I recently purchased a brand new Panasonic Bluray/VHS combo player and I’ve been going on scavenger hunts all over the city and internet, looking for rare movies on video tape. Thanks to my good friend, New Beverly Cinema Queen Julia Marchese, I found a small independent video store that’s selling off its entire VHS inventory. The place turned out to be a virtual treasure trove, where I was able to purchase TONS of old movies for peanuts, that are either not available on DVD, out of print, or so obscure even I have never seen them before. I’m gonna write up some reviews of certain select titles from my new collection.
THE KINDRED (1987) is a good old fashioned slimy 80’s monster movie, that is still CRIMINALLY unavailable on DVD. It stars Academy Award-winning actors, ROD STEIGER and KIM HUNTER as two scientists that have been screwing around with something called Hemocyanin and performing genetic experiments on cats and the occasional odd human.
Crazy Dr. Phillip Lloyd (ROD STEIGER) pays off ambulance drivers to bring him the freshest injured patients to work on. But, when his supplier asks him for more money, he is fed to the mutants the doctor keeps caged up in his laboratory. Blame it on the damn recession!
On her death bed, Dr. Amanda Hollins (KIM HUNTER) confides to her son John, that he has a half brother named Anthony and that she’s been working on experiments with him at the old family home. After her death, John brings a group of his pre-med friends to the abandoned isolated house (including a mysterious and hot british scientist played by AMANDA PAYS), so that they can help him figure out his mother’s “Anthony journals”.
Not long after they arrive, it becomes clear that they are not alone. A slimy, tentacled green monster starts killing the guests off one by one (including Duke the dog!) and there is an amazing scene involving the monster and a watermelon that is simply INCREDIBLE!
Soon, they all discover that John’s mother extracted tissue from him when he was young and the monster is his half brother, Anthony. AMANDA PAYS has been hired by STEIGER to capture Anthony and bring him back to the lab. In payment, she will receive stronger medicine to stop her from turning into a gilled fish-monster, because she too is a mutant! Don’t worry, she turns into one on screen and it’s AWESOME!
There is an incredible showdown between Anthony and the heroes, and (in typical 80’s fashion) the monster is electrocuted and explodes in a geyser of squirting goo and puss! Even a screaming ROD STEIGER gets slimed!
I LOVE THE KINDRED!!! The acting and direction are surprisingly good and the cheap special effects are wonderful to behold. I found it really refreshing to watch the practical, non-CGI FX in this movie. THE KINDRED is a great example of how awesome looking that stuff was, (no matter how rubbery the monster puppet looks) because it was real, tangible and right there on camera.
When it comes to 80’s monster horror, THE KINDRED is a really fun, gooey movie and a rare, underrated gem. I would LOVE to see PHIL BLANKENSHIP play this movie at the New Beverly Cinema as a midnight flick. It would totally ROCK the house! Until next time you vidiots, be kind and rewind! Nerd out!
Planet Of The Nerds 