UPDATED: The Grim & The Dark provides a concise introduction to the most overused term in miniatures
Gently Blanched.
UPDATE: Some additional information has come to light since I published this piece that I felt was worth sharing. 1490 Doom is featured quite heavily throughout the documentary, which I noticed on my viewing, but I wrote it off as a consequence of the filmmakers focusing on one particular gaming community. I just figured that was the game those folks were really into at the time. However, this is not the case. The producers of the film, Eric Michael Robertson and Cody Taylor, are both directly involved with 1490 Doom. Robertson is one of the creators of the game, and Taylor is the co-founder of the publisher, Buer Games.
While this amounts to some pretty egregious product placement, it doesn't substantively change my primary positive takes on the film. It's still a pretty good overview of grimdark as a phenomenon within miniatures gaming, and it doesn't take away the fact that the Blanche interview segment resonated with me emotionally. This is why I have decided to leave the piece unchanged, and just add this update.
The Grim & The Dark has one heck of a pitch. A documentary about miniatures games is enough to raise an intrigued eyebrow, but when it’s both specifically about the niche grimdark skirmish games you’d see in the pages of 28 Magazine and fronted by Napoleon Dynamite, it moves into full-on, what the actual fuckity-fuck territory. Apologies to Jon Heder, by the way. I’m sure it sucks being constantly associated with a character you played in one movie, but that’s what you get when your acting breakout is a cultural phenomenon, I guess.
That’s your premise — Napol…sorry, Jon is introduced to miniatures games and the concept of grimdark, then follows the trail from his home in the US, through Finland and then England, culminating in an interview segment with John Blanche, the former Games Workshop art director whose illustration forms the basis of the grimdark aesthetic.
The result is a concise, yet comprehensive documentary that overcomes a shaky start to provide a decent overview of what grimdark is, where it came from, and what it means to aficionados of the style. Somewhat ironically, considering the attention his involvement has garnered, Heder doesn’t feel like a particularly active force in the film. Instead he is a passive vehicle for the audience’s questions, being pulled along as he attempts to comprehend the nature of grimdark. While a surprising choice, it works. Heder seems interested in the hobby and, as far as cyphers go, he makes an ideal slightly nerdy everyman.
