Last night, I sat down and decided to take a visit to ‘The Manor’, the latest film by writer/director Axelle Carolyn (Soulmate) which is now available on Amazon Prime. I dimmed the lights to zero, I reclined the sofa, and treated myself to a viewing of the film on my home projector, on a huge wall, which other than a trip to the movie theatre, is my favourite way to watch a film nowadays. What a treat this film was.

The Manor, takes us into the world of Judith, a 70 year old woman who after suffering from a mild stroke moves into a residential home so they can avoid her daughter and grandson seeing her body demise as diagnosed dementia starts to remove the person she was. As the story carries on, we see Judith start to suspect that there is definitely something strange going on inside The Manor.

Anything beyond that basic premise, I am not to share, I went into The Manor, knowing virtually nothing about it and it was an absolute joy to view the film this way (I try to do that with most films though, the first viewing experience of a film can never be repeated) I knew who some of the cast members were, and I knew that Axelle had directed and written it and being a huge fan of her previous feature film Soulmate, as well as some of her TV work such as Shudder’s Creepshow episode ‘Dead and Breakfast’  I knew I was going to see something that would be a great nights viewing.

I wasn’t wrong. The Manor is a joy, super creepy, and wonderfully put together. Barbara Hershey is so likeable as Judith, and even though we only spend just over 80 minutes with her. She feels like someone we really get to know in the time we spend with her. Barbara is of course a genius at her art having appears in so many classic roles over the years such as The Entity, Falling Down, The Right Stuff, the Last Temptation of Christ and a gazillion roles over the years and I bet she was also a joy to work with. The other shining light in the cast is Nicholas Alexander as Josh, Judith’s grandson, and whilst Nicholas someone I recall seeing on screen previously  (although he has done a whole bunch of films and shows) He is definitely someone that I’m sure ill see in the future.  Great work Nicholas.

I am still going to avoid talking about much of the plot, but will say that if you love creepy films,with great characters and made by a great crew and cast, then you should definitely check out The Manor. Axelle Carolyn has once again delivered a top notch film to our screens and she definitely has a place on the Masters of Horror list of my favourite filmmakers. Its also wonderful to see that another Master of Horror appears in the film at one point. When that moment happened, I grinned.    Nicely done Axelle (and of course to the cameo appearance who I’m not going to name)  5 out of 5 for The Manor from me!