For all of us, there comes a time when something seems too good to be true. A deal on a car, a free vacation for sitting in on a sales pitch, or a buy-one-get-one-free offer. The fact is that there’s a genuine reason why we are suspicious when something seems like too good of a deal, and that’s because it usually isn’t. There’s always a hidden cost that we just aren’t aware of yet. If something seems too easy, then that may well be because it’s not, and we just haven’t realized that yet.
Such is the case of MANOR OF DARKNESS, though, as with everything, the cost will soon be readily apparent.
MANOR OF DARKNESS is the story of a brother and sister desperate to find money to help their mother as she suffers from a life-threatening health condition. The brother is always looking for the easy way to get money, with his eye on heists and robberies. When he finds a listing for a posh estate seeking someone to film a documentary, he starts putting a team together to rob the home, pulling his reluctant sister into the scheme. On arrival, they find a large home and no one there but themselves, so the team gets to work scouting to see what there is to steal. What they discover is that there is a secret hiding in plain sight, and they are about to awaken it, to their peril.
MANOR OF DARKNESS tells a very familiar story in recent horror, and it’s hard not to roll your eyes as it plays out. What we don’t realize, though, is that the filmmakers have something else up their sleeve, and that there’s a wrinkle to the obvious.
The acting is good, the story wakes itself in the second half of the film, and the location is fantastic. The director does a nice job of keeping the film interesting as it makes its way to the story’s wrinkle, and it is filmed well. The digital effects aren’t great, but that’s something most lower-budget horror films suffer from, and it didn’t detract from the film.
This is an enjoyable movie with a fair share of creeps. It plays out, to a degree, like a campfire-style horror story, and would fit in well in an anthology (if cut down to the core of the story). It’s worth a look if you want to see something out of the mainstream. It’s a low-key creeper that ratchets up and keeps things going right up to the end.
3 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 