The Manor – Review [Prime Video] (3/5)

THE MANOR on Amazon’s Prime Video is one of the four movies in the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” 2021 Halloween release. This one is all about growing old and losing yourself against your will.  Barbara Hershey plays the all-important lead character and she does an excellent job. Read our full The Manor movie review here!

THE MANOR is a new Prime Video horror movie in the 2021 “Welcome to the Blumhouse” Halloween release. This is definitely one of the better movies among the four films released this year. It does still fall into the “cut down the runtime, please” category, but not by much.

ANOTHER RELEASE FROM THIS ANTHOLOGY

Bingo Hell was also about growing old and losing your home – albeit in a very different way >

The movies in this anthology (both in 2020 and now in 2021) tend to suffer from this need to be feature film length. In most cases, they should have been a solid hour or have had additional plot elements to carry it to the 80-90 minute runtime.

Continue reading our The Manor movie review below.

Barbara Hershey shines!

When you watch The Manor and see Barbara Hershey being “put in a home”, you’ll (hopefully!) be thinking: Isn’t she too young and able-bodied to stay there?! And yes, she definitely is. However, this is part of the plot. In fact, she puts herself in this home for vanity reasons.

Essentially, she doesn’t want to be a burden to her family – or have them watch her become old and frail.

Of course, since The Manor is a horror movie, there is a lot more to it. I would say I got a Cocoon feeling but that is neither correct nor a spoiler. It was just the vibe since some of the residents at “The Manor” had a childlike joy at times.

Barbara Hershey plays the all-important lead character, Judith Albright. Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, Insidious franchise) does a truly excellent job – including looking way too good to be there. Also, I should mention that other actors in the cast include Bruce Davidson (X-Men, Along Came the Devil).

Most importantly (to me anyway), Jill Larson is in this movie and we don’t see her nearly enough, She is perfect for horror movies. Jill Larson played the title character in Adam Robitel‘s The Taking of Deborah Logan and was in Shutter Island.

Watch The Manor on Prime Video

Axelle Carolyn is the writer and director of The Manor and I most certainly enjoy her style. My only real issue with The Manor was that it felt too long. For the first half, I was completely on board though. Also, I did enjoy the ending, so it won on that parameter as well.

Previously, Axelle Carolyn has worked on several productions I truly enjoy. For one, she directed the very revealing black and white episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor. Also, she wrote and directed a segment of Tales of Halloween (2015) and directed episodes of Creepshow and American Horror Story (both released in 2021).

For me, this horror movie worked because it touched on some of my greatest fears. No, not growing old as such. After all, growing old means you’ve made it that long. Instead, it’s the idea of losing your right to be yourself and being treated like a child. Barbara Hershey did a great job at portraying this!

Okay, and then I also enjoyed the supernatural elements. In other words, make sure you check out this one.

The Manor is out on Amazon’s Prime Video from October 8, 2021.

Details

Release Date: October 8, 2021 (Prime Video)
Writer & Director: Axelle Carolyn
Stars: Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, Nicholas Alexander, Jill Larsen, Fran Bennett, and Katie Amanda Keane