LARP parties, but didnu0026#39;t go into their actual characters or how they actually play the game. We are told that this game was a huge influence and had this dedicated, die-hard community, but after watching the movie, Iu0026#39;m still not sure why.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs far as the documentary itself, one thing I found striking was how much greed and arrogance is on display from the former company heads. They claim the entire vampire popularity of the late 90u0026#39;s and early 2000u0026#39;s is entirely due to their game, and clearly were sue-happy when faced with financial trouble. This is despite the fact that the Vampire genre was already huge and popular before their game existed. They even sued their own fan club for using the name u0026quot;Camarillau0026quot;, alienating their most dedicated base. Even though we are shown that sales dropped off as a direct result of that, the execs still seem oblivious to their own behavior in destroying the good will of their name.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile Shane Defreest is busy claiming every vampire related movie or TV show ripped off the game, the actual creator of the game (who was fired by the company at the first sign of financial trouble), admits that he took ideas from popular 80u0026#39;s vampire movies, which, unbeknownst to him at the time, were all influenced by the best-selling Anne Rice. Heu0026#39;s the only one who acknowledges Anne Riceu0026#39;s influence on the popularity of the Vampire genre in the 80u0026#39;s and 90u0026#39;s. She was still huge then, but Defreest and the rest seem to not actually read books or watch vampire movies that came before their game. The only person who can really claim to have been copied is the artist Tim Bradstreet, who was actually told his art was used in the first Blade movie by the filmu0026#39;s creators.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the end, they were done in by a series of bad business decisions, their own greed, hubris, and total lack of respect for their own fans as well as the creative people who helped bring the modern Vampire genre to life.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have a feeling if Stewart Wieck hadnu0026#39;t passed away right before this film was released, more people would be talking about what a greedy jerk he is, instead of praising him as a genius.”