Blu-ray Review: Next of Kin (1982)

February 16, 2019

Written by DanXIII

Daniel XIII; the result of an arcane ritual involving a King Diamond album, a box of Count Chocula, and a copy of Swank magazine, is a screenwriter, director, producer, actor, artist, and reviewer of fright flicks…Who hates ya baby?

Linda (Jacki Kerin) inherits a retirement home called Montclare from her mother…now that is one hell of a thing to inherit…I mean what young woman wouldn’t want to own a mega-creepy house jam-packed with weird ass old people, and dreadful secrets (more on that in a tick)? I know for a fact that is exactly the number one wish of women ages 18 to 24…that and like Pogs or some shit…

Anyway, Linda reads her mother’s diaries which detail some off-the-wall shit, like the fact someone was watching her and her tenants were dying under some fishy circumstances. Guess what? Like mother like daughter because L-dawg starts to see someone on her ass, and those geriatric jokers in her care begin dropping off…and before long, she is in a fight to keep both her sanity and well-being intact!

Filled with breathtaking shot composition, a janky, off-kilter aesthetic, pitch perfect slow-burn pace, stunning location, and genuinely creepy moments, Next of Kin is a sparklin’ gem of a fright flick! What could have been a simple stalk n’ slay affair comes of as a neo-Gothic thriller, replete with a young woman living in an ancient abode filled with dark family secrets, and a seemingly supernatural element at play as well…but fret not slasher fans, as elements of that genre appear here and there as well.

Adding to the positives, Kerin makes for one hell of an engaging heroine…her acting is top-shelf, and the character she portrays is not the normal cowering, shrinking violet trope; she actually takes stock of the terror that surrounds her and tries to face it and overcome it (for the record I would have run away…it’s my secret to long life; I just run away from anything that remotely has a whiff of danger)…and when she does have the occasional freak out it’s believable A.F.!

There’s also some impressive dream sequences, fever dream imagery, effective use of slow motion (all usually found in Italian genre cinema), and one hell of a sinister score by German synthesizer virtuoso Klaus Schulze that easily is as good as the Carpenter/Tangerine Dream material featured in genre films of the time…oh, and the final revelation of what is actually going on is pretty amazing if I do say so myself…and I do!

So the flick is tight and outta sight, but I just know you greedy bastards want more. Don’t sweat that boils n’ ghouls as our friends with benefits at Severin have included some choice bonus material on this Blu! First up comes two audio commentaries; one featuring Director/Co-Writer Tony Williams and Co-Producer Tim White, and the other with Mark Hartley (Director of the documentary Not Quite Hollywood) and cast members Kerin, John Jarrett, and Robert Ratti. Both are filled with interesting info on the film’s production, but both have instances of those dreaded silent gaps where the participants seem to be watching the film (though the latter has less of that and is the livelier of the listens). After that we get a segment from the upcoming series House of Psychotic Women (hosted by horror expert Kier-La Janisse) concerning the film’s themes, extended interviews from the aforementioned Not Quite Hollywood, a look at the film’s Montclare locations as they appears today, a series of stills documenting deleted sequences that are believed to have been destroyed, and ballroom outtakes. Bringing up the rear are a handful of trailers for the film, an alternate opening sequence from the German release, an image gallery, and a collection of short films from Williams.

Next of Kin is a fantastic Gothic tinged thriller that I’m betting most of you cats n’ creeps have never laid eerie eyeballs on and you need to rectify that pronto (especially if you dig on Italian shockers from the same time period)!

 

 

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