"There's no place like home, bloody home" for the NEXT OF KIN, a long-unavailable Ozploitation gothic take on the slasher finally on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment.

After the death of her mother, Linda Stevens (Jacki Kerin) inherits the family estate of Montclare which her mother and long-missing aunt had turned into an old folks home now run by faithful Connie (Gerda Nicolson, GALLIPOLI) with the help of family physician Dr. Barton (Alex Scott, ROMPERS STOMPER). She reconnects with childhood friends in town, including firefighter Barney (John Jarratt, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK) – as well as former gardener Lance (Charles McCallum, THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND) who is now one of the home's residents – but remains troubled by nightmares about a childhood incident in the great house. Delving into her mother's diaries, she learns of the older woman's suspicions about a presence lurking in the house, and events from the present starts to mirror the past when one of the residents is found dead in his bath. Are Connie and Barton gaslighting her, is boyfriend Barney all that he seems to be, and what about the creepy son (Robert Ratti, COOL CHANGE) of new resident Mrs. Ryan (Bernadette Gibson)?

While Ozploitation encompassed much in the way of genre diversity, NEXT OF KIN is a wonderfully restrained take on the old dark house formula with some blood and skin but much longer on evoking atmosphere than delivering exploitation. This approach sometimes comes at the expense of plot, with some gaps in the story seeming to reflect the increasing fear and confusion of the heroine but making some aspects seem poorly-motivated (like one or two characters that are barely around long enough to be red herrings). Indeed, it is quite obviously, if not director Tony Williams' first feature film – which was actually the New Zealand film SOLO – then the first in which the cineaste had the technical and budgetary resources to go all out on his cinematic homages with roving Steadicam, booming crane shots, the Hitchcock zoom, and shots that circle around the heroine or drift into slow motion just because… In spite of an underdeveloped script, Kerin makes for a fetching lead even as she becomes increasingly neurotic while the rest of the cast seem flatter because they are required to be suspiciously ambiguous. That the film works is a testament to the contribution of director of photography Gary Hansen (HARLEQUIN), Steadicam operator Toby Phillips (MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME), and the album tracks of Tangerine Dream drummer Klaus Schulze (some of which he had composed for the earlier Florida exploitation film BARRUCUDA).

Released directly to VHS in the United States first by VCL Communications in 1985 and then by MCEG/Virgin in 1988, NEXT OF KIN has always been easy to see in the United States but a DVD edition was not forthcoming in spite of Quentin Tarentino singling the film out for attention. An anamorphic, barebones transfer popped up in Australia from HIH in seemingly small quantities. A German DVD utilizing the same transfer was more accessible but it had a watermark when played with the English track. Umbrella's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer is derived from a 4K restoration (the back cover of the Blu-ray says the source is the original interpositive while the restoration credits at the end of the presentation say it's the original camera negative). The elements are virtually spotless apart from a rare white spec or two and one noticeable repair to a torn frame. Definition slips during a handful of post-production slow motion shots that look slightly coarser – and a single matte shot looks less convincing here than it did under the grime of home video – but the glassy quality the film has always had on home video is maintained while the color timing looks faithful to the previous DVD transfer while the colors are richer and the blacks deeper. Audio options include the original mono mix in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio remix that gives spread to the score, offscreen sound effects natural and ghostly, along with the thunder and rain. Optional English HoH subtitles are also provided appear to be free of errors apart from a name uttered by a character (but that was only noticeable because it was mentioned more clearly by the director on the commentary track).

The film is accompanied by a pair of audio commentary tracks. The first features director Willams and producer Tim White (CELIA) in which they reveal that the project started as a horror comedy about a group of mad caterers who poison residents of old folks homes, then evolving into a slasher before Williams wanted to something more European than American (one of the film's he took inspiration from was Roger Vadim's BLOOD AND ROSES). Williams does reveal that a lot of material was not used including scenes of Linda arriving in town, although he does not really go into the material deleted from the ending. They credit Phillips' Steadicam work, revealing that Phillips trained under Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown (WOLFEN) and there was often a race between Phillips and the film's grip to setup for whether a moving shot would end up being on the Steadicam or a dolly. They also reveal that they tried to get Vangelis and had listened to his work on the set. They eventually temp-tracked the film with Klaus Schulze tracks and got the rights to use the cues when they rejected the original score Schulze wrote for them. The second track features cast members Jarratt, Kerin, and Ratti, moderated by NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD director Mark Hartley. Like most Australian talent of the time, the worked on Crawford Productions television, with Jarratt and Kerin previously appearing together in the Ned Kelly miniseries THE LAST OUTLAW. Jarratt makes some off-color comments but also provides some interesting background, having been involved in some manner with production company SIS – co-producer Film House was a company belonging to Fred Schepisi (THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH) – and bringing his skills as a builder to the set when a wooden fence built by the production for him to vault over proved poorly put-together. Ratti discusses doing stunt work in the film and being asked by Williams to study the Yorkshire Ripper for his character background, and the trio also recall the botched timing of the film's pyrotechnic highlight. They also make only passing reference to the footage cut from the climax.