Image via Complex Original
Ever since we scored our fuzzy, VHS copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation almost a dozen years ago, we’ve had a special place in our hearts for the mad world of the fan film, where the potent combination of passion, talent, and too much free time can produce wonders (or hilarious blunders). Spielberg isn’t the only one who has inspired fans to pick up their cameras—while the phenomenon is rooted in sci-fi movies, many video game franchises have seen their fair share of fan films made. So on the occasion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy finally hitting the interwebz, we've rounded up our 10 favorite gaming x cinema labors of love. Lights, camera, cock back the hammer...
By Stu Horvath
10. The Confined (Silent Hill)
Ah, Silent Hill, the picturesque town where horrible people go to be tormented twisted nurses, giants with traffic cones on their heads, or whatever their own aberrant psychologies dictate. The terrifying creatures, haunted atmosphere, and swirling mists were ripe for fan films. The Confined doesn’t totally feel like Silent Hill (the violence seems more Hostel than we imagine for the shores of Toluca Lake) but that doesn’t mean these blind wheeled maggot dudes didn’t show up in our nightmares.
9. Tetris: The Movie (Tetris)
Part TRON, part Top Gun, all retarded. Tetris: The Movie is a fan trailer for one of the dumbest movie adaptation ideas ever, so of course we're confident that Uwe Boll will pick up the license any day now.
8. Mega64: Tetris (Tetris)
Speaking of Tetris...
Granted, Mega64 is more a comedy troupe than a bunch of fan filmmakers—but even though they now make a living doing what they do, they started out as a bunch of kids with a camera who loved video games and humor and annoying random people on the street. And really, if that isn’t what fan films are all about, we don’t know what is.
7. Jim Henson’s Resident Evil 5 (Resident Evil 5)
Jim Henson’s Resident Evil 5 answers the age old question: what would happen if you took some of the most beloved characters of childhood and threw a bunch of zombies at them? Well, they’d mostly get eaten. It falls to muppet Chris Redfield to get revenge—bloody, bloody revenge.
6. Duke Nukem: The Fate Of Humanity (Duke Nukem)
We remember Duke Nukem. We think he was some kind of tough guy in sunglasses who had so much testosterone it made you think he might be overcompensating for something...but it's been so long since the last Duke Nukem game that we’re a little fuzzy on the details. This fan trailer has just about everything you would expect from a Duke Nukem game—booze, cigars, strippers, alien invasions—and since Duke Nukem Forever has once again been delayed, it might be the only Duke Nukem you get for a while, so enjoy!
5. The Hero of Time (Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time)
The two-hour epic was essentially a live-action remake of OoT. It was released in mid-December of 2009...and taken down on December 31st, 2009 at the behest of Nintendo’s lawyers (way to go, Nintendo!). If you didn’t see it at the time, the terrible costumes were balanced out by decent acting and some pretty good action sequences—who'd have thunk you could take a guy in a pointy green hat seriously?
4. KRYM (Stalker)
A bleak and depressing fan film inspired by a bleak and depressing video game. Then again, it's hard to be chipper post-nuclear holocaust with all that radiation poisoning and whatnot. KRYM does a great job of matching the style and atmosphere of the Stalker games, and does it with a fair amount of filmmaking skill, but we’d be more impressed if we didn’t think Russia already looked like that without a nuclear disaster.
3. MegaMan (MegaMan)
MegaMan is an unusual case for a fan film, as director Eddie Lebron sought and received Capcom’s approval to make his film (take note, Nintendo). It's also a full-length film, running 90 minutes—and while it isn’t Hamlet, it is a lot better than you might expect a MegaMan movie to be. Honestly, we prefer these robots to Michael Bay’s Transformers any day.
2. Beyond Black Mesa (Half-Life 2)
Like Duke Nukem, Half-Life fans have been waiting a long time for a new installment. It may not be from Valve, but the extremely well done short film Beyond Black Mesa will go a long way to satisfying your hunger...or just making it worse. It doesn’t attempt to address any of the major plot points from the game, but it does return us to the world after the Combine invasion and does it with an impressive attention to detail and the spirit of the series. There are no shortage of Half-Life fan films out there, but Beyond Black Mesa is far and away our favorite.
1. Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy (Metal Gear Solid)
The king of video game fan films (at least at the moment), MGS: Philanthropy is the height of ambition, costing $10,000 to make and boasting an rich array of visual effects and locations. It's also just plain made well, with excellent cinematography, pacing, and character development. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima himself is reportedly a fan, and is looking forward to the next two parts. The only flaw? Snake doesn’t have a mullet.
