THE MANOR (2021)

Studio:     Blumhouse/Amazon Studios
Director:    Axelle Carolyn
Writer:     Axelle Carolyn
Producer:  Jason Blum
Stars:     Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, Nicholas Alexander, Jill Larson, Fran Bennett, Katie Amanda Keane, Ciera Payton, Nancy Linehan Charles, Shelley Robertson, Stacey Travis

Review Score:

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Summary:

A new nursing home resident questions her sanity upon uncovering a supernatural conspiracy connected to suspicious deaths.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Three months after suffering a stroke at her 70th birthday party, Judith Albright voluntarily moves into the Golden Sun nursing home. Judith meets manor director Ms. Benson and suspiciously strict nurses Elizabeth and Gary. Kindly nurse Liesel shows Judith a forest clearing around an old oak tree that later appears in Judith’s dreams.

Judith’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted roommate Annette repeatedly complains about a presence that watches her sleep. Another resident, Imogen, also experiences unsettling night terrors.

Judith befriends the tight-knit trio of Roland, Ruth, and Trish. During a moment when she rejects his romantic advance, Judith notices a symbol branded on Roland’s chest.

After complaining of recurring encounters with a shadowy figure in her bedroom at night, Dr. Geoghegan diagnoses Judith with dementia. The doctor assures Judith’s daughter Barbara that her mother’s wild claims are merely delusions. Judith’s beloved teenage grandson Josh, who previously appealed to his mother to bring Judith back home, subsequently begins believing his grandmother may be losing her mind.

Annette hands Judith a note shortly before dropping dead. The note chronologically lists the recent deaths of other residents, with Imogen and then Judith listed after Annette. Judith also finds strange pouches underneath hers and Annette’s mattresses.

Judith sneaks out of the manor. Although she does not recognize who they are, Judith spies Roland, Ruth, and Trish heading to the oak tree as younger versions of themselves.

After Liesel reports her missing the next day, Barbara and Josh track down Judith and take her to a diner while waiting for the nurses to pick her up. Judith gives Annette’s list to Josh and asks for help escaping as she tries explaining the suspicious activity at the manor. The nurses arrive to forcibly pull Judith away as she notices a 40-year-old photograph on the diner wall showing Roland, Ruth, and Trish the same as they are now.

Back at the nursing home, Judith secretly searches the director’s office. From patient and staff records, Judith learns Roland is related to Ms. Benson, Ruth is related to Elizabeth, and Trish is related to Gary. Judith also discovers everyone’s medical records contain the same doctored brain scans supposedly identifying dementia. Judith overhears Ms. Benson telling someone she expects an upcoming opening at the manor.

Josh visits Judith. Judith tells Josh about the diner photo as well as the falsified MRI results and claims Roland is somehow involved in killing residents. Judith pleads for Josh to trust her even though he finds her story difficult to believe. Josh sees Imogen’s body on a gurney while exiting the manor.

Liesel and Gary restrain Judith to her bed when she becomes belligerent. Liesel privately whispers that she believes something strange is going on at the facility, but she’ll have to talk to Judith about it later because she is being watched. Once she is alone, a creature crawls atop Judith.

In the morning, Judith learns Liesel is supposedly out sick. Meanwhile, Josh puts together the clues Judith gave him and verifies the photo on the diner wall for himself.

Distraught over her questionable sanity, Judith considers overdosing on pills. Josh interrupts to tell his grandmother what his research revealed. Josh explains that the Celtic symbol branded on Roland, Ruth, and Trish represents longevity related to an oak tree. Josh agrees that something unusual is going on at the manor and apologizes for not believing Judith.

Judith and Josh secretly search Roland’s room. Judith finds a lock of hair stolen from her hairbrush, but she replaces it with hair she takes from Roland’s brush. Judith and Josh hide when Roland unexpectedly returns. The two of them are shocked to spy Roland exiting through his window and crawling down the side of the building.

Judith and Josh go to the tree where they find Roland, Ruth, and Trish performing a blood ritual around a fire. From Roland’s words, Judith and Josh discover the trio summons a minion from the tree who drains life forces that can be transferred to them. From this, the three friends are able to stop aging and can even revert to their younger selves for a few hours.

Unaware that his grandmother switched the locks of hair, Josh interrupts the ritual when Roland moves to throw the hair in the fire. Ruth and Trish take Judith and Josh captive.

Roland throws the hair into the fire to summon the minion to kill Judith. However, because he unknowingly sacrificed his hair, the creature kills Roland instead.

Judith threatens to destroy the tree after the creature returns to it. Ruth and Trish appeal to Judith’s fear of aging and Josh’s love for her by offering for Judith to take Roland’s place in their cult and for Josh to become her familial counterpart at the facility. Judith and Josh agree. Josh becomes a new nurse at the manor and Judith celebrates her 70th birthday for a second time.

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Review:

One thing I appreciate about the two ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’ movies I watched in 2021 is that even though they may tell typical terror tales, at least they take place in atypical locations. “Bingo Hell” (review here) set its standard supernatural fable in a small town gambling hall. “The Manor” slots its common haunted house chiller inside a residential nursing home, with a similarly underrepresented set of senior citizens composing its cast of key characters.

Which is another thing I like about these two films. How often do you see a 70-year-old woman as the centerpiece star of a horror movie? Both times these Blumhouse projects have shaken up familiar fright flick formulas by saying sayonara to the usual roster of horny high-schoolers or camping college kids and going with a gaggle of grandmas instead.

Speaking specifically for “The Manor,” which is a sober haunter while “Bingo Hell” went for comedic quirk, the downside to aging up is younger viewers who don’t relate to dealing with dementia aren’t going to gravitate toward these grim grey-hairs. Threading much more slow-build suspense than splattery shocks, “The Manor” includes nearly no blood and a low body count of old folks dropping dead in unspectacular fashion. Middle-aged men and women susceptible to atmosphere-oriented tension will get more out of the movie’s meaning, as “The Manor” just naturally skews toward audiences interested in a mature take on macabre themes and low-octane thrills.

Anchoring the story around an elderly woman in a nursing home continues to be an inspired choice because it inherently answers common questions concerning cursed places on “The Manor’s” behalf. After suffering a stroke, Judith voluntarily gives herself over to Golden Sun’s care, and her contractual commitment provides a built-in excuse for why she can’t get off the grounds easily once seemingly supernatural scares start hitting the fan. It also makes sense that no one takes her “crazy” claims of a shadowy figure seriously, because naturally she must be suffering from Alzheimer’s-induced delusions.

“The Manor” doesn’t exactly escort us into undiscovered country. Seeds of suspicion planted in the first act aren’t clues so much as clichés. Golden Sun is the kind of care facility populated by conspicuously secretive staff members shooting shifty stares while wild-eyed seniors cryptically complain about recurring night terrors. When Judith connects a few deaths to a shadowy shape and a couple of people who don’t seem to age, let’s just say it doesn’t take Columbo to figure out what kind of life-draining rituals are going on around an ancient oak tree every other evening.

It’s slow going to get to a destination that seasoned horror fans can see coming from yesterday, but Barbara Hershey’s inimitable screen presence possesses the power to suck you right into completely ordinary scenes. “The Manor” features plenty of Hershey pondering her twilight years with likeminded peers, bonding with her doting teenage grandson, and butting heads with a daughter who misunderstands her mother. Hershey eats up these everyday moments with sincerity equal to the intensity she pulses into moments of pure panic. Mundane though some of these sequences may be, Hershey consistently conveys endearing warmth and wise awareness to keep the movie’s momentum steady even when patient pacing hits ruts in the mud.

As expectedly excellent as she is, scene after scene of Hershey flinching at shadows and crying wolf to deaf ears does get redundant. Fortunately, the film only runs 80 minutes, which includes credits, so slow spots don’t have leashes long enough to drag extraordinarily far.

Usually when there isn’t a whole lot to say, it’s because a film is so poorly produced that traditional criticism is a waste of time, or because bones are so bare, there’s very little to really dig into anyway. There isn’t a whole lot left to say about “The Manor,” although in this case that’s only because the movie is pretty much a straightforward spookshow, which is good if you’re in the mood for an uncomplicated little mystery, but not so great if you’d prefer something with more unpredictable bite.

Review Score: 60

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