Inspirational Movies and TV for Dark Conspiracy

[Morthrai]

I've been watching the 1960s TV series The Invaders as it's now available in Australia on DVD. Although having a theme strongly reflecting the Cold War fears of communist infiltration, there's a lot of the standard material that we now see in X-Files, Conspiracy-X and to a lesser degree, Dark Conspiracy.

Agreed, it's one of the classics that inspired the popularity of our little genre along with Kolchak a little later. I saw the 90s miniseries that was going to bring back The Invaders to a modern audience...it was more in the modern style, X-Files-ish if you like, but that's probably why the series wasn't brought back fully. A very nice moment in there where Roy Thinnes from the original series hands over his big book of evidence to Scott Bakula, who was clearly going to be the protagonist of the new version. However, he was offered the command of the Enterprise instead

[Linden]

Continuing my Quatermass trip I recently watched the BBC remake of the original Quatermass Experiment. It’s an interesting attempt to resurrect live TV but is unsatisfactory in a number of respects: Struck me as all a bit rushed so that various sub-plots get hurriedly glossed over. Jason Flemyng is a good actor but seems miscast in the title role (probably too young). The ending in the Tate gallery is an anti-climax and descends into bathos. Give me the rubber glove monster from the film version any day.

What’s probably of most interest to DC fans is the style. In the DVD extras one of the designers says they were going for a modern yet timeless look but I think the vibe is definitely retro: Sets and costumes frequently have a back to the fifties look which is particularly noticeable in the scenes with the journalists. You can just imagine them scouring the mean streets of a metroplex looking for a sensationalist story for their tabloid rag. None of that new fangled phone hacking stuff for them.

[Morthrai]

In the DVD extras one of the designers says they were going for a modern yet timeless look but I think the vibe is definitely retro: Sets and costumes frequently have a back to the fifties look which is particularly noticeable in the scenes with the journalists. You can just imagine them scouring the mean streets of a metroplex looking for a sensationalist story for their tabloid rag. None of that new fangled phone hacking stuff for them.

It always struck me about "Predator 2" that many of the people seemed to be wearing older styles of clothing. Bill Paxton in particular seems to be firmly stuck in the JFK era

[Pennanngalan]

I too had to join this fine forum to add to this thread Here is a short list of movies I enjoyed and think can be good places to get some ideas:

Blood Creek - A pre-WW2 nazi scientist moves in with an American family to conduct occult research. Fast forward to modern times, two brothers stumble upon the scientist and the original(unaged)family. Hilarity ensues.

Eagle Eye - supercomputer tries to control America "for our protection."

I, Robot - Eagle Eye with robots.

Wax Work 1 and 2 - Time travel and proto-dimensions.

Splice - deals with genetic manipulation and possible dangers of.

The Puppetmasters - Alien parasites invade Earth.

Repo The Genetic Opera - Mega-corp sells vital organs to the populous and repos them if the recipients can't pay. It is an opera and they sing everything. You are warned!

Virus - Alien program infects a Russian sea vessel, creates a body for itself and cobbles together minions from the ship and crew in an effort to cleanse the Earth of it's "human problem."

There are more, I just can't remember them at the moment.

BTW... Split Second is an awesome film!

*EDIT* two more
Brotherhood of the Wolf - GREAT suspense movie! A must see! It is in French with sub-titled english

The Crazies - Government cover-up of a lost plane carrying biological weaponry.

*EDIT* One-mo-agin!
The Unborn - Dybbuk (type of demon) tries to enter our world through a family prone to having twins.

Ghost Ship - Reaper of Souls lure greedy salvagers to an abandoned ship.

13 Ghosts - A ghost collector builds an infernal machine in his home. All he needs is a willing sacrifice to make it work.

Arachnaphobia - Super-tarantulas

Push - Free empaths vs. government empaths.

a couple shows from the syfy channel, School Spirits & Paranormal Witness - recountings of real life hauntings.

[ReHerakhte]

A nice list you've got there, I've seen some of them but I'll have to have a look for the others.

By the way, welcome to the forum

[Pennanngalan]

By the way, welcome to the forum

Thanks! I'm glad I stumbled across it, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Dark Conspiracy game.

[Linden]

By the way, welcome to the forum

Seconded. Welcome aboard. Over a hundred members now, not bad going!

[Linden]

A friend pointed me in the direction of Grabbers - looks like boozed up Irish cops vs the Squid baby from Prometheus. Might be worth a watch. I hasten to add I haven't seen it.

[Phulish]

Grimm- A detective discovers he can see through the disguise of monsters. Can give good ideas for empathic disguises.

[Linden]

Advance reports of Cockneys vs Zombies suggest that it's better than you might think from the title. It's a comedy but the amount of hardware on display may qualify it as a DC type movie, and the zombies of course.

[Phulish]

That does sound pretty "B"rate .

[Zvezda]

Advance reports of Cockneys vs Zombies suggest that it's better than you might think from the title. It's a comedy but the amount of hardware on display may qualify it as a DC type movie, and the zombies of course.

Looks interesting. I think I have to watch this one.

[Linden]

Looks interesting. I think I have to watch this one.

You might recognise Alan Ford as Clifford the reluctant "grass" in Law and Order. He's better known as Brick Top from Snatch these days of course. A lot of the supporting cast are veteran actors from British TV and film, mostly comedies.

Per Phuilish's comment I think that's the general idea, although possibly they're trying too hard?

[Pennanngalan]

Finally saw Splinter today, much better movie than I thought a month ago when I changed the channel to something else... silly me.

A few more that would be workable, IMO.

Babylon A.D. - The world has had a (limited I guess) nuclear exchange and is very chaotic and rough. America is safe and opulent by comparison yet controlled by corporate religion. Based on a comic book/graphic novel (which I am not familiar with). Not a bad film, certainly shows some decent out-law (people can actually live here) in the Eastern bloc region.

The Reaping - A cut and dried christian themed supernatural thriller/mystery (kinda). Could be useful.

The Growth - Genetically altered parasites, genegeneered to speed humanity along the evolutionary trail... well, you can probably see where this is going

*EDIT* Hellboy didn't show on the search so here it is

Hellboy and Hellboy 2 The Golden Army - A US agency secretly fights things that "go bump in the night". First movie involves Ancient Ones, demons, and occult forces and the second involves elves, trolls, and the Fae Folk. Based off the Hellboy comic book series.


Oh, I hope like hell I can find Cockneys vs. Zombies in the States!

While I'm here, Guess I'll throw some links to some movies I'll be Looking for. Some are already out, some will be soon, they all look promising!

Intruders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP4ctHlP ... =endscreen
Lovely Molly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCIn1hEq ... re=related
Smiley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11yBPx-y ... =endscreen
Heartless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERVbhY4m ... creen&NR=1
Branded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKUTs3w9LEk

[Nivicus]

In the spirit of Chris Carpenter's old Dark Conspiracy Internet Movie Database (now long gone sadly), I thought we should start recommending movies and TV that can and have inspired DC gaming ideas. Maybe we could even start a new version of the DCIMDB if there's enough interest?

Anyway, the first on my list is 'Split Second', a 1991 Rutger Hauer flick set in a half-submerged London. It has a big nasty monster, psychic powers, large calibre weaponry and bad one-liners. Tres kewl

More next time folks!

HOLY FREAKING CRAP! It's so funny you say that. My first true and real roleplaying (not "roll playing") was with a GM named Ron. My very first Dark Conspiracy Campaign, he played a character named Decon Taft. He totally based Decon off of the main character in Split Second. After 6 years or so post gaming with him, he let me in on that tid bit and I watched the movie shortly after. I was totally blown away!

I have one, if no one's suggested it. Videodrome! Freaking classic twisted cracked out dark story of a man driven mad by a conspiricy to use video to alter perseptions of realities in people by inducing brain tumors!