Knights of Badassdom

Plot

In a forest, a group of friends are participating in a LARP when their activities are brought to an end by abusive local police. Their friend Joe, a slacker and a fan of metal music, is dumped by his girlfriend Beth. Joe's friends Eric and Hung bring him unwillingly to a fantasy LARP event to cheer him up. Game master Ronnie, who was once humiliated by Joe as a result of an embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons incident, demands that Eric cast an advanced regeneration spell to allow Joe into the game. Eric recites a random passage from a grimoire he ordered online to allow Joe into the game, and unknowingly summons a succubus which resembles Beth.

Hung teaches Joe the rules of LARP combat, and Joe begins bonding with a female LARPer named Gwen. She is accompanied by her brutish cousin Gunther, who believes that the LARP event is an actual fantasy world and that he is an actual warrior. After the LARP event begins, the succubus begins murdering LARPers, including Hung and their friend Lando, with Ronnie narrowly escaping. Joe, Eric, Gwen, and Gunther discover the aftermath of the killings, and Ronnie informs Eric that the spell he recited was a genuine Enochian spell that can summon demons. They are confronted by the succubus, and Eric recites a different spell to mortally wound the succubus, but instead causes it to transform into a large monster.

The LARP battle of "Nevermore" is accidentally started early, and the LARPers begin fighting. Amidst the combat, the succubus monster slaughters most of the LARPers, including Ronnie, and the local police. Joe, Eric, Gwen, and Gunther confront the beast, and they manage to pin it in place with a truck. Joe, grasping a mystical gem taken from the spine of the grimoire, sings a spell in a metal style, causing a spectral version of Hung to appear and defeat the monster. Six months later, Joe and Gwen are shown to have started a doom metal band, and that Joe has "gotten over" his breakup with Beth. Ronnie was posthumously recognized as "game master extraordinaire", Eric is learning Enochian, and Hung's fight against the monster is now immortalized as legendary.

Cast

Production

The film is directed by Joe Lynch, and stars Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn and Summer Glau. Spectral Motion contribute the special effects in the film. The film was co-written by Kevin Dreyfuss and Matt Wall.

Filming began in July 2010 in and around Spokane, Washington. In September 2012, Wade Bradley of IndieVest reported Knights of Badassdom is still in "post-production" and that the film is anticipated to be released theatrically in "the first half of 2013."

On March 4, 2013 updates reported that an edit of the film was screened March 5, 2013 to potential buyers in Los Angeles.

On July 25, 2013, it was announced that Entertainment One had bought the North American distribution rights to the film with Wade Bradley negotiating the deal for IndieVest Pictures.

Some footage from the film and interviews with Douglas Tait are featured in the monster-movie documentary Men in Suits.

Initial DVD release on April 1, 2014.

As of March 2015 the film is showing on Sky Movies in the UK, and Netflix in the United States.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports 7 positive and 5 negative reviews, with an overall rating of 58%. The film has two mixed reviews on Metacritic.