Kantemir (2015)

Instant Favorite.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I like to think of myself as a cine-phile.As someone who loves and appreciates he art of watching movies. Finding the appreciation in a work of art can be challenging however. And 'Kantemir' is a prime example of that.This viewing is painful simply due to the fact it was just a tedious venture. The premise sounds promising. Washed up has beens or never wases gather to perform a play. Then the director shows up. This guy can't act. Not one bit. He looks like he's going to kill someone at any given second. He just looks like a douche.Non of the actors are memorable. Robert Englund does deliver a string performance considering how weak the script is and how bad the direction he receives is. Cinematography is probably the best thing about this film. Even though it takes place in a few settings the scenes on the mansion look really nice.The biggest problem for me was the pacing. Its very "one note". The score tries to add urgency but the direction never delivers. In fact, I'm not convinced this movie HAD a director. There is so much inconsistencies in the scenes it just seems like the director wasn't on set much.Over all this movie seemed like a giant waste of money. I mean aren't there worthy scripts out there needing to be shot? Why pick this incomplete script? It seems like the script would have done better in more capable hands. This director made it worse.The even though the director of the play was horrible he wasn't as bad as the white cop. Holy shite that guy is so clichéd its ridiculous. His acting was some of the worst I've ever seen ESPECIALLY in a low budget horror movie. And that's saying something.This movie was a mistake. The producers should be ashamed of themselves.

A fascinating existential examination of the nature of reality and the struggle to grasp its meaning. Director Ben Samuels is clearly a quite gifted film maker and while this is on the surface a horror movie, that is only the structure within which a deeper story is expressed. Mark Garbett and Ralph Glen Howard have fashioned a compelling and engrossing story that is intensely disturbing, fantastical, and terrifying. Samuels truly excels at creating an atmosphere of dark unease and hovering horror. The suspense and mystery is unrelenting as a journey through a hellish landscape that questions life itself is taken by the characters and in effect, the audience. Robert Englund gives a superb performance and once again proves once again what a fine actor he can be. Astonishing set design and cinematography heighten the surrealistic tone of the film and help make this motion picture a frightening, unnerving, and powerful intellectual experience.

I sat down to watch "Kantemir" solely because Robert Englund was in this movie. But not even this iconic horror legend could do much to salvage the sinking wreck that was "Kantemir".The story is about a group of actors and actresses coming to a secluded mansion to perform in an act. They haven't been shown the script and have little idea what they are about to embark on. When the mysterious director show up with a strange book, the boundaries between play act and reality becomes a blur, and what might be a story is all but too real.Right, well the storyline didn't really offer much of anything. Sure it had potential, but it was just not skillfully utilized much less so brought to the screen. If they had opted to go another way with the script, or had a different set of creative minds at work, it might have been something much more enjoyable to witness.The storyline was dragging the movie down, but the who feel of the movie wasn't working in favor of the movie either. You just don't really buy into the storyline of the movie at any point during the length of the feature, and it seemed that some of the acting talents didn't either.Granted that Robert Englund was the one pulling the load here, the rest of the cast weren't really anything memorable.For a horror and/or thriller movie, then "Kantemir" was frightfully devoid of anything that would even put the audience on the edge of their seats. Everything was too scripted, too forced and too unnatural on the screen."Kantemir" scores a meager 3 out of 10 stars from me. I have seen worse horror movies, but this wasn't just anything extraordinary. Your money and time is better spent elsewhere, unless you are a die-hard fan of Robert Englund.

A troop of actors gather together in an isolated Gothic mansion in autumnal Pennsylvania to rehearse a play. The play is as Gothic as the setting and centres around the romantic and murderous intrigues surrounding a medieval Transylvanian merchant's family. Cue the actors being unable to differentiate the play from reality, a cursed book, assorted gypsies, witches, vampires, slow motion running in forests, killer hounds and other assorted hokum. It isn't bad. It's just run of the mill - which is worse. A shame really as, given the unusual premise, in more creative hands it could have been much better. On the plus side it does have Justine Griffiths who would look good even reading a telephone directory, which in this case might be more engaging.