Like the roleplaying games from which it draws much of it’s inspiration, The Wild Hunt is a movie steeped in ancient legend. Many roleplaying games take elements of history or heroic myths, often mixing the folklore and events of many cultures in order to create their narratives.
The principle myths that informs the film is the Wild Hunt itself. This legend has various versions across Northern, Western and Central Europe but the principle tale is one spirits and spectres, perhaps long dead ancestors or faerie folk, taking to the skies for an epic hunt. These hunters may include noted historic figures – kings, famous warriors – or even Gods!
Those bearing witness to the Wild Hunt seem doomed to death and the ghostly phenomena is often said to have preceded a terrible disaster such as war or famine.
To find out more about the Wild Hunt and how it manifested itself in your country, check out the Wikipedia link at the bottom of this post. Great Britain and Wales have their own version of myth, as do Germany, Spain and the Scandinavian countries.
In the movie The Wild Hunt, the legend is a symbol of abandon and total immersion into a fantasy character for the people involved in the game. They identify with the hunt as a rejection of 21st century norms but, by allowing themselves to be completely consumed by the fantasy, they effectively throw the civilised baby out with the bathwater and descend into savagery.