Movie Reviews

‘The Manor’: Barbara Hershey and Her Castmates Elevate a Shaky Premise

Published

5 years ago

October 9, 2021

Welcome to the Blumhouse, a series of films created by genre powerhouse Blumhouse and Amazon Studios, released their two final projects this week with The Manor leading the way.

Directed by Axelle Carolyn (Soulmate), the film centers on a woman named Judith Albright (Barbara Hershey), a vibrant widow and former ballet dancer who suffers a mild stroke at her 70th birthday party. Three months later, at her own request, she enters into a posh nursing home to aid in her recovery and remove the burden she feels she could become to her daughter and grandson (Nicholas Alexander), with whom she has an undeniable bond.

Things are, of course, not what they seem and a terrifying, shadowy creature looms in the periphery, setting Judith on edge. As she tries to uncover the nursing home’s secrets, she finds a target on her back as she tries to protect herself and her fellow residents.

Barbara Hershey and Nicholas Alexander in The Manor

Hershey so easily sits as the star of The Manor that it feels effortless. She brings weight and dignity to a role that feels, at times, that it was written on the fly with little thought to character reasoning much less development. She reminds us of her star power, her talent, and the fact that it’s been far too long since we’ve seen her in a leading role. She’s certainly no stranger to genre work. Her previous roles in films like The Entity and even her supporting role in Insidious, however, gave her much more to work with as an actress.

Here, she sometimes looks as though even she cannot believe some of the decisions her character makes, especially toward the end. Still, she employs her craft to sell them as best as she can.

Hershey is joined by a talented supporting cast including Bruce Davison (Insidious: The Last Key), Jill Larson (The Taking of Deborah Logan), and Fran Bennett (Wes Craven’s New Nightmare).

Davison is easily one of the most talented character actors of his generation. He has an easy, soothing manner that belies his character’s intentions in The Manor and it works well. Larson, meanwhile, brings her undeniable charm to the role of fashionable Trish, roommate of Bennett’s Ruth whose weight as an actor radiates from the screen.

All three of these fine actors manage to make something of their roles in The Manor. Sadly, most of the rest of the cast seemed less lucky.

Jill Larson, Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, and Fran Bennett in The Manor

Stacey Travis and Shelley Robertson’s entire direction sent them down a rabbit hole of performing a watered-down version of Nurse Ratched and Nancy Linehan Charles’s performance–while one of the more intense in the film–felt repetitive, hitting the same notes again and again without any development.

That lack of development showed in most of the film’s plot. Carolyn’s direction seemed unsure of itself. She seemed uncertain as to whether she wanted to build tension for the audience or simply try to scare them occasionally with something unexpected.

What does work is the setting itself. The nursing home which could easily be the setting for any number of Gothic ghost stories with its stone facade and sprawling grounds looms as The Manor with proper weight and gravitas.

Props must also be given to Carolyn for drawing upon a different source for her evil than we would normally see in these types of situations as well as telling a story that takes place among retirees instead of fresh-faced twenty-somethings. That part of her film is the kind of potential we love seeing in a filmmaker. Give us something new to sink our teeth into and you’re halfway to winning us over.

Sadly, this particular effort seems unrealized. With its rickety plot and the rather large holes in it not only make for a bumpy story, but also creates pacing issues throughout the film. Even at a mere 81 minutes, there are times when it almost feels too long.

Still, if you’re looking for a different kind of horror story, there are things to enjoy in The Manor. The film’s creature design is interesting and honestly even terrifying at times, and again, there’s Barbara Hershey.

Take a look at the trailer for The Manor below, and look for it on Amazon Prime!

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Movie Reviews

Self Driver Runs Out of Road

Published

7 hours ago

May 12, 2026

Luna Gray

Every few years someone makes a movie where a desperate person takes the money and watches his conscience become negotiable. I am always there for it. Cheap Thrills. Would You Rather. The whole subgenre of moral erosion for cash that does not have a name but absolutely should. Self Driver walks directly into that territory and for the first half of its runtime, it delivers.

Nathanael Chadwick plays D, a cab driver trying to keep his head above water, who gets recruited onto a mysterious new rideshare app that promises fast money and asks for increasingly terrible things in return.

Writer-director Michael Pierro shot this on cellphones with a skeleton crew. That constraint should work against the film. For the first act, it does not. Chadwick earns your sympathy without doing anything obvious to ask for it, and Pierro keeps things tense enough that the premise does exactly what it is supposed to do.

Then the psychedelic angle shows up.

I want to be fair about this. I understand the intention. But it lands the way a plot fix lands. You feel the seam. By the halfway point the script has accumulated a lot of threads, and the psychedelic detour is where those threads stop being pulled. They do not resolve. They just stop mattering.

That is the consistent frustration with Self Driver. It is not short on ideas. It is short on follow-through. Almost every interesting thing Pierro introduces gets picked up, examined, and set back down before it earns its place in the film. The bones of something genuinely great are visible throughout. The second half just never shows up to finish the job.

Chadwick won Best Actor at Grimmfest for this role, and it is not hard to understand why. He is doing real work here. He makes D worth following even when the film is not fully following through on its own premise. That is harder than it looks.

Self Driver is out now on UK digital via GrimmVision. At 2.5 out of 5, it is worth your time if you have patience for low-budget genre work and can make peace with a film that is better than it finishes. Pierro has instincts. Watch for his next one.

Indie Horror

Panic Fest 2026 Review: ‘Frogman Returns’ Is A Thrilling Sequel That Goes For The Croak!

Published

6 days ago

May 6, 2026

Jacob Davison

Horror as a genre has a greater propensity for sequels than almost anything else in the world of cinema. There have been scores of slasher sequels from the likes of Friday The 13th to A Nightmare on Elm Street to even sequels to seemingly stand-alone affairs like The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project. While some may be seen as cash grabs or of diminishing returns, it cannot be argued that there have been some phenomenal sequels to horror films such as Aliens and Evil Dead 2 among many others. So imagine my pleasant surprise to see that 2023’s Frogman is back in the aptly named Frogman Returns!

The sequel picks up not too long after the original’s cryptid catastrophe. The Loveland, Ohio Frogman and surrounding cult that was exposed by amateur filmmaker Dallas (Nathan Tymoshuk) has since disappeared and the terror of the magic wand wielding amphibian seemingly ended. Having lost his friend Scotty (Benny Barrett) and a falling out with Amy (Chelsey Grant), Dallas has found a new life heading a cryptid reality web show. But when strange forces call him and his team back to Loveland, will he have to face the Frogman for a final battle?

I was a big fan of the original Frogman upon release, and was interested in seeing where director Anthony Cousins was going to take the story. I’m happy to report that he did the best kind of thing you can do for a sequel like this: made it weirder and wilder! Not only is there Frogman, but a number of classic cryptids have encounters as the genie is out of the bottle and Dallas irrevocably proved that there are truly monsters among us. There is a pretty memorable scene involving a run-in with the living pants-like Fresno Nightcrawler creature that establishes what a brave and bizarre new world things have become since the previous film. Monsters are basically a fact of life now. So, of course, people are finding ways to profit from it.

Dallas’ arc continues from the first film and I do like how he carries the weight and guilt of Scotty’s disappearance and his disconnection with Amy. There are real consequences to the ways things went wrong previously and Dallas is haunted by the consequences of his obsession. Now he attempts to make things right in some form as his adventures bring him back to where it all began. And for those here for Frogman… without spoiling too much, everyone’s favorite amphibious cryptid does make a triumphant return. With a neon explosive finale that left me craving even more.

Frogman Returns does a fine job of documenting the new adventure in the traditional found footage format, with the foundation of Dallas’ new reality web show keeping the cameras rolling. Combining that with ample and memorable practical fx for all manner of beasts and gore to see. Exploding heads, zapped limbs, and so much more get captured on camera in all their visceral glory.

Overall, if you were a fan of the first Frogman, then Frogman Returns is a more than worthwhile follow up to digest.

Indie Horror

Panic Fest 2026 Review: ‘Creature Of The Pines’ Is An Interesting Found Footage Horror That Walks A Beaten Path

Published

7 days ago

May 5, 2026

Jacob Davison

There are certain parts of the world that have an inherent evil or cursed nature to them. The Bermuda Triangle, where so many ships have vanished in its waters. Death Valley, where many have met their end in the unforgiving desert. And then there’s The Pine Barrens of New Jersey. A woodland infamous for the cryptid named The Jersey Devil.

While The Jersey Devil may be the mascot or face of sorts for the area, there are other dangers within those woods. Specifically, an area known as Pine Hollow. Infamous for numerous disappearances of local and hikers. While some attribute it to natural hazards, others say the source of these incidents may be tied to folklore. An ancient mimic of indigenous legend that targets those wandering its woods. After a trio of hikers disappear and leaves only one shell shocked survivor and witness wandering the wilderness, a documentary crew attempts to clarify between fact and fiction… only to find themselves subject to their own torments.

Creature Of The Pines is a decent found footage/mockumentary endeavor, and I’m always a sucker for that kind of framing. I will also give points for taking an original approach on the region rather than using a more well known cryptid or monster. Instead, crafting their own beast with the shapeshifting demon of indigenous lore. It did make it more interesting than relying on a more infamous antagonist, allowing the movie to make up its own rules and history behind the titular creature.

Unfortunately, the story does fall into a lot of the cliches of the sub-genre as well. Lots of scenes building up strange sounds coming form the woods leading to some shaky cam segments as a character is dragged off by an unseen force and such. The talking heads portions of the mockumentary featured some decent actors and subjects that kept things fairly fresh. Especially the former forest ranger who discussed the dark and terrible history of Pine Hollow.

Even still, the third act was kind of a mixed bag with the final confrontation and reveal of the horror. Ambiguity tends to work better in found footage for a reason, sometimes its better to leave the evil up to the imagination. There’s also a twist to the ending that felt a bit obvious considering the build up.

But, if you’re a big fan of found footage and mockumentary horror like I am, (especially for New England based horror) then Creature Of The Pines is worth at least a watch.