The Manor (2021) Review
Spoiler-free so you can read before you watch
Horrorific content by Bleaz79 on December 17th, 2021 | Movie Review | Supernatural, Psychological, Madness, Thriller, Confined
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It's about a woman who, following a stroke, reluctantly moves into a care home and becomes convinced something supernatural is killing the other residents.
The Manor was directed by Axelle Carolyn (who also directed Tales Of Halloween and Soulmate) and stars Barbara Hershey (from Insidious: Chapter 2, Black Swan and Insidious), Bruce Davison (from Await The Dawn, The Sonata and Along Came The Devil 2) and Stacey Travis (from Dracula Rising, Hardware and Deadly Dreams).
Older isn’t always better.
A film that, like Relic and The Taking Of Deborah Logan before it, uses the supernatural combined with themes of aging to tell its tale.
Hershey plays Judith Albright, an older lady who has to move into an historic nursing home, the titular Manor, following a stroke. There she befriends a like minded group, including Davison’s Roland, but starts to question her reality and sanity when she sees a mysterious, terrifying creature standing over the bed of her roommate late at night.
Mental health and aging have been a go to for horror movies, and movie in general, for the last couple of years, with excellent films like Relic and The Father showing just how scary it can be to lose one’s faculties. The Manor tries to do more of the same albeit with a much more overt supernatural element. The problem is it is nowhere near as accomplished in its execution.
Hershey and Davison are fine in the lead roles, bringing a knowing warmth and sadness to the lives of their characters. Unfortunately they’re the only ones who are given anything remotely approaching depth, everyone else is a cardboard cut out, stock character that has been played far more convincingly in many far better films.
Save for a couple of scenes set at night, the film is devoid of atmosphere, coming across more as a Hallmark feature than a horror from Blumhouse. The night scenes are effectively creepy, but there’s just too little in there for it to really make you sit up and take notice. Add to this pedestrian direction, combined with a predictable and uninspired script, and you have a film that not even some creative creature design can salvage.
Worth Watching?
Only if there’s really nothing else you can find. Solid performances can’t make up for a weak and predictable storyline in a film that seems longer than it is.
Horror movie nut from the U.K. The Thing (1982) is awesome, The Thing (2011) is not. Yes, that’s me in the photo.
