KANTEMIR (2014)

Studio:       Archstone Distribution
Director:    Ben Samuels
Writer:       Mark Garbett, Ralph Glenn Howard
Producer:  Philip Glasser, Brian Hartman
Stars:     Robert Englund, Diane Cary, Sean Derry, Daniel Gadi, Justine Griffiths, Alanna Janell, Stuart Stone, Bingo O’Malley, Joshua Elijah Reese, Neil Samuels

Review Score:

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Summary:

Fiction blurs with reality when a group of actors rehearsing in a secluded mansion find themselves transforming into characters from a mysterious play.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Recovering alcoholic actor John arrives by train in Doylestown, Pennsylvania to participate in a mysterious play. On the platform, he meets young actress Wendy and they notice numerous missing dog posters on a nearby bulletin board. Stoner actor Brad picks them up and takes them to the mansion where everyone will be living and rehearsing during the production.

At the mansion, John discovers that his ex Rebecca has also been cast in the play. They have an uncomfortable reunion, but ultimately agree to work together. John asks about his estranged daughter Sara, who repeatedly refuses his phone calls.

Lars introduces himself as another actor. Actress Allison recognizes John from a celebrity scandal. Allison grows hostile towards the others while John rebuffs her sexual advances.

Nicholas, the play’s writer, director, and co-star, finally reveals himself as the cast gathers for dinner. Nicholas tells his actors that he wants them to avoid contact with the outside world while preparing for the play as he confiscates everyone’s cellphones.

Nicholas explains that the play is called “Kantemir,” named for a village outside of Bucharest, Romania. As a plague sweeps the country in 1810, the story tells of a doomed romance between an actor descended from gypsies and a merchant’s daughter. Wendy plays the daughter, Wanda. Nicholas plays her lover, also named Nicholas. John plays Wanda’s father Peter, a lying and manipulative murderer with plans to marry Wanda into royalty. Rebecca plays Natasha, Peter’s abused wife. Lars plays Peter’s thuggish henchman Heinrich while Brad plays Boccaccio, Peter’s subservient cook. Allison plays Marie, Wanda’s opportunistic friend who seduces Peter. Each actor who touches the ornate book containing the sole copy of the play becomes strangely entranced and experiences strange visions.

As individual rehearsals continue, reality begins merging with fictional events from the play. When John again rebuffs Allison’s blackmailing advances, Lars cryptically promises to deal with her on John’s behalf. As his character Heinrich, Lars uses a dog to kill Allison.

John finds Allison’s body in the forest, but no one at the mansion believes his story that Lars killed her while acting out the play. Nicholas claims that Allison received a movie role and he let her leave. The group searches the forest and when no body is found, John is dismissed as a delusional drunk. Later, Brad drinks from a whisky bottle and horribly scalds his throat, similar to his character’s fate in the play.

Nicholas refuses to let anyone see the full play, but gives Act One to John and Rebecca. John has visions of himself as Peter burying Allison/Maria and torturing Brad/Boccaccio. Nicholas claims he is cursed and makes a brief plea for John to kill him before venturing into the forest to feed on a dog.

The next morning, Rebecca confronts John about the previous evening. John points out the similarities between the story of the play and what he claims is happening at the mansion.

The actors continue gradually transforming into their characters from the play. John tries to leave the grounds, but finds the front gates padlocked with the word “Kantemir” now appearing across them. John also notices that the house is transforming into the setting from the play.

Rebecca and John review Act Two. Upon learning that Heinrich is the next character to die, John tries preventing Lars’ death, but is unsuccessful.

Realizing that they will die for real if their characters die in the play, John insists to Rebecca that they need to read the full play. Nicholas is surprised to discover that John has resisted fully transforming into Peter. Nicholas forces John into a fight scene during which he again insists that John kill him, but John refuses.

Nicholas forces John to touch the book. Nicholas explains that in the play, Peter kills his daughter over her relationship with Nicholas. In retaliation, Nicholas kills Peter. Nicholas then searches for the conjurer Astaroth. Nicholas brings Astaroth the play that he based on his true story and tells the conjurer that he wishes to be with Wanda forever. The resulting curse requires Nicholas to continue reliving his story and Wanda’s death. Nicholas implores John to break the cycle by killing him, but John refuses.

John and Wendy try fleeing with Rebecca and Brad, but Nicholas stops them. Nicholas clarifies that Peter is the murderous villain of the play, and claims John will murder the others that evening. Nicholas has Brad/Boccaccio lock Peter in his room and nail the door shut.

John sneaks out of his window and into Rebecca’s room. Nicholas stops their escape once again. John finally becomes consumed by his character. As the remaining players engage in a final confrontation, Brad kills Rebecca. John finally kills Nicholas. Before dying, Nicholas warns John to burn the book in order to stop the curse.

John tries retrieving the book from Wendy. Police officers Montgomery and Wiles arrive at the mansion. With John’s hands covered in blood and Wendy screaming that he killed everyone, the cops shoot John dead. The officers take Wendy away as she clutches the book, now visibly possessed by Wanda.

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Review:

John embodies just about every clichéd stereotype there can be for a disgraced actor.  Alcohol addiction.  Distanced daughter.  Even a TMZ scandal.  So when a director he has never met pings him about a mysterious play no one has ever read, John has little choice but to take the only gig he can get.  Off he goes to rural Pennsylvania of all places, where John and his fellow theater thespians, one of whom happens to be his estranged ex, are housed in a secluded mansion to prepare for their play.

With the motley mob assembled, their secretive benefactor/director/writer/co-star Nicholas at last reveals himself to explain the peculiar production.  “Kantemir” isn’t just the name of this movie.  It is the name of Nicholas’ play, which in turn is the name of an old village in Romania.

The “Kantemir” in “Kantemir” tells the tale of two star-crossed young lovers, one of whom has a murderous merchant for a father.  No longer content to whip his wife or subjugate his servants, this violent man has plans for his daughter that do not include marrying a lowly actor descended from gypsies.  Against the backdrop of plague-stricken Europe in 1810, the persons involved in this doomed romance are poised to clasp sword hilts to achieve their own ends, lest the tips of those foils meet the flesh of their stomachs, or their throats.

Unaccustomed to playing the heavy, John is surprised to find he has been cast as the villainous father in Nicholas’ oddly hypnotic story.  He is more surprised to discover that all is not as it seems within the mansion’s walls.

Whenever anyone touches the old book containing the play, and the deeper everyone goes into developing their roles, the more the cast seems to be literally bringing their characters to life.  With no one willing to believe the paranoid claims of a possibly delusional drunk, John may be the only person who can see Nicholas for who he truly is, and what he is trying to do as the line separating fiction from reality disappears.

Mention Romania in a horror film and exhausted eyes instantaneously spin with the question, “how soon until vampires show up?”  “Kantemir” actually avoids predictable plotting in this regard.  There are hints of creatures of the night and a bit of bloodsucking involved, but “Kantemir” is more fittingly described as a dark fantasy about reality-warping madness than as a vampire yarn.

People possessed by fictional phantoms and seemingly crazy claims concerning secretly murderous motives aren’t innovative elements in supernatural suspense.  Yet “Kantemir” has enough of an intriguing concept at its core to veer slightly from the routine route lazier indie thrillers take.  If only its trail sped down a hill of horror instead of slowly slogging up one, “Kantemir” might be more memorable instead of being mostly mediocre.

While it is probable that fans of Robert Englund will come away unimpressed by the movie overall, it is improbable that they will feel the same about his starring performance as John.  Even discounting his most recognizable role, Englund is so often cast as a wordy or wormy psychopath that to see him for once playing a more mild-mannered man is a refreshing reminder of what he can do without mugging or makeup.

Englund diehards may be averse to admitting to it, but the actor can have a tendency to relish his onscreen personas with too much flair for melodrama, either by adding unnecessary import to unimportant dialogue or by extending an action past the point of poignant storytelling.  Here, Englund is more reserved, which complements both his character and his evolved acting style.

Playing an aging actor stooping below his status while disenchanted with his working conditions may not be a stretch for someone who has spent decades in the B-movie grind.  Yet it suits Englund to not have to be over-the-top evil for a change, affording an opportunity to see an experienced actor making middling material better through subtleties in looks and line delivery.  It isn’t an unforgettable role for Englund, but it is a solidly portrayed one.

The rest of the cast similarly seems to be doing what they can to be interesting, or possibly to stay interested themselves.  One chap with little to do as a dimwit actor/thug intones a Shatner-esque cadence for a hint of apparent levity.  Another bounds around as a goofy stoner and one more plays a boozy bitch with a tart tongue.  About two-thirds of the characters are basically bodies taking up space, though they at least have distinguishable personalities, even if their behavior leaves viewers nonplussed as the plot rolls forward.

John’s newfound nemesis struggles to measure up to these second and third tier players.  Actor Daniel Gadi overplays Nicholas’ all-knowing grin with too much smugness to be taken too seriously.  This kind of inconsistency in the characterizations and in their dramatizations is one stone in the movie’s shoe making for an uneven 80-minute stroll.

When it comes to “Kantemir,” inconsistency is the word of the day.  Hallowed halls on Gothic grounds in a northeastern state make for an interesting setting, then production design adorns corners with cobwebs culled from a bag of Halloween Store floss.  A to-the-point script services story adequately enough, but puffs up dialogue by following the evergreen insult, “go to Hell” with the lame retort, “I’m already there.”

Nothing sticks out as particularly poor, though nothing stands up as noticeably noteworthy, either.  At the end of that aforementioned day, “Kantemir” is so inoffensively unremarkable when all things are considered that it can neither be loved nor hated.  A touch underdeveloped, and also a touch dull, “Kantemir” is a mild movie that just simply “is.”

Review Score:  60

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