EDGLRD: Harmony Korine’s ‘Dark Mode’ Experiment in Gaming & Cinema
Korine has renewed his excitement for film via video games.
Machinima is the practice or technique of producing animated films through the manipulation of video game graphics. Originating in the 80s, software hackers would play around with code to redesign title sequences and scenes in video games, creating their own narratives. Needless to say, this practice has historically been niche. At the turn of the century, we started to see bigger artists with bigger budgets creating their own machinima fuelled music videos, like G-Unit and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Yet today, as gaming engines like Unreal and Unity have become more accessible, machinima has evolved. New creators are utilising these engines to blur the lines between game, film and art. Enter EDGLRD.
What is EDGLRD?
EDGLRD is a multidisciplinary creative studio founded by cult director Harmony Korine. While Korine himself has a celebrated history in film (Kids, Gummo, Spring Breakers), his obsession with video games was reignited through his family. "My kids are always on Twitch, so I slowly started to get into it. First, it’s Pokémon Go, and then you get into The Legend of Zelda, and the next thing you know, you’re deep in World of Warcraft!” he said in an interview with 032C. EDGLRD takes the manipulation behind machinima and thrusts it off the edge. Deterred by the static nature of today's feature films, Korine embraced the world of gaming because “it lets people get it out, have fun, and not feel guilt.”
This idea of not feeling guilt in creative expression is a part of a wider vibe shift amongst today’s generation known as Dark Mode - a rejection of sanitised, guilt-ridden creativity in favour of unfiltered, unapologetic expression. Coined by the cultural strategist, Edmond Lau, he says "in this 'mask-off' era, the vibe has shifted: you’re either a supervillain ruthlessly chasing the bag, a nihilist revelling in debauchery…we’re embracing the vices we once dismissed as anachronistic.” The name EDGLRD itself is inspired by the “edgelord” character, which is a type of person who tries to impress or shock with exaggerated opinions. While it’s easy to see this as a negative, when it comes to Korine’s team, the edgelord ethos is instead being channelled to magnify the possibilities of entertainment. EDGLRD is a haven for unhinged creative exploration—the kind most interdisciplinary creatives dream about.
Travis Scott & The Weeknd
If that’s not enough, then EDGLRD also sprinkles in star power. Aggro Dr1ft is an experimental action thriller crime film featuring Travis Scott, a regular collaborator of Korine’s. In fact, calling it a film does it a disservice. Shot entirely in infrared, the film juxtaposes action scenes with video game renders. One review said "Aggro Dr1ft places you in the context of gameplay but robs you of the freedom and agency found in open-world design. Watching it was an almost out of body experience that was frustrating, amazing, and terrifying, like playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City with VR goggles while on 15 tabs of acid.” Many critics defaulted to comparing Aggro Dr1ft to a feature film, but this was exactly what Korine was trying to get away from. “I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement,” said Korine at the Locarno Film Festival.
The Weeknd also tapped EDGLRD to create video shorts for his own “AI persona” ahead of dropping Hurry Up Tomorrow. While this project wasn’t the length of a feature film, it achieved a similar technological feat. The short is representative of just how good video game graphics have become, one would be forgiven for mistaking it as live capture. Interestingly, EDGLRD doesn’t just use video games as a tool for content creation. It also embraces other phenomenons, like “re-skinning” in-game items with new designs to create desire. EDGLRD reskinned The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow vinyl, and released it for 72 hours.
Creating Games
Beyond immersive filmmaking, EDGLRD has cut its teeth on game design itself. This includes TikTok filters like the Roblox Runner and Night Vision Goggles (Splinter Cell) that allow users to mess around with IP from big game franchises. As a result, the filters are often only available for a short period of time before being pulled down. We’ve also been teased with full length gameplay trailers around games like Lepracauns vs. Yazuka. Perhaps this itself is another nod to the state of the video game industry, where many Triple A games come out with a teaser trailer only to be shelved indefinitely due to internal priority shifts.
Korine’s EDGLRD shows us how the era of Dark Mode acts as a catalyst for newness, not just “rebellion for rebellion’s" sake. Typically, filmmaking and game development has been treated separately by the industry incumbents. EDGLRD doesn’t just blur the line between filmmaking and gaming—it obliterates it, proving that the future of storytelling isn’t about choosing between mediums, but fusing them.
James Davis is a Strategy Director working at the intersection of gaming and style. Please reach out if you would like to discuss any projects: james@drawndistant.com
Fascinating take, James! Harmony Korine really is cut from a different cloth. And it's funny you included a picture of Hideo Kojima—I was thinking about how Death Stranding is so unapologetic and also in a category of its own. And it definitely channels the ethos of 'Dark Mode'. Kojima has stated that the game's development was influenced by the bleak political climate at the time (including Trump). He was tapped in to this cultural mood change so early.