Movie review of Kitchen Sink

Horrorphile

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Kitchen Sink

June 20th 2007 06:45

One of my favourite short films is a New Zealand horror movie written and directed by Alison McLean called Kitchen Sink (1989). McLean would go on to direct the intriguing slow burn thriller Crush (1992, no, not the Alicia Silverstone one), and later the Billy Crudup hippie flick Jesus’ Son.

Kitchen Sink owes much in look and feel to David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1976), yet still manages to be completely original. Probably because what it takes from Eraserhead is the atmosphere and mood, rather than any narrative or plot ideas, and there’s the feel of several other culty sf-horror movies lurking in the background.

The stunning monochromatic cinematography is by my favourite ex-pat Kiwi, Stuart Dryburgh (he went on to shoot Jane Campion’s superb period drama The Piano), while the pulsating, original thematic score is by cult Kiwi band The Headless Chickens. The art direction is exceptional, as is the use of sound (there’s no real dialogue).

The premise has a lonely, but attractive young woman (Theresa Healey) cleaning her kitchen when she discovers a hair coming from the kitchen sink plughole. She pulls on it and the hair gets thicker and more hirsute the more she pulls it from the drain. Suddenly she pulls an entire person from the drainpipe. It appears the hair is an umbilical cord attached to a male being of some sort; tiny, baby-like, yet completely covered in hair. The woman is simultaneously repulsed and intrigued by it.

She throws it in the rubbish bin at first, but curiosity gets the better of her, so she puts it in the bath and fills the tub with warm water. This of course causes the tiny man to enlarge until he is the size of a full grown man, albeit still covered in hair. The woman is compelled. She shaves the unusual looking man (Peter Tait) from head to toe.

And that’s as much as I’m prepared to tell you.

Theresa Healey and Peter Tait in Kitchen Sink

It’s only 14 minutes long, but it’s a tour-de-force of creepiness, weirdness, and an entrenched tone of unique horror. It pulls together the potent elements of attraction and repulsion, sex and death, and binds them in a nightmare embrace of dark and troubling things. It won Best Short Film in the NZ Film & Television Awards and Audience Award at the Sydney film Festival in 1989.

Kitchen Sink is available on DVD on the Australian Director’s Suite release of Crush, released by Madman Cinema.

I managed to find the movie on youtube, broken into two parts. Enjoy the Darkness from the Land of the Long White Cloud!

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

9 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by KylieW

June 20th 2007 07:13

Celebrity Obsession

Haven't watched the clips yet, will come back to do that. I'll wait until I'm home to watch it.

But sounds very creepy and weird. Can't wait to watch it

Comment by JohnDoe

June 20th 2007 09:08

Film & TV on DVD

Awesome find Bryn,
Great write up...

I never saw this one...will be watching it a little later, when I'm alone at night.

Comment by JohnDoe

June 20th 2007 09:16

Film & TV on DVD

Jesus Son is a dominant effort too.

Comment by Bryn

June 21st 2007 08:04

Horrorphile

Kylie, yes watch with the lights down low and blow up to full screen, as long as it doesn't lose too much visual clarity.

JD, yeah, I'd plumb forgotten that little doozy! Cheers!

Comment by backgammon

September 3rd 2008 07:53

I have never heard about this film ever before. But as from the promos a curiosity has been generated in my mind. I would be a fine adventure to watch this classic

Comment by Bryn

September 4th 2008 01:29

Horrorphile

backgammon,
It is available as an extra on a DVD release of the director's feature movie Crush available through Madman Cinema

Comment by Bryn

June 11th 2009 22:33

Horrorphile

Boca Raton,
Firstly Kitchen Sink is not a Hollywood movie, but actually a low-budget first film by a New Zealand woman, Alison McLean. It's certainly not mainstream fodder, with its dark, almost dialogue-free narrative and cinematography. However, like you said it is very haunting, and its imagery, tone and mood linger in the mind long after viewing the short film. And, I certainly agree that horror movies that work best are manifestations of one's fear of the unknown. Have you read or seen much of the work of HP Lovecraft?

Comment by Anonymous

July 2nd 2011 04:15

This film is creepy as. Good creepy though.
Argh I wonder how they even came up with this twisted idea *shudders*
Watched it in a class full if teenage girls. You can just imagine the sounds if horror!