Curse Of Mesopotamia: Written Review

Curse Of Mesopotamia

Written Review

Hi everyone, and welcome to MyIndie Review Vlog, The show that gives you spoiler-free reviews of indie films. My Name is Asaf Angel from MyIndie Productions, and today’s review is of 2015’s horror feature, Curse Of Mesopotamia, written and directed by MyIndie featured artist, Syrian-born Kurd filmmaker Lauand Omar.

Thank you Lauand, for sharing your work with us.

Five strangers, John, Veronique, Tony, Amira and Ahmed portrayed by Mauricio Rousselon, Hania Amar, Terrell Carter, Melissa Mars and Ahmad Massad are brought together by Dr. Barbara Efrite, their devoted psychiatrist, played by Stacy Thunes. The five are suffering from a mutual problem, manifesting in long-time recurring nightmares they all share, of a far away castle, where they are trapped and terrorized by a pale faced boogeyman.

Dr. Efrite’s rational approach leads her to bringing the five together at the place of their nightly torment, since it actually exists. It is called the Azdahak Castle in Kurdistan, Iraq, built in ancient Mesopotamia. Barbara feels bringing her patients to the place that burdens their dreams, along with intensive therapy, might help all of them overcome their issues and hopefully make the nightmares stop. Dr. Efrite plans a five-day experiment, where they all, including herself and a historian named Dalia, played by Ana Sinclair will be confined to the castle compound with no access to the outside world.

Our five patients, all around the same age, late twenties-early thirties have different characteristics, some of which lead to interesting friction between them. John is kind hearted, projects a humble facade and possess the qualities of a leader. Veronique, a young woman who experiences the nightmares from childhood, is known at first to not speak to anyone except Dr. Efrite. Tony is the likeable friendly and confident guy. Amira is a famous film star. She’s also annoyingly prejudiced and materialistic. Finally, Ahmed is a religious Muslim, who starts off not playing nice with the rest, especially Amira, who made up her mind about him before he uttered his first word to the group.

The group go through a bit of a roller-coaster ride while trying to bond with one another. None of them really want to be in that castle but they all have a common objective of ridding themselves from this unbearable situation and so, will try anything.

Things get more complicated when they all realize that what they are experiencing has a lot more meaning than just nightmares. Little do they know, how much they will have to sacrifice to reclaim their peace. Little do they know that their union wasn’t a coincidence and that they are all connected to each other in some way.

I can’t really delve more into the story for fear of spoiling.

Lauand brings social and cultural issues to the surface in the somewhat turbulent dynamic between our characters, which helps us understand who they are and what values they live by. It feels, or may be interpreted as a larger statement for possibly promoting peace and acceptance between different people in lieu of larger threats that affect us all. Basically, if we don’t all come together to stop the division between people which currently exists in our world, we are doomed to destroy ourselves. The pale faced demon may represent anything negative which incites hatred between people, from aspects to do with religious beliefs and politics to social media. If we don’t come together to fight those off, we have already lost.

Thinking about this film may bring others to mind, for example 2003’s Identity by director James Mangold. The intrigue of such stories lies in the slowly revealed connection between characters whom were thought to be complete strangers. Lauand managed to create that intrigue in Curse of Mesopotamia.

It appears that the production itself was not free of pending terror, as after a few days shooting in Erbil, Iraq, they all had to pack up everything and get out of there because ISIS entered the country. The production was subsequently completed in Jordan. Indeed, a horror story within a horror story as the whole production, cast and crew, must have been in fear for their lives. Luckily, they got out of there safely.

To sum up, this is a fun horror film to watch. Even though it’s not free of issues, it is important to remember that this is only Lauand’s second production as director. The production value is well above average, cinematography is excellent, the set design is exemplary for an indie film. It has a very large cast, impressive costumes, props and a riveting soundtrack.

Curse Of Mesopotamia gets a 7.5/10 on the Look At Me, I’m A Film Critic scale!
The film is available for streaming on AngerMan Distribution’s Vimeo On Demand Channel. Link at top of page. Let me know what you think.

Until next time, keep supporting Indie film. My name is Asaf Angel. I thank you for tuning in to MyIndie Review Vlog! See you next week!