Kindred (I) (2020) User Reviews

bird dreams

[ferguson-6 · 6/10 · 5 November 2020]

Greetings again from the darkness. It's the first feature film for writer-director Joe Marcantonio and his co-writer Jason McColgan, which might explain why the film starts strong before faltering, mostly salvaged by three strong performances. Eighteen months into their relationship, veterinarian Ben (Edward Holcroft, KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE, 2014) and Charlotte (Tamara Lawrance) break the news to his mother that they are moving from England to Australia. Mum is none too pleased, as she expects her son to carry on the legacy of nine generations that have lived in the now dilapidated (and isolated) family estate.

Ben's overbearing mother is Margaret (Fiona Shaw, Petunia in the Harry Potter movies) and she lives in the drafty mansion with Ben's step-brother Thomas (Jack Lowden, TOMMY'S HONOUR, 2016), who seems more man-servant than son to Margaret. Charlotte soon discovers she's pregnant, and while Ben is thrilled, she is unsure whether she even wants to keep the baby. Her own mother's history plays a significant role in her uncertainty. A freak on-the-job accident kills Ben, and Charlotte soon finds herself ... um ... a guest of Margaret and Thomas. She's the type of guest that's not allowed to leave or make phone calls. Yep, she's being held captive under the guise of this being in the best interest of her baby.

While Margaret is straight-forward vile and ignoble towards Charlotte, Thomas is more difficult to read ... albeit no less off-center. Clearly both have a vision for where this is all headed. Margaret spills hers in a terrific scene where she lets her guard down with Charlotte, while Thomas is perfectly creepy and overuses the "making a quiche" punchline. For her part, Charlotte frequently passes out and has recurring dreams featuring birds/ravens/crows ... and as fans of horror can tell you, that's never a good sign. Has Charlotte been drugged or is she being gaslighted by Margaret and Thomas?

Director Marcantonio has delivered a psychological thriller that's more frustrating than haunting. It has vibes of the classic ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) sans Satan, but of course, is not at that level - although we do get the chilling doctor played here by Anton Lesser. Charlotte is the proverbial trapped damsel, but the film falls into a pattern of 'escape-capture-repeat'. It also attempts to use music, but the combination of Debussy's "Claire de Lune", Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, and the long-time standard "Dream a Little Dream of Me", reaches overload. The Production Design from Derek Wallace and Set Decoration by John Neligan are top notch, but in the end, the frustration we feel overrides any creep factor or strong performance. It's a near miss.

Very good acting

[delores052 · 5/10 · 6 November 2020]

I liked the main character's spirit one minute, then wanted to slap her.was hoping for a better ending but it was,what is was.

Stop wasting our time

[emma965 · 4/10 · 26 June 2021]

Good film until the end.....you just can't do that ...you just can't.

A fairly interesting ride to nowhere

[franzaugustgraf · 3/10 · 9 November 2020]

I have liked Fiona Shaw's work and thought that I would look at this picture as she was in it.

Atmospherically and acting wise, it sustained my interest. There seemed to be the elements of a good story and it kept me guessing right along as to what the final revelation might be.

When it got to the end, I just could not believe what a let down it was. The whole film led absolutely nowhere and to not have an adequate explanation to all that went before was quite devastating if not disappointing.

Was the setting supposed to be 2020?

[latashaqh-1 · 1/10 · 1 August 2021]

Charlotte is somehow supposed to be imprisoned by her man's mother and his step-brother.🙄🙄🙄 IN 2020 (somewhere in the UK).🙄🙄🙄 I get tired of low-key fantasy of imprisoning Black people movies.

Charlotte could have simply walked off while in the hospital after the the ultrasound. Why didn't she?

Did she have no independence from her man that his family could easily steal her whole life once he was dead?

Charlotte could have walked off and gone to a homeless shelter even, and gotten away from his family.

Long, boring, and unrealistic.

Good premise, slow dull ending...

[RMS1949 · 2/10 · 7 November 2020]

When an entire movie goes about setting up the eventual confrontation between two people and you never get it, you just cheated and deflated. You don't watch thrillers just to get a weak walk off into the sunset type ending. For me, the two women should still be fighting as I type this. Sigh Good acting with a wasteful script.

Draws you in. Ending eh

[lakicia · 7/10 · 16 February 2021]

The acting is great by everyone in the movie. The creepiness and mystery qas setup nicely.

The lead making typical victim errors like speeding when they finally get away instead of simply driving carefully, and not leaving the house earlier like any other black woman would (lol), really took away from the movie.

I agree with others that it had Rosemary's Baby and Get Out vibes. But the movie didn't scream that the writer was trying to recreate or mimic them to me.

Took 2 stars away for the ending. I agree with others in that I wish they would've tied up the mysterious loose endings like: was the boyfriend really dead? We never really saw him. How did they turn her friend Jane against her? Was Jane in on the cover up of the boyfriend's "death"? How is Margaret gonna raise a black baby as her own without any questions being raised, if that was the scheme? Seems a bit off to me. How does a hospital just hand a baby over to a man just cause he says he's the dad, without proof? What history- mentioned by the nurse- does Charlotte have in her past? We know her mom's history but the hospital doesn't know that. And why didn't they reveal Charlotte's history to us?

Uhhhh so many questions

Don't waste your time on it.

[reviewmr · 2/10 · 27 June 2021]

This film starts off okay with a fairly easy and straightforward plot. Halfway through it take a turn for the worse and the whole storyline falls about. The end of the movie is disappointing , and you begin to wonder why you spent the last hour and half watching it.

Another familiar idea, almost impeccably executed.

[GiraffeDoor · 7/10 · 29 June 2021]

Low concept but incredibly elegant rehash of familiar territory.

From the very first moments one gets the feeling of a restrained, sinister story and it delivers. There's only so good this can be considering the story it's telling but the immense yet lonely manor house in the countryside makes a superb setting for this tale of a vulnerable person who doesn't whom she can trust and how much.

The handling of imagery and cinematography is masterful and hypnotic as we slow burn toward the darkness. At one point someone looks out the window at 90 degrees which doesn't work in context but that's just one error, it otherwise doesn't detract from the script but enriches it.

Stories like these, of obsessive traditional families can often go too far and just feel sensationalist. But every character here feels like a person and I admit I was questioning what I though was going on as we toe the line between alarm bells common paranoia.

I dare say one could say a couple of things about how we treat (pregnant) women and the mentally ill.

A creepy movie even if it isn't what you want to call a horror movie. I felt a little cheated by the end but the journey is admirable.

Fiona Shaw's brilliant performance and....

[special_user · 3/10 · 2 September 2021]

And nothing else worth to mention. Just a shallow, semi-thrilling plot that leads to nothing and leaves the viewer unsatisfied.

Stiflingly suspenseful

[juliesherwin-25540 · 8/10 · 26 June 2021]

I loved this, not since Rosemarys baby have I enjoyed such a teaser. Is she ill or are they crazy. Not many liked the ending but I like the fact it leaves you to make up your own mind.

Tamara Lawrance was so good in this Solid suspense film

[roger_2020 · 6 November 2020]

Kindred is the best horror movie in 2020 It has a very spooky feeling and you can watch this movie over and over again and never gets boring. Tamara Lawrance roll was fantastic.in this film Overall this movie really shows what a horror movie looks like and I give it a big thumbs up and I would love to see it again.

if you love real horror movie then you must watch Kindred 10/10

Twisted but gripping

[chocolatepopcorn · 7/10 · 25 November 2020]

I always go into movies like this with no expectation & try to see it for what it is rather than what the trailer depicts it as. I would say, for the most part, the trailer didn't disappoint. This movie was incredibly slow as far as build up goes, but the things that happen along the way leave you saying "what? How could this happen?"... because the situations and dialogue feel realistic... like it could happen! That's what I like about this film, it feels like a deep rooted horror film that we might see back when the genre started. Something like an Alfred Hitchcock film & possible(?) influence of Edgar Allen Poe seemed prevalent here... maybe I'm just saying that because of the birds in this film(lolz). But still, I think even if those two hadn't influenced the film in a direct sense, there's still nods to those artists in this film. There's nothing to unrealistic about this, it's pretty cut and dry and convincing, and that's what makes horrific. In a more thrilling sense, it has it's moments, and the trailer makes it seem more thrilling I feel but you can only tell so much from a trailer when looking back. This did exceed my expectations & halfway through the film I was like "damn, this is good". I don't wanna include any spoilers but I feel there could have been some things done different, but then again, I'm not the director or writer of this film haha. This is definitely worth a watch and it's a shame that this movie hasn't been seeing the numbers it should have. By no means is this a perfect film, but it's one of the better horror films I've seen for sure. Hopefully, at least, more people will watch this movie over time as it is relatively new.

One more movie with no ending!

[beezermike · 1/10 · 12 December 2020]

Here's another movie that had a chance to be fairly good and instead it got to its end and... lo and behold. No Ending. An extremely weak anti-climactic end and the whole cast goes home with no explanation at all about what thrilling suspenseful horror story the whole last hour and a half was supposed to be telling us. Pregnant woman's husband dies and his family steals her baby. End of story. If making saleable movies is this easy, I'm definitely in the wrong line of work.

Hung on to see if all this predictable boredom was worth it, NO!!!

[joiningjt · 2/10 · 23 April 2021]

I only give it a 2 for the mansion and the setting , the story was extremely over the top predictable and a bad predictable the acting was ok not bad just passable. The pace of the story was again just barely passable. Nothing to recommend or add that would make me even give it a go ahead and watch once. We watched it and about 20 minutes in said let's turn it off but gave it a chance and we were right at the 20 min mark!!, do not watch!!

Stupid

[jopipah · 1/10 · 21 March 2023]

This movie doesn't deserve the six hundred characters required to post a review, but I thought I should to save you the time of watching it. This movie seemed promising at the beginning, and I was intrigued; however, it went downhill very quickly. Why did her friend bring her back to the house??? Why was Thomas so dumb as to believe her every time she said she needed him??? How could they sell the house without her consent??? Does the family think that a DNA test would not be ordered once she said that Thomas wa not the father????? Stupid movie, and I wish I had read some of the reviews prior to watching it. STUPID!

Thank goodness for spoilers

[darkmomo-81831 · 3/10 · 7 February 2023]

Honestly it was very boring in the beginning. THEN it started to get interesting. And then frustrating all over again. The heroine they make her both smart and absolutely stupid at the same time. Also where was the fight? I love a good pregnant heroine who will fight for her life and her baby's life and get tf out. But what they gave us was a weak woman who could barely fight for herself. How did she not whip this old woman's butt with that cane? How did she not walk out of that hospital room and call the police immediately? Why did her friend turn on her? The whole thing is WILD in a bad way. Like just B. A. D- BAD.

"Margaret come closer I want to say something to you." WHAT? The broad is on a cane. Just go over there and stab her in the face!! The whole movie should have just been called FRUSTRATED because that's what you'll feel after watching this horribly slow, meandering plot of a movie.

So glad I saw the spoilers so I wouldn't be completely depressed by the ending. Ya'll are the real MVP's.

PS- This is the most trusting black woman I have ever met. >.> So many times she could have killed these people and did nothing. OMGGGG. And why is it that when she gets into cars she just stops and stares for a while? XD Please. This movie was really dumb. It had everything you could want in a movie like this and still somehow managed to suck.

PPS- That bird scene/crash was just plain dumb. Honestly, what was the director thinking?

A good psychological drama

[sair-feather · 6/10 · 28 September 2021]

I'm going to call this a psychological drama rather than a horror film, it is horrible, but it's definitely more of a drama. As other reviews have said there's nothing much new here but it is well acted and creepy. I don't know why people are having a problem with the ending, it's all completely straight forward and it all makes sense.

Spoilers for the entire plot.

Charlotte is perfectly normal, but worries that she might also get very bad post natal depression like her mother. She didn't have a good relationship with her mother and worries she might not be a good mother to her own child, she also worries having a baby will just completely ruin her life and she's not ready for that.

Her boyfriend does not have a good relationship with his mother, Margaret, when he tells her they are relocating to Australia his mother feels completely betrayed by him and she disowns him permanently by having him killed by the stable girl, it wasn't an accident and it wasn't the horse.

Margret and her stepson Thomas are extremely close because they suffered through domestic violence together and Thomas went on to make sure his drunken father died in an "accident".

Margret is the posh lady from the big house so obviously she is considered a pillar of the community, she also employs the stable girl, which would go some way to explaining her loyalty, but Margret was probably blackmailing her into murder.

The posh doctor is on Margret's side because they are of the same class and feel superior to working class Charlotte. The doctor can easily find out about Charlotte's mother's medical records.

Margret and Thomas are drugging Charlotte which is why she has bad dreams and hallucinates, crashing the car.

The doctor conspires with Margret to keep the baby and pretend Thomas is the father, a DNA test is never required unless the family ask for one. Charlotte is put in a psychiatric ward because everyone has conspired to make her seem crazy when she's perfectly well, but traumatized by her treatment and by the grief of losing her boyfriend.

Ya might wanna give this one a wide berth...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 16 November 2020]

When I was given the chance to sit down to watch "Kindred", I had no idea what the movie was about. But given the movie's poster, then I assumed it to be a horror movie of sorts. And with my lifelong fascination for all things horror, of course I needed no persuasion sitting down to watch writers Joe Marcantonio and Jason McColgan's 2020 movie "Kindred".

Well, I didn't even get halfway through it, then I gave up out of a sheer and total boredom. Director Joe Marcantonio managed to squeeze everything that even resembled a proper storyline and anything of any interest out of the story, leaving the audience sitting down to watch a very dry and pointless, not to mention arduously slow paced movie.

I was by no means caught up in the storyline, because it was so slow and mundane, and it didn't really help much that the character gallery was flaccid and essentially faceless.

The movie is labeled as a drama, horror and mystery here on IMDb, I suppose it may contain elements of all those genres, but regardless of it doing that or not, the movie just utterly and completely failed to catch my interest.

When I saw that Fiona Shaw was on the cast list, I thought that there might actually be some worth to the movie. But she was struggling, like everyone else in the movie, with a sinking script and no life preservers to cling on to.

I can in all honesty say that I am not ever going to return to try to watch the rest of the movie, because it just never sank its hooks into me.

My rating of "Kindred" lands on a generous three out of ten stars, based mostly on the production value and editing of the movie. If you were to ask me, then I would not recommend that you waste your time, money or effort on "Kindred"; some of us did, so you don't have to.

Don't waste your time if you care about a satisfying ending

[joshuadanielcarter · 6/10 · 16 February 2021]

With a ending that made any kind of point this would score really well, but there's no pay off for all the great work done throughout the middle of the film.

Cliché Domino Chain

[marek_bublik-39120 · 1/10 · 17 September 2021]

No amount of praise-worthy performance (and there's plenty to be had here) can eclipse the simple fact that this technically competent work completely fails to escape its own narrative drudgery. The aesthetic of the production held me to the finish which, in the end, made me dislike it even more as, in hindsight, I found myself wishing it had been a genuinely obvious howler so I could have seen the signs good and early, saved myself an hour and a half and simply walked out at the start.

Loved it!

[EzraAboud · 10/10 · 12 March 2021]

Loved the setting, GREAT ACTING. At first, felt like I wanted a different ending, but when I thought about it, the ending was perfect. Twisted and haunting. Depicted exactly what the writer wanted to convey. Enjoyable & suspenseful. Yes, similar to a "Get Out" theme, however, love having a female protagonist. BEAUTIFUL.

Plot conveniences to get to a specific ending

[caerdwyn-17762 · 7/10 · 30 December 2022]

Very competently shot and acted... but the story is written to bring about a very specific end and make you the viewer frustrated as a result. If you often watch horror movies and yell at the screen "WHY DID THEY DO THAT? THAT'S STUPID!" you will feel the same way here. The entire film is arrayed against the protagonist and she has no recourse and no one she can trust. But, she's not in a situation that is particularly horrific or entirely a dead-end ... literally, their friend and their community is written to distrust and disbelieve her, and betray her, at every turn. Finally you get a downbeat ending that just makes you feel gross inside, and very, very hopeless and sad for the protagonist.

long and hard

[ansirahka · 5/10 · 13 November 2020]

Which can be good with the right amount of girth, but unfortunately that is what the movie lacks. The suspense is enough to keep you curious throughout, but the pay-off is just so unsatisfying it left you feeling nothing. Thomas is a catch by the way.

Long road to no where.. YES!

[oldee624 · 1/10 · 2 March 2021]

They picked good actors; but the ending left you hanging; unfinished waste of my time. I was very angry I watched this til the end; So many unanswered questions. Did he really get hit in the head by a horse? What's up with the crows? Was she really insane and have mental issues? No character buildup to her mother and what her history really was. This was disappointing all around. I would recommend writers do an addendum to this movie.. Just awful!!