Richard and Kate, main characters of this thriller about family values, lead relatively happy life, doing their best to bring up their son Alex right. Alex likes to play a trick on an unpopular neighbor every now and then,and when one of his pranks with a remote control operated robot gets out of hand and police officers are summoned to the neighbor's house, Kate gets worried about the future of her son and decides to take measures of prevention... But all those usual family problems with children's discipline are forgotten when Richard receives a phone call from his distant cousin Harry, notifying him of his upcoming arrival and hanging up before Richard can refuse such honor. Harry is apparently one of those relatives Richard hasn't seen or spoken to for a very long time and whose contemporary appearance is unknown to other members of family. When Harry appears at Richard's door with a red headed girlfriend named Connie, the unexpected and perhaps even uninvited visitors seem to be just a couple of simple country cousins with a specific sense of humor. Although Kate isn't too enthusiastic about the idea of two guests staying in their house, she is willing to tolerate their presence for her husband's sake. Harry and Connie seem to get along well with Alex (Connie finds Alex's collection of Metallica records impressive) and Richard has the opportunity to remember the good old days of childhood portrayed in Harry's amusing stories. But unsuspecting hosts don't know two important facts about Harry and Connie- Harry is a former patient of an institution for the mentally ill and Connie's addiction to pills often leads to dangerous, violent behavior... After a few days, Kate grows suspicious of her guests and her intuition leads her to the conclusion the distant cousins may not be the people who they pretend to be. The guests slowly become an obnoxious burden, interfering with Kate's way of raising Alex, intentionally delaying their departure and acting weirder and weirder every day. Harry and Connie have a twisted vision of family values and future life in their diseased minds, but first they have to get rid of Richard and Kate, take their places and take over the house. Sooner then they know it, Richard and Kate are kidnapped, tied up and forced to help the insane visitors accomplish their mission. Things go wrong when Kate's friend from work decides to stop by and find out what caused Kate's absence. Emotionally unstable and constantly drugged Connie stabs the poor woman in the stomach and that's only the beginning of a violent fight over the house, Alex and family values in general. "Distant Cousins" is one of those thrillers produced by Image Organization and Pierre David, such as Paper Boy and many others, concerning various insane characters trying to conceal their mental disease and to infiltrate normal families but failing to fit into society and killing several people during the process. David Keith stars as Harry, a mentally ill but charismatic man whose attempts at building his family nest are marred by violent outbursts of his fiancée Connie. The couple's unrealistic and absurd plans for taking over the house, living under different names and raising somebody else's son contrast with their violent actions aimed against all adversaries.The movie offers a look at the mechanisms and functions of a family in danger along with several moments of bloody violence, and can be viewed as a minor contribution to the genre of family thriller represented by such films as The Stepfather I-III, Return of the Family Man, Mikey, The Perfect Bride, and so on...
Review of Distant Cousins
