Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

maarck6 Storywise, this is a two tiered tale. The first dealing with Rod Steiger as a (very) mad scientist who is performing unholy genetic experiments with humans who have been kidnapped from automobile accidents, turning them into mad half-people half-something else (watch the movie and find out what). Meanwhile, John is a young doctor who is informed by his girlfriend that his mother has just come out of a three year coma after a heart attack.Unfortunately, she is also a mad scientist, but, having found her conscious, wants her son to go out to her house and destroy all her research and notes. Steiger, of course, takes umbrage to this, and wants to put the skids on this destruction. To help him, he plants Melissa, who is a spy, in John's camp.John takes Melissa, his girlfriend, and some friends up to his mom's house, and it is here that strange things start happening, including a dog's bloody death and a woman being attacked by a creature possessed watermelon (!), and the pacing starts to pick up from there to a truly exciting climax.This is an old-fashioned monster romp, full of icky monsters, monster attacks, a mad scientists, mad scientists experiments, people running amok in panic, cute babes, and a solid pacing. There's suspense and humor, although this film never devolves into comedy. The special effects are totally icky, but in a fun way. The story is full of plot holes to be sure, something that comes from a script that was written by five people, including Stephen Carpenter (who created Grimm), Joseph Stefano (Psycho), and Earl Ghaffari (music editor for such movies as Frozen, Zootopia, and Wreck-It Ralph). But it also moves at a quick pace, and all seem to be having a wacky time making it. Including the cast, which includes such journeymen actors like Kim Hunter, Rod Steiger, who just chews up the scenery, Talia Balsam, Peter Frechette (Profiler), and the yummy Amanda Pays (Max Headroom, and both versions of The Flash) as the subversive Melissa.The best way to describe this movie is as if Frankenstein and The Island of Doctor Moreau were written by H. P. Lovecraft and filmed by a less coked out Stuart Gordon. No nudity, no real gore, good make-up, so it's fun for everybody and don't forget to bring the kids.

Aaron1375 One of the secrets is that the film does not have all that much of a plot to it. So do not try to analyze it, or figure out what is wrong with the picture. It is a "b" movie to be sure, but a somewhat good "b" movie as it were. The story has a son trying to fulfill his mother's wish of destroying her life's work at the home she used to live with, she had just woken from a coma. So the son is off along with some science type friends to look into the mystery's surrounding his mother's request. Surprisingly when you write it out it does sound like a good plot and maybe it is not all that bad, but for the most part once they arrive at the house the film becomes your typical horror movie about monsters. Though I do love the setting of the old house and the basement stuff, the movie kind of reminds me of a combination of two Stuart Gordon movies "Re-animator" and "From Beyond" without being as good as either of them. Still the monsters look pretty good and there are some rather good kills, the plot is rather ignored after a certain point, but with death and mayhem I can live without plot. I would like to see this movie again someday as it has been awhile since I last saw it, but from what I remember not the best movie in the world, but it kept me entertained.

Scarecrow-88 A group of geneticists gather at the home of a recently deceased scientist, Amanda Collins(vet Kim Hunter)who sent her son, John(David Allen Brooks)there to destroy all her journals and research concerning "hybridization" experiments splicing marine life with human cells. Mad scientist Dr. Phillip Lloyd(Rod Steiger in one of his crazed roles), who worked with Amanda before they had a falling out(..and who later assisted in Amanda's demise), has been experimenting with hybridization for years but hasn't achieved the results his partner had. He secretly sends in an experimental hybrid of his, Melissa(the lovely Amanda Pays)who pretends to be an admirer of Amanda's and "marine researcher" befriending John(..while secretly falling in love with him which produces a problem for Lloyd who controls her thanks to his serum and pain medication that keeps Melissa human). While the group searches for answers regarding what exactly Amanda was doing at the home, a monster underneath the floorboards has come out to terrorize several of them. Could this monster be the "Anthony" John's mother was referring to as she cried out during a bad spell when ordering him to destroy all the evidence of her work?Fun little late 80's creature feature has a good cast and pace. It gets silly at times particularly when the monster kills one victims by exiting a watermelon! One scene has a certain character turning from human into a fish! There's a hilarious(..and ridiculous)scene where Hart(Timothy Gibbs), one of the only survivors of the monster's attacks, who escapes from the hospital after being under heavy sedation over several days knocking people out of the way as if he were a football defensive tackle. The creature is shown in all it's glory at the end in the show-stopping climax where Steiger also makes his presence known in an explosion of anger towards the group's plan to kill it.

Backlash007 The Kindred is just a monster movie-no more, no less. While not being Rod Steiger's finest moment (or wig), it does offer up a slim bit of originality. Steiger plays a mad scientist (what other kind are there?) who is searching for a genetically altered monster, Anthony. Also searching for Anthony are a group of 20-something medical students and one of them could be related him; Hence the title. Then it becomes a formulaic slasher movie with the kids being attacked one by one. It's pretty much downhill from there. The scenes in Steiger's lab are the eeriest and the movie should have spent more time there. The climax stands out and the acting is not bad considering two Academy Award winning "screen legends" were conned into starring in it.