The Kindred is a monster movie that has developed a cult following over the years. Never before on Blu-ray or DVD, the movie was finally released by Synapse in October of this year.
I have both good and bad memories of seeing The Kindred in 1987.
I had been on a stint of unemployment in '87 and I finally got a lousy job putting up fences. My first paycheck came in and there was one thing I wanted to do: Go see a horror movie. There was always something out at the time, and The Kindred was playing at the mall across the street.
I was in a relationship at the time. It was already on the skids, and this certainly didn't help. I grabbed a paper to see movie times, which is what we did in those days, and I saw that The Kindred was starting soon. I asked her to come, and she said she couldn't get ready in five minutes. I raced out the door and went by myself.
The truth is, she would not have enjoyed The Kindred, and her presence would have decreased my enjoyment. I should have waited and caught a Sunday matinee or something. The right thing to do was to celebrate my first paycheck with her. Instead, Horror came first. I wasn't mature enough to be in a relationship with anyone.
Nevertheless, I had a great time watching The Kindred. The movie was precisely what my horror-starved eyes needed at the moment. I didn't even have a VCR yet, so I was desperate.
Now, thirty-five years later, I have seen The Kindred again.
I'm no longer the goggle-eyed young man of twenty-six. I had the brain of someone a decade younger than that.
The Kindred was obviously a shot at emulating the success of Cronenberg's The Fly. An entertaining and profitable gloppy monster movie set in the medical world. The movie falls well short of that mark. Production values are strictly TV movie mediocrity, and much of the first half looks like it could be part of the endless soap operatic run of General Hospital.
The lead, David Allen Brooks, seems to be going for compassionate intensity a la James Woods. He's closer to Andrew McCarthy. Kim Hunter gets star billing, and she gives a brief but dignified performance. Amanda Pays is a good and so is Talia Balsam. Rod Steiger, on the other hand, totters around babbling his lines in a somnambulant state, gray hairs peeking out from a crooked toupee.
These type of films live or die by their special effects, and the second half of The Kindred has a ton of cheesy/cool creatures. Michael John McCracken isn't the most celebrated monster maker, and he's certainly no Rick Baker or Rob Bottin, but he gives it his all, and this is what gives The Kindred a near legendary reputation.
Writer-director partners Stephen Carpenter and Jeffry Obrow previously did the middling film school-funded slasher movie, The Dorm That Dripped Blood. The Kindred is more ambitious and a better film. It's way, way better than later crap like The Brain and Syngenor.
The Kindred is a fun throwback to a more innocent and playful time for horror movies. The Synapse Blu-ray is predictably wonderful. Fans who have been waiting a long time for this monstrosity will not be disappointed.
Written by Mark Sieber
I have both good and bad memories of seeing The Kindred in 1987.
I had been on a stint of unemployment in '87 and I finally got a lousy job putting up fences. My first paycheck came in and there was one thing I wanted to do: Go see a horror movie. There was always something out at the time, and The Kindred was playing at the mall across the street.
I was in a relationship at the time. It was already on the skids, and this certainly didn't help. I grabbed a paper to see movie times, which is what we did in those days, and I saw that The Kindred was starting soon. I asked her to come, and she said she couldn't get ready in five minutes. I raced out the door and went by myself.
The truth is, she would not have enjoyed The Kindred, and her presence would have decreased my enjoyment. I should have waited and caught a Sunday matinee or something. The right thing to do was to celebrate my first paycheck with her. Instead, Horror came first. I wasn't mature enough to be in a relationship with anyone.
Nevertheless, I had a great time watching The Kindred. The movie was precisely what my horror-starved eyes needed at the moment. I didn't even have a VCR yet, so I was desperate.Now, thirty-five years later, I have seen The Kindred again.
I'm no longer the goggle-eyed young man of twenty-six. I had the brain of someone a decade younger than that.
The Kindred was obviously a shot at emulating the success of Cronenberg's The Fly. An entertaining and profitable gloppy monster movie set in the medical world. The movie falls well short of that mark. Production values are strictly TV movie mediocrity, and much of the first half looks like it could be part of the endless soap operatic run of General Hospital.
The lead, David Allen Brooks, seems to be going for compassionate intensity a la James Woods. He's closer to Andrew McCarthy. Kim Hunter gets star billing, and she gives a brief but dignified performance. Amanda Pays is a good and so is Talia Balsam. Rod Steiger, on the other hand, totters around babbling his lines in a somnambulant state, gray hairs peeking out from a crooked toupee.
These type of films live or die by their special effects, and the second half of The Kindred has a ton of cheesy/cool creatures. Michael John McCracken isn't the most celebrated monster maker, and he's certainly no Rick Baker or Rob Bottin, but he gives it his all, and this is what gives The Kindred a near legendary reputation.
Writer-director partners Stephen Carpenter and Jeffry Obrow previously did the middling film school-funded slasher movie, The Dorm That Dripped Blood. The Kindred is more ambitious and a better film. It's way, way better than later crap like The Brain and Syngenor.
The Kindred is a fun throwback to a more innocent and playful time for horror movies. The Synapse Blu-ray is predictably wonderful. Fans who have been waiting a long time for this monstrosity will not be disappointed.
Written by Mark Sieber
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