#Jackie Kerin

[schlock-luster-video]

On April 30, 2021, Bride of Re-Animator and Next of Kin were screened as a double-feature on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs.

Here's some new art inspired by both horror classics!

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[mondopazzo]

This is such a gorgeous and exquisitely made film. More folks need to see it and discuss it.

Next of Kin (Tony Williams, 1982)

[cantsayidont]

Moviez:

INHERENT VICE (2014): Excellent Paul Thomas Anderson adaptation of the 2008 Thomas Pynchon novel, a '70s hippie-stoner riff on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, starring Joachim Phoenix as pothead P.I. Doc Sportello, who is drawn into a complex scheme involving his ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston) and her missing real estate mogul boyfriend (Eric Roberts). Long and leisurely paced, retaining most of the novel's convoluted plot and a good deal of Pynchon's deadpan humor, INHERENT VICE is not nearly as bleak as the detective films of the era in which it's set (e.g., Robert Altman and Leigh Brackett's cruel 1973 adaptation of Chandler's THE LONG GOODBYE, to which both versions of VICE are often compared), but Anderson plays reasonably fair with the mystery, and, like the novel, treads a pleasingly considered line between the doomed romanticism of the genre's hard-boiled antecedents and wistful nostalgia for the dreams of a mostly vanished era. It's also one of Phoenix's career-best performances (although his gruesome muttonchops aren't easy to stomach), with a strong supporting cast (including Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, and Martin Short), and Anderson makes the inspired decision to translate big chunks of the novel's third-person prose to a voiceover by Joanna Newsom (as Doc's hippie friend Sortilège). CONTAINS LESBIANS? In passing, courtesy of the ever-delightful Hong Chau. VERDICT: Extremely satisfying if you can tune into its particular wavelength — the only PTA film to date that I actually enjoy.

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997): Glossy but annoyingly defanged Curtis Hanson adaptation of the hardboiled James Ellroy novel, about a battle of wills between three LAPD detectives — twitchy thug Bud White (Russell Crowe), slick hustler Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), and brittle college boy Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce) — surrounding a high-profile robbery/homicide and its politically charged aftermath in 1953 Los Angeles. Highly acclaimed at the time, the film hasn't aged well: It's well-cast and well-acted, and it still looks great, but Hanson and Brian Helgeland's script excises about half of the novel's sprawling, squalid plot (sometimes neatly, sometimes not) and eventually squanders too much credibility trying to contrive a facile good-guys-vs.-bad-guys resolution, culminating in a preposterous new ending that ties everything up in a neat bow in ways the novel pointedly does not. (Ellroy has since disowned the film, although it's still better than the disastrous Brian De Palma adaptation of Ellroy's THE BLACK DAHLIA a decade later.) CONTAINS LESBIANS? Only fleetingly. VERDICT: Scaling down the novel's scope and nastiness isn't always a bad thing, but it sacrifices far too much moral complexity in the process.

LAST EXMAS (2024): Cute but very slight lesbian romcom about two former high school girlfriends (Elena Milo and Shaeane Jimenez), who are drawn together again when they both return to their small hometown for Christmas 10 years after their breakup. Appealing leads compensate some for the lulls in the sitcomish script and the frequent overacting of costar Raven Maducdoc, as a gossipy busybody the protagonists knew in high school. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Prominently! VERDICT: Never really departs from formula, but pleasant gay background noise for those who can't resist a seasonal glass of eggnog.

NEXT OF KIN (1982): Well-crafted if deliberately paced Australian horror-thriller about a young woman named Linda Stevens (Jackie Kerin) inheriting the small nursing home on her estranged mother's rural estate, which might be haunted. Has definite overtones of THE SHINING with a soupçon of PSYCHO, with strong atmosphere and a very '80s synth score by Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream, although the understated story withholds any real action until nearly the end, and the explosive finale (which loops back around to the opening scene) lacks a certain final punch. Kerin is very good — she's nearly the whole show — as is John Jarratt as Linda's hunky lunkhead ex-boyfriend, who's hoping for another shot. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Doesn't quite live up to its lofty modern critical standing, but an interesting, effective slow-burn thriller. CW for sexual assault near the end.

Teevee:

ANGELYNE (2022): Smugly malicious, fictionalized five-part pseudo-documentary about self-made Los Angeles celebrity Angelyne (here played by Emmy Rossum), whose cryptic self-promoting billboards and pink Corvettes were L.A. local color for years. There are several ways one could potentially approach Angelyne as a phenomenon, from a commentary on celebrities becoming famous for being famous to just leaning into her fantastical internal narrative like a Francesca Lia Block novel, but the show is mostly a mean-spirited, self-conscious period piece whose main object is to sneer contemptuously at self-deluded losers à la Paul Thomas Anderson's repulsive BOOGIE NIGHTS. There are occasional flashes of visual inspiration, like the "Galaxina" sequence in Ep. 3 and the fantasy sequences in the finale, but nothing in the story ever really justifies the nastiness of the narrative approach, which I found almost as off-putting as Rossum's lead performance, an unsympathetic caricature that becomes particularly indefensible in the final episode, dealing with Angelyne's generational trauma as the daughter of Holocaust survivors. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: No matter how full of shit the real Angelyne might be, she's done nothing to deserve this sneering hatchet job.

THE FIRM (2012): Terrible one-season TV spinoff of the John Grisham legal thriller, with attorney Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) and his too-loyal wife Abby (Molly Parker) trying to rebuild their lives 10 years after bringing down Mitch's mobbed-up previous firm, only to find they've made some even more dangerous enemies. The first three-fourths of the season, with Martin Donovan and Tricia Helfer (of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) as villains, is unbearably stupid and frequently offensive, and Mitch might well be the least competent TV defense lawyer in the entire history of the medium. The final half-dozen episodes, which shift focus to the mob catching up with Mitch, are better, but still not very good. Josh Lucas is a hopelessly uncharismatic lead, a real millstone around the show's neck; Callum Keith Rennie has charisma, but is hopelessly miscast as Mitch's ex-con brother/investigator, and Juliette Lewis is completely wasted as Mitch's sassy secretary. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Decidedly infirm. CW for an upsetting sequence in Ep. 14 where Abby is kidnapped and tortured.

[byneddiedingo]

Jacki Kerin in Next of Kin (Tony Williams, 1982)

Cast: Jacki Kerin, John Jarratt, Alex Scott, Gerda Nicolson, Charles McCallum, Bernadette Gibson, Robert Ratti, Vince Delitito, Tommy Dysart, Debra Lawrence. Screenplay: Tony Williams, Michael Heath. Cinematography: Gary Hansen. Art direction: Richard Francis, Nick Hepworth. Film editing: Max Lemon. Music: Klaus Schulze. 

Next of Kin is an Australian creepy old house horror movie, with all the improbabilities, plot holes, and clichés of the genre, but if you stick with it you're rewarded with a literally smashing finale. When her mother dies, Linda (Jacki Kerin) inherits the big gloomy mansion her mother had converted into a nursing home in the rural small town where Linda grew up. She doesn't want the property, though it seems to be capably managed by a woman named Connie (Gerda Nicolson) with a physician, Dr. Barton (Alex Scott), seeing to the medical needs of the residents. After taking a look at the books maintained by her mother, which are something of a mess, Linda is inclined to sell the place and return to the city where she's been living. Even the presence of an old boyfriend, Barney (Alex Scott), doesn't really persuade her to stick around. And then a strange death of one of the residents occurs, and Linda's inspection of her mother's papers stirs her suspicions, particularly where the unexplained disappearance of her Aunt Rita is concerned. Of course, things get creepier, though the way writer-director Tony Williams sets them up is a little slow and clunky. The movie has its admirers, including Quentin Tarantino, who compared it favorably to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). Only the payoff at the end, I think, really measures up to that standard. 

[ladamarossa]

Next of Kin (1982)

[jellymonstergrrrl]

Next of Kin (1982) dir. Tony Williams

[mikaeled]

Next of Kin (1982) dir. Tony Williams

[brody75]

Next of Kin (1982)

[veryslowreader]

Lambda 1 and Other Stories

Next of Kin

[schlock-luster-video]

On March 21, 1987 Next of Kin was screened at The Weekend of Terror.

[depalmafan]

Jacki Kerin as Linda Stevens in Tony Williams’ Next of Kin (1982).

[yetihideout]

Next of Kin, 1982

[kino51]

Next of Kin  1982

[simplylove101]

2022 Horror Challenge: [26/?]

↳ “To my daughter, Linda Mary Stevens, I leave my entire inheritance; all goods, chattels, worldly possessions that comprise of the estate, Montclare.” Next of Kin (1982) dir. Tony Williams

Plot: In a rest home for elderly people, a daughter reads her mother's diary. Soon events that are mentioned in the mother's diary begin to happen to the daughter.

Starring: Jackie Kerin, John Jarratt, Alex Scott & Gerda Nicolson

25th watch of the challenge this year! Finally made it to this number, it officially being the first week of October, and after me not watching anything the first day, that has me wanting already to play catch-up. I’m determined to watch at least one horror movie per day from now ‘til Halloween this year so we’ll see how well that goes. Anyway, about the movie, I checked out this underrated gem, not knowing much about it besides the fact that apparently Tarantino thinks it’s awesome, dubbing it an Australian version of The Shining kinda thing. Which actually is kinda fair since even though the plot’s different, this movie is totally about the slow burn and the atmosphere. There’s definitely a lot of memorable shots in here and you do kinda have a long wait before you could say something genuinely scary happens. But it is definitely eerie throughout at parts. I was game for it. Jackie Kerin did a good job as the lead. I think it’s worth checking out if you’re in for a slow burn kinda mood. That said, the ending is very fast pace and exciting so there’s that. Overall, I liked it. I get why it’s considered a cult favorite.

[ladamarossa]

Jackie Kerin in Next of Kin (1982)