Kindred Spirits review: Three female relatives find their lives changed forever after a family reunion takes an unexpectedly dark turn.
Kindred Spirits
Want to feel old? You remember when Thora Birch played little sister Dani in Hocus Pocus, aged about seven or eight? Well, now she’s starring in films where she plays the mother of a teenager. Said film is Lucky McKee’s Kindred Spirits, which sees Birch play Chloe, a single mother who reconnects with her younger sister Sadie (Caitlin Stasey). It doesn’t sound too horrific so far, but Sadie has, shall we say, a few issues, and turns Chloe and her daughter Nicole’s (Sasha Frolova) lives upside down after reappearing following several years of absence.
Kindred Spirits shifts the Single White Female setup to a family dynamic. Sadie you see is fixated on her niece and sister and will do whatever it takes to have their undivided attention. This leads to some skin-crawling awkward scenes such as when Sadie tries to fit in with young Nicole and her friends by styling her hair and fashion exactly the same. There’s also some other stuff that we won’t spoil, other than to say that they take the desperate and needy to a new extreme. There’s also a little more to Sadie, and the film, than I’m prepared to divulge here, but be prepared for Kindred Spirits to make you feel rather uncomfortable quite a lot.
Kindred Spirits
At the centre of the film is a bold and brave performance from Stasey. Some audience members will recognise her as having played Rachel Kinski in Neighbours, (Rachel was besties with Margot Robbie’s Donna Friedman trivia fans). She’s certainly matured a lot since her time on Ramsey Street, and she clearly relishes the gauntlet thrown down for her in this film. Her performance is charged with electric energy that keeps you watching. She plays Sadie as a mixture of innocence and charm, with just a slight hint of her unhinged demeanour lurking beneath the surface.
Playing against Stasey’s brilliant insanity is no easy feat, but Birch and Frolova mange the task. It’s important to note that all three women have their own identities and stories that helps them stand apart from the others. There’s no competing here, with McKee giving each actor their own time to shine. Rather than compete with, or try to out crazy Stasey’s performance, the other two do the opposite. They pull back from anything too frantic and are instead more naturalistic in their approach to their characters. This doesn’t make them any less interesting than Sadie, but instead helps to compliment Sadie’s chaotic energy by bringing some calm and authenticity to the proceedings.
Kindred Spirits
Birch’s character is the archetypal single mother whom had a kid slightly too young. On the surface she’s a sensible mum that wants the best for her daughter. But under that, she’s a woman desperate to be just that again, and embarks upon a secret relationship with the father of Nicole’s best friend. Nicole is your typical teenager on the verge of rebellion. With both of them playing their characters so by the book, it works to highlight how heightened and different Sadie’s behaviour is.
Lucky McKee is better known for his more standard genre films like The Woman and Tales of Halloween, but here he moves into the thriller arena. With this move he proves himself capable of telling mean and moody stories without the need for excessive violence. Obsession, innocence, mental illness and childhood trauma are told within the bonds of family ties in this engrossing psychological thriller.
Kindred Spirits was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest 2019.
