This time one year ago, I wasn't certain if I had seen The Kindred back in its day -- like on home video -- or not ... but in 2022 the flick received another release, this one compliments of the good people at Synapse Films. Heck, I was even lucky enough to score myself a complimentary copy of the monster movie, and I responded -- in kind -- with penning a review. Readers interested in knowing what I thought of the issue can find my review right here. The straight skinny is that it wasn't all-that-grand an experience, but I did think the producers did some nice work with the practical effects of the day, delivering something ultimately that's a fine 'one-off' experience but probably not worth a rewatch.
Still, let me do the old 'copy & paste' thing for what I said about The Kindred a year ago, and I do like to preserve these thoughts for posterity's sake ...
From the SciFiHistory.Net Archives of January 9, 2022
Like so many who write about film at my ripe old age, I’ve probably forgotten more titles than I care to remember.
I discovered my love of film in high school where growing up in a small town pretty much meant that Friday and Saturday nights were spent under the glow of the silver screen. I didn’t drink (didn’t smoke, either), I didn’t do sports or many extracurricular activities, so the bulk of that free time was spent watching just about anything that came through our little city. Sure, it meant that I saw many of the films of my youth more than once – movies were cheap entertainment back in the day – and I like I do now I tried to find something worthy in damn near anything I watched.
I continued following film very closely in college and after graduating. For a time, I thought I could make a career for myself as a movie critic or perhaps some kind of film historian; but it wasn’t meant to be. I did get accepted to a fairly exclusive graduate school program that would’ve set me on a potential path to working in writing about film; however that opportunity never quite developed due to circumstances way beyond my control, and I instead found myself gainfully employed in the world of work.
I bring this up largely because I’ve done a bit of research into The Kindred, a 1987 Science Fiction and Horror release from Kindred Limited Partnership that’s celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary on this day in filmdom. From what I’ve seen online, a handful of the pictures look familiar … but, for the life of me, I can’t seem to recollect if this is a flick I saw at the time or have stumbled across in my research or have tidbits tucked away somewhere in my vast reserve of films I’ve yet to explore in greater depth on SciFiHistory.Net.
In any event, it looks as though The Kindred was first released exclusively in New York City on this day in 1987 (Source: IMDB.com). Neither IMDB.com nor Wikipedia.org cite any full U.S. theatrical release, but Box Office Mojo does show a combined U.S. and Canada gross just under $2.5 million. It appears that the film benefitted from a directing team of Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow (who also scripted the feature with collaboration from John Penney). The film starred Rod Steiger, Amanda Pays, Kim Hunter, and David Allen Brooks in key roles. Lastly, it looks like there may have been multiple cuts – R-rated and the controversial ‘unrated’ – though I don’t see any indication that the film is currently available on DVD … a shame that’ll hopefully get corrected someday.
Here’s one of the plot summaries that’s listed for The Kindred on IMDB.com:
“Amanda’s deathbed request to her son, John, was for him to destroy all the lab notes etc. from her last experiment. She also blurts out he had a brother. At the funeral, John meets Melissa, who claims to be his mother’s biggest fan. Together with some of John’s friends, they go to Amanda’s house, but none are prepared for what they find there.”
Still, let me do the old 'copy & paste' thing for what I said about The Kindred a year ago, and I do like to preserve these thoughts for posterity's sake ...
From the SciFiHistory.Net Archives of January 9, 2022
Like so many who write about film at my ripe old age, I’ve probably forgotten more titles than I care to remember.
I discovered my love of film in high school where growing up in a small town pretty much meant that Friday and Saturday nights were spent under the glow of the silver screen. I didn’t drink (didn’t smoke, either), I didn’t do sports or many extracurricular activities, so the bulk of that free time was spent watching just about anything that came through our little city. Sure, it meant that I saw many of the films of my youth more than once – movies were cheap entertainment back in the day – and I like I do now I tried to find something worthy in damn near anything I watched.
I continued following film very closely in college and after graduating. For a time, I thought I could make a career for myself as a movie critic or perhaps some kind of film historian; but it wasn’t meant to be. I did get accepted to a fairly exclusive graduate school program that would’ve set me on a potential path to working in writing about film; however that opportunity never quite developed due to circumstances way beyond my control, and I instead found myself gainfully employed in the world of work.
I bring this up largely because I’ve done a bit of research into The Kindred, a 1987 Science Fiction and Horror release from Kindred Limited Partnership that’s celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary on this day in filmdom. From what I’ve seen online, a handful of the pictures look familiar … but, for the life of me, I can’t seem to recollect if this is a flick I saw at the time or have stumbled across in my research or have tidbits tucked away somewhere in my vast reserve of films I’ve yet to explore in greater depth on SciFiHistory.Net.
In any event, it looks as though The Kindred was first released exclusively in New York City on this day in 1987 (Source: IMDB.com). Neither IMDB.com nor Wikipedia.org cite any full U.S. theatrical release, but Box Office Mojo does show a combined U.S. and Canada gross just under $2.5 million. It appears that the film benefitted from a directing team of Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow (who also scripted the feature with collaboration from John Penney). The film starred Rod Steiger, Amanda Pays, Kim Hunter, and David Allen Brooks in key roles. Lastly, it looks like there may have been multiple cuts – R-rated and the controversial ‘unrated’ – though I don’t see any indication that the film is currently available on DVD … a shame that’ll hopefully get corrected someday.
Here’s one of the plot summaries that’s listed for The Kindred on IMDB.com:
“Amanda’s deathbed request to her son, John, was for him to destroy all the lab notes etc. from her last experiment. She also blurts out he had a brother. At the funeral, John meets Melissa, who claims to be his mother’s biggest fan. Together with some of John’s friends, they go to Amanda’s house, but none are prepared for what they find there.”
As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!
-- EZ
-- EZ
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