This was the first Australian haunted house thriller I ever watched (at least I think it was, unless overlooking another one), but unfortunately I can't claim it was a very good or even remotely memorable experience. "Next of Kin" is a slower than slow developing thriller with only a few worthwhile moments but sadly a whole lot of pointless filling & meaningless mystery building. The film benefices slightly from its naturally eerie setting namely an elderly folks home and the always secluded Australian outback locations, but the actual storyline is thin and derivative, the lead characters are unsympathetic and last but not least the amount of thrills and shocks is unforgivably low. Linda, a young and not-so-attractive woman returns to her hometown as she inherited her recently deceased mother's resting home. She's not very motivated to continue running the place and her reluctance even increases when strange occurrences take place on the estate. The discovery of her mother's diary sheds some light on the uncanny situation within the walls of the resting home, but the sinister events carry on. The attentive and perhaps more experienced horror viewer will notice a detail quite early in the film which will already reveal an important part of the final denouement. The sight of old, wrinkly people stepping in and out of bathtubs does make me shiver, but it's still not the type of horror I anticipate to see on film. The last ten minutes of "Next of Kin" suddenly become extremely virulent and outrageous, with a stabbing through the eye and even a genuine head-explosion, but it's too late to save the film as a whole unfortunately. I agree haunted house movies generally need to rely on atmosphere and suspense instead of graphic gore, but "Next of Kin" has literally nothing.
Review of Next of Kin
