HAPPY FAMILY, HAPPY HOME // A FILM REVIEW OF "KINDRED"
What makes a horror film horror? Is it jump scares? Monsters or demons? Supernatural events? Sure, all of those things can make a horror film. But the dark nature of humans also can be fiercely horrifying and that's what we see here in KINDRED a twisted new British horror film.
Charlotte (Tamara Lawrance) is nervous. She and her boyfriend Ben (Edward Holcroft) are about to tell his very insistent mother Margaret (Fiona Shaw) that they are leaving the stately country home their family has known for generations and moving to Australia. To put it politely, Margaret does not take it well. Yet they are still determined to make a new life elsewhere, even after finding out that Charlotte is surprisingly pregnant. However, what follows next changes everything. Ben suddenly dies in a freak accident and she is left all alone. Margaret offers to house Charlotte temporarily and since she has nowhere to go, she stays. Once she's there, she soon realizes that she isn't allowed to leave, even if she had somewhere to go. With Ben's child inside of her, Margaret and the equally controlling step-brother Thomas (Jack Lowden) take control of both her and the unborn child's life. Soon, she starts to have strange visions and dreams and nothing seems to be what it appears to be. Without a lifeline of her own, what chance does she have to escape a home that doesn't want her to leave?
What works best in KINDRED is how the terror is all very grounded. It has hints of Rosemary's Baby in its DNA, but without any sort of supernatural element. The real horror is how low people can go to get what they want or what they need. It also makes it very clear, though not explicitly in the dialogue, that Charlotte being Black is very much a pill that Margaret doesn't want to swallow. So the racial tensions are always there, right under the surface. Tamara Lawrance turns in a great performance. She's scared out of her mind and her entire life changes twice back to back, first with the unplanned pregnancy and the death of her love. Now to be trapped inside of a home she never felt at home in is the icing on the burning cake and Lawrance sears through the scenes with an assured grace. Fiona Shaw is delightfully sinister, with sudden outbursts and sinister motives guiding her every move. Jack Lowden gives a restrained performance, with motives that always seem to be shifting. All three of them play off each other great and although the ending doesn't quite live up to the great build up, it's still a hell of a ride and a wonderfully gothic time.
GRADE: B+
WRITTEN BY Joe Marcantonio, Jason McColgan DIRECTED BY Joe Marcantonio STARRING Tamara Lawrance, Fiona Shaw, Jack Lowden, Edward Holcroft, Chloe Pirrie. Now showing in select theatres and in digital cinemas. For more info: https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/kindred