Kindred Review: A Tense Extended Family Affair

Release date: November 6, 2020
Running time: 100 minutes
Starring: Tamara Lawrance, Jack Lowden, Fiona Shaw, Edward Holcroft
Directed by: Joe Marcantonio
Written by: Joe Marcantonio and Jason McColgan

When her boyfriend Ben suddenly dies in an accident, mother-to-be Charlotte (Tamara Lawrance) collapses upon receiving the news. She wakes up in Ben’s family home, a crumbling old manor house in the middle of nowhere with Ben’s overbearing mother, Margaret (Fiona Shaw), and his controlling stepbrother, Thomas (Jack Lowden). They are determined to care for her, at least until the baby arrives. Grief-stricken and increasingly haunted by visions possibly brought on by the pregnancy, Charlotte accepts their help. But as the days go by and her visions intensify, she begins to doubt the family's intentions and her suspicions grow that they may be trying to control her and her unborn baby.

Kindred is a tough movie to judge because it has all the components of a fantastic film.  It has a really great atmosphere, taking place mostly in the crumbling manor of Ben's family.  The setting is absolutely perfect for this film, with a feeling of a once opulent house crumbling after years of neglect.  Paint is peeling, furniture is beautiful but dated, and everything just feels like something out of the past.  And this atmosphere is made even better by some stellar acting.  The cast really do a convincing job in portraying their characters, with the right amount of emotion and unnerving personality to really drive these characters home.  Lawrance does a particularly good job as the mother-to-be who has to go through a whole range of emotions as she tries to figure out if she or her family are crazy.  And to really tie in all the atmosphere together, there is some absolutely beautiful music.  It has a heavy classical bent, which evokes the general regal and old money nature of the family.  And one of the songs feels inspired by Clint Mansell's Death Is The Road To Awe, which is one of my absolute favorite songs from a movie.  So all the pieces of this film are there and they are all very well done.

However, the movie itself is a psychological thriller that is very slow to develop.  I believe that this is intentional and that the filmmakers wanted to give you time to really get to know Charlotte, the house, and the predicament.  But this also means that not a lot happens in the early stages of the movie.  In fact, it really doesn't pick up until about the final third of the film.  And when it does finally pick up, the movie does become much more interesting, but it takes a long time to get to that point.  I wish that more would have happened in the first part to keep my interest but I also understand where the filmmakers came from.  And the movie does conclude with a fitting end, and one that leaves some questions open as all good horror movies should.

Kindred has an absolutely perfect setting, atmosphere, and music to help it tell a psychological horror thriller that will make you wary of your next family get together. 

Rent it.

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Kindred will be available in theaters, digitally, and on demand November 6.