Out of Australia comes Next of Kin, in which a woman inherits her mother's small-town retirement home and starts uncovering her secrets, even as mysterious deaths begin to occur. It's a sort of, kind of ghost story, and much more interesting when it's withholding than when those secrets are finally exposed. The third act is, to me, a big slashery mess that comes out of nowhere and essentially kills the mood the first two created with strange incidents and atmospheric cinematography. Next of Kin could have eschewed the horror angle and just played out as a mystery/romance and it would have been fine by me. Once the genre mechanics took hold - abruptly! - my attention started to wane. Yes, even though the film opens on the end and I knew we had to get there somehow. But it's the same thing: It's a big mystery at first, but in the final act that last moment becomes quite predictable. I also need to mention some intermittent sound problems, an occasional reverb that mars even the better parts of the film.
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Siskoid
Out of Australia comes Next of Kin, in which a woman inherits her mother's small-town retirement home and starts uncovering her secrets, even as mysterious deaths begin to occur. It's a sort of, kind of ghost story, and much more interesting when it's withholding than when those secrets are finally exposed. The third act is, to me, a big slashery mess that comes out of nowhere and essentially kills the mood the first two created with strange incidents and atmospheric cinematography. Next of Kin could have eschewed the horror angle and just played out as a mystery/romance and it would have been fine by me. Once the genre mechanics took hold - abruptly! - my attention started to wane. Yes, even though the film opens on the end and I knew we had to get there somehow. But it's the same thing: It's a big mystery at first, but in the final act that last moment becomes quite predictable. I also need to mention some intermittent sound problems, an occasional reverb that mars even the better parts of the film.