Gay, straight, or somewhere in between, when a film is this wild the labels hardly matter. Right from the jump, The Restoration at Grayson Manor hooks you. With its baroque visuals and decadent melodrama, it carries a strange Phantom of the Paradise vibe, all crumbling grandeur, sex, and sinister spectacle.
Chris Colfer, yes, the kid from Glee, has grown up into a role he seems born to play. As Boyd Grayson, the hedonistic son who loses his hands in a freak accident, he delivers a performance that is equal parts outrageous and magnetic. Every line is quotable, every gesture walks the line between tragic and hilarious. It is the kind of midnight-movie role destined to be remembered for years.
Backing him is Alice Krige as Jacqueline, his imperious mother, whose obsession with lineage drives much of the madness. She is as dramatic as ever, draped in costumes that teeter between Gothic elegance and absurdity. Together, Colfer and Krige ignite a mother-son battle that is at once suffocating, funny, and frightening.
The premise riffs on old genre staples, the “killer hands” story flipped backward, with Boyd’s new prosthetics wired directly to his subconscious. Once he learns to control them, all bets are off. We even get Addams Family-style moments with the hands skittering about on their own, a darkly comic flourish that feels right at home in Glenn McQuaid’s blend of Gothic horror and sly humor.
Just when you think the film has reached peak insanity, it finds another gear. No one is safe. The last twenty minutes fully abandon reality, plunging into delirium with a grin. And honestly, I was here for it. It is the kind of film that embraces its ludicrousness so completely that you cannot help but go along for the ride.
What makes Grayson Manor sing is its balance, dark comedy, grotesque family melodrama, and genuine Gothic chills, all stitched together with sharp writing and a pulsing score. It is utterly ludicrous, deeply dramatic, and somehow heartfelt, often all in the same scene.
This is destined to be the next great midnight movie, one of those rare films that has you laughing, cringing, and quoting lines on the way out of the theater. By the finale, the hands may be the stars, but the filmmakers’ grip never loosens.
Jessie Hobson