Basement (2011)

Director: Thomas Grieser Starring: Thomas Grieser, Ursula Grieser, Wolfgang Grieser, Timo Homburg Germany. 1h 09m

There’s something about Griesers career as a movie director that has hints of Don Dohler, not necessarily, subject and quality but determination and drive, it’s a similar energy. For those who aren’t aware, Dohler had a run of trashy sci fi movies in early 80’s including Fiend, Galaxy Invader, The Alien Factor and Nightbeast which have recently started gaining a small cult following.

The Kindred (1987)

Director:Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter.
Starring: Amanda Pays, Talia Balsam, Kim Hunter, Rod Steiger, David Allen Brooks .USA. 1h 32m

80’s horror will always be remembered for being gutsy and it really liked to spill those guts all over the screen, This film is mild i some respects as it tries to build a respectable story but as the monster is slowly revealed there’s healthy lashings of tentacles and slime but without much actual blood, a strange combination that remains interesting but is noticeably lacking all the right ingredients to make it a stand out from all the other films of the era.

A brilliant scientist Amanda Hollins (Hunter) awakes from a coma and informs her equally brilliant son (Brooks) that he must destroy her journals and her final experiment aka his brother, bewildered he arranges to take his research staff and his girlfriend out to his mother’s house to carry out her request but soon she dies, unknown to him she’s killed by a rival (mad) scientist Dr. Phillip Lloyd (Steiger), who can’t be trusted around small animals and to be honest I wouldn’t trust him with kids either, but he’s desperate to find out what Amanda has been up to.