Next Of Kin (1982)

Episode #454, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast.

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, this week’s movie I chose and I can’t really tell you why. I stumbled across it a little while ago, and I think. I was entranced by the idea that this might be some eighties horror movie that we have overlooked. Quentin Tarantino has cited it as, uh, Australia’s version of The Shining and as extremely complimentary of it.

In fact, apparently based a couple shots in the one of its Kill Bill movies directly on some of the shots in this film. So we hadn’t done an Australian movie, I think in a while, if ever, I can’t remember. But, uh, this is actually an Australian film directed and written by New Zealanders, but it was filmed in Australia, and it is 1982’s, Next Of Kin.

Hadn’t seen it until now. How about you, Craig? Have you ever heard of this one?

Craig: No. I couldn’t even remember what we were doing when I was trying to get ready to watch it yesterday and I pulled it up and I saw next of Ken and I was like, surely not that Patrick Swayze movie. My dad was a big fan of Patrick Swayze’s, like.

Tough guy movies like Roadhouse and Next of Kin, and I thought, surely it won’t be that. And it’s not. And it’s not. I kind of wish it was, to be honest. Oh no. So you weren’t a fan, huh? No, I, I told I texted you. You did. I just don’t get it. And honestly, I, I was watching the movie and I was distracted. There’s a, I’ve got a lot going on, but I kept thinking I must be missing something.

I’m, I’m clearly, I, I looked away at the wrong moment. I’m missing something. And I finished the movie feeling that way, and then I went and read the plot summary on Wikipedia and I was like, no, I don’t think I missed anything. I just don’t get it. Like, as far as the, the narrative is concerned. I get it. I think it’s convoluted.

I just didn’t, you know, I’m a big fan of Quentin Tarantino. I think he’s a weird guy, but I think he makes. Really cool movies. Yeah. So I have a lot of respect for his opinions on film and I get it. Like it’s definitely got a grindhouse feel and it’s shot in such a way that I’m like, I see that, I see where Tarantino’s, you know, taking inspiration from that.

I don’t know, I just, I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t get into it. Did you really feel this was grindhouse? Not grindhouse, just No, no, no, no. That’s probably the wrong word. I’d probably throw that word around to, because it’s not like super violent. Maybe just more seventies, the way that it’s shot. Like, yeah. I, I think maybe it’s more the cinematography than.

Any kind of particular genre, but it, it reminded me of other movies that we’ve done that have tried to emulate that, like House of the Devil. Mm. Or, or it reminded me of, I mean, ’cause it’s, it’s kind of, or at least at, at at points you think it is kind of a haunted house kind of movie. It, it kind of reminded me of burnt offerings.

It just had that very seventies feel to it, which. I think Tarantino tries to emulate. Right? He loves that and it’s cool and I like that. So I get where he’s taking inspiration there. As far as it, you know, I read probably the same thing that you did and he talked about it’s pacing and whatnot, and I just, I found the pacing to be really slow.

Sure, yeah. It’s a slow burn. Maybe that was deliberate and that’s fine. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it, but it, it just didn’t do a whole lot for me. I have a feeling you feel very differently. 

Todd: Yeah, I kind of do, but I did sit down. I have to admit, I sat down and watched it. I was already feeling tired, but I had to watch it for.

For us to be, to do this in the morning, and I’m, uh, I’m a little jet lagged as well, so I sat down to watch it and I watched the first hour and I was very focused on the movie. I was by myself. I had it mostly full screen while I was typing notes in on the other side. And after about an hour, in realizing I had about a half an hour left to go and the movie hadn’t really picked up.

You know, right at that point I said, you know what, I’m gonna have to, I’m falling asleep. I love, I liked it. I really was enjoying it, but I, because of the pacing, I was like, I’m gonna have to turn this off and finish it in the morning, which is exactly what I did, and I’m glad I did that because I think I probably would’ve missed things or, you know, or I might have fallen asleep because it doesn’t really kick in.

Until the very end. But you know what, that actually reminds me of a lot of films that we really like. I have, I was getting strong Gilo vibes from this. I think this movie definitely is pulling inspiration from Ello. I think it’s pulling inspiration from Kubrick. I do feel like there’s a lot of the shining inspiration in here.

I thought that the cinematography, and I think it was the cinematography and the style that really pulled me in at first because I was like, this is a really. Really well-made film. The color is gorgeous. The lighting is gorgeous. The camera angles and the way that they, it has a very dynamic camera that moves in very interesting ways, and I was pulled in by that alone.

And I sort of let that wash over me and as it was going on, I said, you know, this is almost, this is almost Susperia. Susperia follows a similar pattern of, it’s very stylish. We’re really in this woman’s head. For the majority of the film, it’s very gothic in scope and in a sense it’s very much like susperia where this woman, it’s about a woman who comes to an old house and creepy things are ha are maybe happening, but there’s not a lot of evidence that anything terribly sinister is going on.

But there’s just, you can tell she’s unsettled and you’re not exactly sure why. Where this is all going until the very end where it kicks into high gear and it turns out, yep, there was a mystery and there was a murder thing happeni