HARDCORE – the world’s first FPS/POV feature film?

Warning: NSFW violence and language in both video and text.

Some of you will remember the work of Ilya Naishuller of Biting Elbows, whose previous video Bad Motherfucker went viral. He's doing another film, and this one is a full length shoot-em-up action movies shot entirely from the first person perspective, i.e. POV.  It appears to be the first ever such  feature length POV/FPS type film. I can't remember anything similar except for the one short first person sequence in the movie adaptation of Doom. Now a year and a half in the making, the movie is the story of a cyborg (Henry, whose perspective you follow) seeking to rescue his wife from a telekinetic, psychotic tyrant…

Doesn't matter, really, does it? It looks good, though it takes a few moments to get used to the “inside an FPS game” vibe, as you'll see when you watch the trailer. The movie holds true to FPS form by providing an NPC in the form of “Jimmy”, an anachronistic British soldier who gives advice and helps Henry get through each objectives. This leads me to wonder – are there levels and bosses?

Filmed in Russia almost entirely on GoPros (many of which were apparently casualties of stunts and action sequences) using a custom camera rig, this is an entirely different sort of movie. It's one I think will do well though, possibly achieving that “cult” type status the way some movies do. The music video got 10s of millions of views, and while a feature film is not the same sort of genre, I think Naishuller's POV style is going to resonate not just with gamers and action film junkies, but also science fiction fans, indie film lovers and cinephiles who just want something new, So long as they aren't squeamish about a little violence and bloodshed of course.

The movie, which will be rated R, is currently on Indiegogo. This is so Naishmuller and crew can generate sufficient funds to complete CGI work, sound mixing, color correction and all the other technical wizardry needed to make it come to life.

“This project was born on the internet,” Naishmuller says. “Without you, HARDCORE would not be here.”

You can support HARDCORE on Indiegogo right here.

Help spread the word. The website is IWANTHARDCORE.com. You can also follow the movie on Facebook, on YouTube and on Twitter.

I've reached out to Mr. Naishuller to talk about the movie in more detail. I'll let you know if I hear back from him.

If you didn't see the first video from Ilya Naishuller and Biting Elbows, you can watch it here: