Editorials
[Through the Cracks] Lovecraft-y Horror In ‘The Kindred’
As hardcore horror fans, sometimes it feels like you’ve seen it all. There are no surprises left to discover, no classic slasher film waiting around the corner to thrill you and slap a childlike grin on your face. You try to feed the fix by searching through lists of “The Scariest Films You’ve Never Seen” only to come across titles like “May”, “The Descent”, and “Suspiria”. These are, of course, films that us diehards know and love all too well. That’s where I come in, dear reader. We’ll be taking a deep dive into the bowels of obscure horror from decades past and uncovering titles that might have fallen “Through the Cracks”.
The Kindred (1987)
Directed by: Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter
The Kindred is quite literally the film that started me out on my journey of trying to unearth films that had fallen “Through the Cracks.” I read about it many moons ago within the pages of Rue Morgue magazine. It sounded like a fun, goopy, creature feature that had somehow remained unchecked across my radar. That specific article came at the perfect time for me. I was very much in the throws of “so, this is adulthood?” and due to all the life drama, I was losing touch with my true passion – horror! After a quick search, I was able to secure a copy of The Kindred, and it did not disappoint in the slightest.
The film was exactly the kind of gory, low budget monster mayhem that had me falling in love with the genre to begin with. Here I was, thinking I’d seen all that classic horror had to offer, and WAM – along comes The Kindred to remind me there are hundreds of films, especially from the 80s, that I still needed to lock my peepers on. I hadn’t seen it all, and I probably never would. However, the challenge of trying to do so was exciting and enough to light the fire under my horror loving behind.
I recently hosted a screening for a group of people who had never seen the flick. It was amazing how well it played. For an indie production that was destined to live out its life on video store shelves, The Kindred still packs a punch. So much so, even some of my friends who aren’t huge genre fans had a blast with it. It’s held up exceptionally well, and I couldn’t be more jazzed by the news that Synapse Films have gotten their mitts on the negative with the intention of releasing a cleaned up Blu-ray later this year.
So, what sets this apart from all the other titles that cluttered up the horror section of your local Blockbuster? The plot feels like it’s been lifted from any number of Lovecraft tales. In fact, it’s easy to imagine the directors were inspired by Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator and decided to tackle similar material…just without the over the top humor. There are even shades of a later Lovecraft adaptation, Dan O’Bannon’s The Resurrected. In spite of feelings of deja vu, Obrow and Carpenter keep things moving at such a spirited clip, you’d be hard-pressed to not have some fun with your viewing experience.
In the film, John is coping with the impending death of his mother, a renowned scientist. On her deathbed, she urges him to go to his childhood home, find all of her lab work, and destroy it all. Without any further explanation, she also drops this bombshell: John has a brother named Anthony! Who – or what – Anthony is, is still a mystery. So, after her passing, John hauls a group of fellow MD comrades off to his family estate, and they all get to work trying to uncover just what it is his mother seemed so afraid of. Of course, their newfound interest in the files of John’s mother flies in the face of the warnings of a dying woman, but whatevs.
Before long, the gang is duking it out with an amphibious, tentacled monstrosity with familial ties to our hero. While the plot is straight out of the B-movie Basics playbook, there are a couple of surprises sprinkled throughout to keep you on your toes. The true standout, however, are the effects work. From perfectly repulsive makeup designs inserting gills where they need never go and large-scale animatronics that certainly feel of scale with a much larger production, The Kindred is a bonafide funhouse full of splattery effects work. Based off the artistry on display here, it’s no shock that lead makeup effects artist, Matthew Mungle, went directly from this to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and a vast number of Hollywood productions after that.
For the directors, this wasn’t their first time at the rodeo. The duo started with the equally better-than-it-had-to-be slasher flick, The Dorm that Dripped Blood (AKA Pranks). They followed that up with a gonzo super cheapie by the name The Power before tackling this, their magnum opus. In the years since 1987, Obrow and Carpenter have gone their separate ways. Carpenter has since been writing for TV with his only directorial credit since, the much maligned and heavily post-production-butchered Soul Survivors with Eliza Dushku. Obrow continued working in the indie scene with the occasional writing or directing gig. While we may not know why the duo went their separate ways (perhaps it’ll get covered amongst the typical wealth of Synapse bonus material), it genuinely is a shame. The two directors turned out three oddball gems that are well worth rediscovering by 80’s horror fans with a desire to explore the road less traveled. The Kindred is easily the best of the bunch, and when it comes to “Through the Cracks,” it’s the one that started it all!
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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