In his first feature film, screenwriter and director Joe Marcantanio along with co-writer Jason McColgan play on the vulnerability of pregnancy to craft an artful and intelligent, yet disarming and unsettling psychological thriller in Kindred.
The stakes of the film build slowly, while the crux of the story waits behind dark curtains; Marcantonio effectively constructs a platform on which something as precarious and intimate as pregnancy would undeniably manifest into a trauma-induced psychothriller. What begins as a bright afternoon with couple Charlotte (Tamara Lawrence) and Ben (Edward Holcroft) hastily becomes much darker. The couple travels to see Ben’s mother Margaret (Fiona Shaw) and stepbrother (Jack Lowden) to share the news that they are planning to soon pack up their life in England to move to Australia. The news comes to an already unstable family dynamic, mostly orchestrated by the chaotic-commandeering nature of Margaret, as well as the obvious negative feelings Ben has towards his stepbrother, Thomas.
Quickly after, Charlotte lends a hand at her friend Jane’s (Chloe Pirrie) horse ranch, when a malaise overtakes her and once she seeks medical attention, it is revealed that she is in fact pregnant. The reticence to pursue this pregnancy is present from the beginning, and in a very abrupt and unexpected turn, Ben is killed in the stables as he is kicked in the head by one of the horses.
The remainder of the film is the portrait of a quick descent into madness, both for the protagonist and for the viewer, as the plot and visual elements obfuscate the narrative so deeply that one cannot truly tell if Charlotte is a lucid, reliable narrator. Under the pretext of the bank foreclosing on Charlotte and Ben’s cottage with the news of his death, Charlotte becomes somewhat of a prisoner in Margaret’s mansion, and the ties that bind her to her dead lover’s family reveal themselves to be chains. This is obviously convenient for Margaret who wishes to be as close to her dead son’s unborn child in as many ways as possible What she expresses as maternalistic expression could easily be interpreted as gaslighting, carried out either by her or Thomas by way of her. Yet, whenever you feel that you can see truly through Charlotte’s eyes as a traumatized and grieving pregnant woman in absolute distress, new information from the plot is revealed that incriminates her. The psychological aspects of the film beyond the script are enunciated by way of unique visual effects, including the recurring motif of crows and shots captured on a ninety degree angle. These diverse visual efforts don’t arise rhythmically, which organically adds to the thrilling effect of the film.
These visuals are supplemented by the earth-shattering work of the leading actresses, Tamara Lawrance and Fiona Shaw. Lawrence gives a genius, unfaltering portrayal of a woman unwinding in the thick of unrepentant trauma, while Shaw chaos is both controlled and exerted in ways that leave the energy of the film on a constant imbalance. The mastery behind both of their character depictions recalls an off-kilter reworking of the dynamic between a Disney princess and her evil stepmother.
Kindred, while flying under the radar, provides an unconventional disturbance of psychological horror through its unique play on feminist interrogations of pregnancy, motherhood, family, and mental illness. It is not one to be missed.
