Another "When science goes bad" themed b-movie film about a son who discovers the extent of his mothers experiments and the creature that lives within the bowels of her home.Truth be told The Kindred has some good ideas, some of the practical effects are great and it's not entirely awful. Sadly on the flip side it's not very well made, for every decent sfx there is a poor one and the characters are instantly forgettable.The Kindred is one of those very few films I'd like to see a reboot of, or at least modern sequel. The potential is there, it just needs a budget and a decent team to put all the pieces together.In it's current form The Kindred is a barely passable effort that I'd advise only big fans of the genre give time to.The Good:Some great practical effectsA few good ideasOne decent death sceneThe Bad:Some poor practical effectsWeak constructionDoesn't meet its potentialThings I Learnt From This Movie:Had Japan made this film it would have been an entirely different movie, you know......the tentacles!

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.

That's right, don't watch on a full stomach and just try not to eat while watching it. It's not that it's particularly gory, but I'll explain later.As his mother lies dying in a hospital bed, David Brooks hears her tell him of top-secret experiments on his brother, Anthony. She advises him to go back to her house and destroy her notes and burn the place to the ground. Instead he goes with his wife and colleagues for a weekend to find out more information. While he is there he meets Amanda Pays' character who is a marine biologist that has been following his mother's work for quite some time. She is secretly working for Rod Steiger, a corrupt scientist who will stop at nothing to find out more about "The Anthony Experiment". It turns out Anthony is in the basement the whole time, transformed into a hideous aquatic creature. He had been genetically altered with a substance called Neomycin, a chemical found in all marine life.The movie's selling point is it's all-star cast and stomach-turning special effects. Sadly, Kim Hunter's character dies early on. There are some truly hideous monster creations. Rod Steiger keeps the rejects locked up in his basement. People with deformed pus-covered faces, octopus-like suckers on their arms, over-sized exterior veins and arteries with bluish-green fluid pulsing through them. Amanda Pays undergoes a truly remarkable human-to-fish transformation that should have won a freakin' Oscar. And the Anthony monster is truly horrifying, some kind of largemouth bass-squid-eel-humanoid monstrosity with glowing red eyes that melts down once electrocuted in a veritable fireworks show of squirting slime, blood spurting, and dripping latex. Rod Steiger gets blasted right in the face with a healthy dose of fish sludge (cod liver oil?). If you like your monster movies gross and slimy this one is for you.

Dr.Amanda Hollins,a molecular biologist who,in distress and ill health requests her son John to destroy all the lab notes from her last genetic experiment.She also blurts out that he had a brother named Anthony.From her natural son's living tissue,Amanda has created a half-human monster that sits dormant in her basement.Unfortunately for John and his friends Anthony has come to life as an oozing,tentacled and slime-covered monster,ready to taste human blood..."The Kindred" is a seriously underrated little horror flick.The creature effects are pretty good,the acting is fine and there is a little bit of gore.The action is fast-paced and the film manages to be both entertaining and gruesome.All in all,"The Kindred" provides a few chills plus a few intense moments.Give this obscure little gem a look.7 out of 10.