Maine-made thriller to be shown at Center Theatre

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Area residents will become the second group of Mainers to get a chance at viewing the indie horror film “Quintuplets” on Saturday, Jan. 21 7 p.m. at the Center Theatre. The movie represents over two years of work from initial planning and screenplay development to final editing by writer/director Doug Clapp and director of photography/editor Charles “Chaz” Pelletier.
Clapp also plays bass guitar in the band Emptyhead which has a long history with the local club and restaurant The Bear’s Den. Often, after shows at the Bear’s Den, Clapp would share some of the rough scene edits with the club’s owner Brian Westman and his wife Laurie. They became fans of the concept and story behind the film and encouraged Clapp to contact the theater for this early showing.
The film was entirely shot in the St. John Valley at a deserted house in St. Agatha through special arrangement with property owner Jim Bennett. The cast of 11 lead actors and nine extras comes from all over Maine and New Hampshire but all have roots in northern Maine. For this reason the initial screening was in Fort Kent at the Century Theater Oct. 30, a memorable sell out night for the Century that necessitated two subsequent showings.
The film is a classic horror suspense story with many of the traditional trappings that fans of the genre have come to expect; a group of young strangers stopping late at night along a deserted back road for directions, a run-down house that would scare most folks before they even walked up the front steps and an old man guarding a dark secret. But from that well known starting point it veers off into a psycho-drama like no other. For this reason the film belongs not to the slasher/ torture wing of current horror flicks but rather in the company of classics like “The Shining”, “Psycho” and “Rosemary’s Baby”.
Shot over three weeks in the summer of 2015, the films pace and location put extra demands on cast and crew that seemed to add to the tension and energy of the end product. When the final scenes were shot Clapp and Pelletier headed into the studio for the grueling and meticulous work of translating dozens of hours of clips into 110 minutes of film, putting in the visual and special effects and layering on the musical score by Houston composer Steve Vonderheide. With that job finally done the difficult work of getting the indie film distributed began.
All proceeds from the Fort Kent and Dover-Foxcroft showings will be used to enter the film into major film festivals which should help the film get the attention needed to attract a supportive distributor. Aside from Clapp and Pelletier some of the cast plan to attend the showing at the Center Theatre giving audience members a chance to meet them and ask any questions they might have about “Quintuplets”. Fans and the curious can find out much more about the film and see plenty of photos of the cast, location and the shoot at the film’s web sites quintupletsmovie.com and facebook.com/quintupletsmovie.
The Center Theatre is a non-profit performing arts venue in Dover-Foxcroft dedicated to bringing affordable entertainment, arts and education to the community. For more information on any of the Center Theatre’s events, please call the theatre at 564-8943, visit www.CenterTheatre.org, find the Theatre on Facebook or stop in at 20 East Main Street.