User reviews

Deadly Manor, from Spanish director José Ramón Larraz, begins like almost every other slasher from the preceding ten years or so: a group of young friends - all stock slasher characters, right down to the overweight joker - take a trip to a remote lake for a weekend of camping, smoking weed and high jinx. Along the way, they pick up a hitch-hiker, Jack (Clark Tufts), who says he can help give them directions. But after a flat tire delays their journey, the gang decide to take a detour off the beaten track where they find a seemingly abandoned manor, perfect for sheltering from an impending storm.

That's the clichéd characters established, the creepy setting all done and dusted (well, maybe not dusted: the place is covered in the stuff), and at least one likely suspect once the killings begin. All we need now is for the couples to wander off to have sex, and the grisly killings to start, with lashings of juicy gore effects to keep things interesting. Except that this isn't quite how things pan out. As expected, Larraz delivers some gratuitous nudity, albeit in a sex scene that turns out to be a dream (or a wet dream, more likely), but when the bodies start to pile up, nearly all of the killings happen off screen, or with minimal need for special effects (just a splash of fake blood here and there). And what is a generic slasher without inventive, gory deaths? Disappointing, that's what!

Eventually, in tried and tested fashion, the not-so-happy campers are whittled down to the final girl, at which point we learn who has been committing the murders and why -- and the reveal is particularly daft (I won't spoil it for you: it's one of the few fun moments in the film). Larraz wraps things up by having the police turn up in the nick of time to save the sole survivor and cart off the killer. No reasonable explanation is given for the two coffins in the basement, the collection of scalps in a closet, or the bodies walled up next to the fireplace.

Six youths on their way to an elusive lake in upstate New York pick up a dubious hitchhiker and are eventually compelled to stay at a remote, dilapidated mansion in the sticks. Will they make it out alive?

"Deadly Manor" (1990) combines 80's slasher with spooky house à la "Hell Night" (1981). Coming out ten years after the seminal "Friday the 13th," it's rather late in the game but fans of those movies and "Tourist Trap" (1979), "The Funhouse" (1981), "The Prowler" (1981), "Frightmare" (1983), "Zombie High" (1987) and "Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil" (1991) should appreciate it even though it ranks with the least of em'. Like "Slugs" (1988), it's a Spanish production shot in the USA.

Some critics understandably complain that the going is slow but, despite some dubious make-up at the end, I felt the flick works up some nice spookiness, as well as some quality mystery in regards to what's going on at the remote, rundown manor. Clark Tufts stands out in the cast as Jack, looking like a rock star.

The female cast consists of Claudia Franjul (Helen), Liz Hitchler (Susan) and Kathleen Patane (Anne), but the highlight is Jennifer DeLora, who shows up around the midway mark. Speaking of whom, she appears nude in one sequence, as well as in photos. There's additional overt nudity involving several bike enthusiasts, mostly in the form of old photos. Just a heads up.

The film runs 1 hour, 26 minutes, and was shot at Hillburn Manor, a derelict 100-year-old mansion in Suffern, New York, that was demolished after the film was shot in five weeks around September, 1989. Suffern is located about 40 minutes north of Manhattan near the border of northeastern New Jersey.

GRADE: B-

Jose Ramon Larraz was a Spanish director of horror pictures who was well known in the 1970s for his atmospheric, uniquely-shot movies like SYMPTOMS, DEVIATION, and VAMPYRES. However once his glory days were behind him he kept working through the 1980s, usually churning out cheap exploitation movies, and 1990's DEADLY MANOR is such a film. As with a number of Larraz's other productions, this one was made abroad, in New York in this instance.

The plot is entirely undistinguished and completely clichéd. Your stereotypical group of teenagers end up in an old deserted manor house which they soon discover is occupied by someone or something decidedly deadly. What follows involves your usual slasher antics as the group turn up dead in gruesome ways, one at a time. In the end the survivors have to band together to try to unmask the villain in their midst.

DEADLY MANOR is generic stuff indeed and the poor production values don't help it very much. The acting is pretty much the pits and the cinematography is very dark, inducing eye strain in the viewer. Larraz fails to bring much in the way of atmosphere to the picture and indeed he seems to have left his expertise at the door. There's a little gore and nudity on display here and I imagine most horror fans will find this film tests the patience more than anything else.

Some friends break down and don't want to stay in the car as it thunderstorms, so they hike to an abandoned house, let themselves in, and are surprised when a masked killer does away with them for breaking into their house.

Nothing about Deadly Manor makes any sense. Even the premise itself is silly. What rational group of people would all nod their heads and say "yes" to the idea of breaking into a creepy looking mansion in the middle of nowhere just so they won't have to stay in their car as it rains? Even at under 90 minutes, the film drags because we can't relate to any of these people why they're doing what they're doing. You'd think that, knowing their premise was inept, they'd at least try to spice it up with some clever kills here and there, but I can't remember a single kill in this movie and I watched it last night.

A bunch of idiots break down on the side of the road and decide to break into a mansion and things, predictably, don't end well for them as someone who lives there starts killing them one by one in the most uninspired and bland ways imaginable. When all a horror film has going for it is a decently atmospheric location, you know you're in trouble.

I'm trying to understand what would possess a bunch of people to say "hey, let's break into this creepy house because it's about to rain. Even if someone lives there, I'm sure they won't mind." Was this a thing people used to do or was it always something that only ever happened in bad B-movies?

Other than that, Deadly Manor also happens to be one of the most boring movies I've ever seen in my life.

A bunch of idiots break down and decide to break into a mansion they don't own that's in the middle of the woods. Obviously, someone who lives there isn't thrilled and kills them in uninspired ways.

Deadly Manor is one of the worst movies I've ever been unfortunate enough to view. The plot is non-existent, the characters are idiotic, and the kills aren't gory or interesting enough to make up for it. It does have a great central location, but that's about all I can recommend about it.

A group of friends headed to a lake for a little weekend fun pick up a dangerous hitchhiker and then they stop off at a seemingly deserted mansion instead of sleeping in their car when it gets dark. Little do they know that the house is inhabited by a psychotic killer who will spend the rest of the evening dispatching of them in the most boring ways imaginable.

Deadly Manor's plotting is so nonsensical it sometimes feel like watching someone else's dream. People pick up and believe random hitchhikers, they walk into creepy mansions that don't belong to them to sleep, they go off and investigate strange noises in the night, etc. The acting is about as good as this story deserves, which is to say that it's equally as uninteresting. Nothing about this movie makes any sense and, even worse, it's pretty boring and doesn't even have a few stylish death scenes to make up for it.

"Deadly Manor" was José Ramón Larraz's final stab at the slasher movie following 1988's "Edge of the Axe," and this offering has a different flavor to it, and is perhaps more bizarre. It follows a group of young people who, for no legitimate reason, decide to stay the night at an abandoned mansion in the woods. Outside is a wrecked car converted into a shrine, and photos of a beautiful woman are pasted on the walls throughout the house. Of course, they start to die one by one as the night rolls on.

As is the case with most Larraz's films, "Deadly Manor" is more an exercise in atmosphere than it is anything else. The bare bones of the plot are standard and fairly unremarkable, though the finer details of it all--including the killer and motives--are a bit offbeat. The film is at its most effective when it lingers on these details, and the recurrent shots of the woman's photographs that adorn the walls are off-putting and at times notably creepy; while she is not onscreen, it instills a menacing presence.

Where the film is a bit weak is in its pacing; the film seems to lag in the middle, and works its way toward setting up a red herring that proves meaningless before the kids are hacked and slashed in a rapid-fire succession. The film does surprise in that it subverts expectation of who the hero or heroes are going to be, but the last 10 minutes ultimately feel a bit anticlimactic.

Overall, "Deadly Manor" makes for an enjoyable watch due to its atmospheric backdrop, accentuated by some very good cinematography. The film is fairly run-of-the-mill in most regards, and much less offbeat than "Edge of the Axe," but just weird enough to keep you on your toes. Especially worthwhile for fans of late '80s aesthetics. 6/10.

Never seen a movie where I wanted to all the main characters murdered more. Dumb people doing dumb things. Seriously a bad movie. Especially the fat guy, and I'm a fat guy myself.

I was not expecting much when I rented this from my corner store. I rented it anyway because I'm a huge horror movie fan. Most of the time when I rent crappy looking films, they turn out being crappy. This time I lucked out. This movie was really, really good. The plot is nothing new but it is very fast paced and suspenseful at times. The acting is good too. Give it a look if you see it. It is surprisingly enjoyable. A lost gem that deserves more attention.

So the film was a pretty average late 80s slasher movie....but I have a couple of questions for imdb: 1. Why is the actor William Russell missing from the credits? He has a prominent role in the latter part of this film. And 2. Is this the same William Russell, British actor who was also in The Great Escape? Who can provide answers to these questions? And can the credits be updated to reflect this? Thanks.

Director Joseph Larraz's first venture into the slasher genre - Edge of the axe - was a fairly decent attempt with an interesting premise, plenty of gore and a likable if not immensely talented cast. I had high expectations for his second effort and hoped that the six-year gap between the two films had given him time to improve on his promising hack and slash debut. Deadly Manor was released during the 'silent years' of the slasher genre; a fair time after the boom of the eighties had died down and three years before Wes Craven revived things with his semi-parody, Scream.

Six youngsters head out on a camping trip deep into the wilderness where one of them knows of a beautiful lake. On the drive through the long winding roads, the group loose their way and pick up a mysterious hitchhiker that says he knows how to get to the area that they're seeking. As the warm summer day gives way to a stormy night sky, the gang decides that they better find some shelter for the night. As they search the woodland for a place to settle, they come across an eerie derelict mansion shrouded by the darkness of the surrounding trees. Curiosities arise when they discover a car-wreck statue in the front garden that looks like some kind of bizarre shrine. On closer exploration of the premises they discover coffins in the basement and an array of photos of a beautiful woman. Although they feel uneasy, the weather has become unbearable outside and they realise that the only option is to stay for the night. Before long a masked psycho begins to brutally murder the kids one by one. But what is the reason for these ruthless unprovoked murders?

Wow, what a difference six years can make, is this really the same guy? Any credibility Larraz garnered from the positive aspects of his previous stalk and slash attempt has been completely shattered by this inane and ultimately yawn-inducing mess of a movie. He's replaced an unknown cast - that at least showed potential - with actors so wooden, they make my neighbour's picket fence look plastic. An interesting premise has been ditched in favour of a synopsis so asinine that you'll cringe every time one of the dumb bimbos wanders off to their doom. Finally he seems to have strangely lost any sense of creativity or flair that looked so promising in his earlier work. Now I know that the ability to act convincingly is a skill that isn't easy to come by. Of all the dramatic performances we see year after year, probably a mere 40% are worthy of further recognition. However, these guys are so flat it's like they had lost a fight with a steamroller just before they turned up for the shoot. What the hell was wrong with them? Were they reading from a well-hidden autocue? I wonder what the cast themselves made of their performances when they watched them back? I'd love to find out. Did they think that the next stop was Hollywood's walk of fame? Did they believe that the next movie would be the one that gets their first nomination? OK, so I'm being a little cruel. But look at it this way; I'm an awful shopper, so I stay well clear of supermarkets. These guys should have avoided any film making equipment in a similar fashion.

I must mention the set locations that were satisfactorily spooky for the most part and did at least create a credibly creepy backdrop. But even this positive sheen was ruined by the awfully inadequate lighting. The murders are mainly bloodless and poorly staged and if you're watching this snooze marathon late at night, you'll probably fall asleep during the long and boring character development that precedes the first lacklustre slaughter. Yes, if you suffer from insomnia then here's a good alternative to sleep aids that will almost guarantee a cosy night's rest!

Now I realise that it's customary for a slasher victim to be as dumb as possible. It would be no fun if a young Einstein outsmarted the masked maniac at every turn, would it? Unfortunately these guys take the biscuit when it comes to stupidity. In fact they run off with the whole pack. It begins to get a little tedious after a while as they continue stating the obvious and overacting like Ashton Kutcher on speed.

There's really not too much left to say about Deadly Manor. I could go on about the obvious plot holes that you could park a jumbo jet in, but I'll save you the boredom of reading about them. The one thing that the movie has got going for it is a deep-rooted moral to its story. If ever you're out in the woods and you discover an 'abandoned' house that has coffins in the basement, strange occult signatures garnishing the walls and human's scalps lying around freely on the mantelpiece, then it's a good idea NOT to just ignore these signs and think that they're just 'inspired' décor. Instead you should realise someone with a severe mental impediment must be nearby and it's a good idea to get in your car and head for somewhere else... on the double! This is utter trash I'm afraid and I thoroughly recommend you avoid it....

My personal motivation to watch "Deadly Manor" sooner or later (although now I wish it had been much, much later) solely was because the guy in the director's chair was the Spanish-born José Ramón Larraz. Larraz made some really brilliant and atmospheric Gothic horror flicks back in the 70's (like "Vampyras" and "Symptoms") and even the partly American- produced horror junk he forged during the 80's (like "Edge of the Axe" and "Rest in Pieces") rank very high on my list of guilty pleasures. "Deadly Manor" was Larraz' last horror accomplishment, but perhaps he should have retired just one film earlier. It's an extremely mundane and painfully boring cinematic ordeal. Apart from an already dead body during the opening credits, absolutely nothing happens throughout more than an hour of running time! Moreover, the screenplay never at one point indicates where it might be heading towards. The film naturally takes place in a large ominous manor, but there's nothing even remotely suggesting that either the place is haunted or that there's a maniacal killing prowling around the estate, or anything. All we know is that there's a wrecked old-timer car in the garden and that the suspicious hitch-hiker is on the lam for the police. The six teenagers spending the night at the mansion (because it was too late at night and they couldn't find their camping site) are literally waiting to get massacred in patience. I only watched this movie yesterday and already I can't recall any of the death sequences, so that can only mean they weren't memorable and definitely not gory. One thing I do vividly remember is that "Deadly Manor" does not contain any gratuitous sleaze or sickly undertones. Only boredom, boredom, boredom… The end-twist, as in: the clarification of the manor's history; is reasonably original and effective, but it comes far too late. The last ten minutes form a worthwhile swan song to Larraz' career, but we best not mention the first eighty ever again.

Spanish-American co-production slasher film, directed by José Ramón Larraz (Vampyres, 1974). A group of REALLY idiotic 'teens' (plus a mysterious hitchhiker) travelling through upstate New York on their way to vacation at a lake decide to stop off and spend the night in an apparently abandoned mansion. Despite finding an old, severely damaged car bizarrely parked on top of a stone monument in the grounds, as though the whole thing is some kind of a shrine, several coffins in the basement, and what appears to be a human scalp, they decide they'll stay anyway. Eventually (surprise!), one by one they start getting bumped off.

This was made in 1990; the 80s slasher boom had passed, and Scream had yet to pump new life into the genre. The first half is very slow, taking a while to get going as far as kills are concerned, the acting ranges from bad to barely passable, and the killer's motivation is ridiculous. But the location (a genuinely abandoned house, demolished soon after the shoot) is very creepy, the girls are cute (the absolutely stunning Claudia Franjul was tragically killed in real life just five years after this in a traffic accident at the age of just 24), and if throat slashings are your thing you could do worse. Some female nudity. 5/10.

A group of youngsters (I will not use the word "teens" as they obviously weren't) are heading out on a long journey to some lake. They decide to stop on their journey and pull up in some woods. The weather turns for the worse so they break into a large, creepy looking "abandoned" house, which obviously isn't abandoned. In fact, being a slasher movie, it is the home to a homicidal maniac!

Spaniard Jose Ramon Larraz had previously made some good films. But like many other horror directors the quality of his later work declined, this being an example. For a start the quality of acting ranges from wooden to passable. The kids must be really dumb to think that nobody lives in the house when it is clearly still lived in, there is even yesterday's newspaper there (one character exclaims "Nothing in this house makes any sense!") The killings take a while to get going and when they do there is not much gore, most are quick throat slashes. The only reason that I can think of as to why this is rated 18 in the UK is down to the nudity and a sex scene involving the very attractive Jennifer DeLora. The most interesting fact is that the large house in which the film is set was somebody's real home and all of the furniture etc was genuine, not set up. AKA "Savage Lust" on VHS, I watched it on Blu-ray and the 2K restoration was excellent. There were plans for a sequel, it never happened and that's probably no bad thing!

"Deadly Manor" is a strange slasher flick directed by Larraz. Other Larraz films I've seen took place either in England or in Spain ("Deviation", "Vampyres" "The coming of sin" and "Black candles") and featured sophisticated and ambiguous characters, but "Deadly Manor" was filmed in the USA and its characters are a bunch of stereotyped American teenagers.

The story runs like this: A group of teenagers are heading for a place situated by a lake with a strange name, but they don't know its exact location. On their way they pick up a hitcher that seems to know the area. But the lake they are going to is still hours away and they take refuge in a seemingly abandoned old mansion.

This mansion has something sinister - by dusk it looms there menacingly. They decide to remain there for the night. And then....

I think that "Deadly Manor" was made with an eye for the American market, but it still has that distinctive Larraz touch - It has that zen feel that pervades all his films. The sex has been toned down and there's not much gore to speak of, and the film may feel kind of slow for the usual slasher film fans, but the strange atmosphere, the beautiful and minimalistic soundtrack, may turn some of them on.

Those that like Larraz films should give this one a try. Even if the characters may seem shallow when compared to those of his other films, "Deadly Manor" is still interesting if you like films for their atmosphere.

Absolutely rubbish slasher flick! Poor writing & poor acting. Most definitely an one time watch. 1/10

It is edifying to note all the posthumous plaudits uber-talented genre filmmaker José Ramón Larraz Gil is currently garnering after his previously neglected films are lovingly restored. These welcome Blu-ray editions encourage a new generation of fear-seeking frightlings to appreciate Larraz's vividly shock-steeped cinema in such creep-inducing clarity that thrillingly highlights his luminous talent! Shot not long after his bloodier 'Edge of The Axe' (1988), Larraz's macabre chiller 'Deadly Manor' aka 'Savage Lust' (1990) relies more on mood than grisly splatter. Ostensibly utilizing familiar slasher tropes, 'Deadly Manor' remains, from my skewed perspective at least, the more dramatically idiosyncratic of the two final works from this uniquely entertaining, genre-bending film artiste.

After picking up a suitably dishevelled, plainly furtive, plot-thickening hitch-hiker, our holidaying protagonists find themselves quite literally off the beaten track! Fatefully taking questionable sanctuary in a deadly, mysterious manor house. This dangerously ramshackle, gloomily turreted Gothic travesty is so palpably threatening as to give the 'Bates Motel' a grievous inferiority complex! Once playfully ensconced within this morbiferous-looking domicile, our jocular, conspicuously denim-clad clique of blithely trespassing misfits soon Scooby Doo themselves into a spooky maelstrom of increasingly weird events! A monstrous manifestation of hysterical, melt-faced evil tormenting them until the film's lurid, generously corpse-laden, banshee-wailing finale!

To jaded gore hounds expecting a generic, razor-straight slasher, Deadly Manor's relative lack of arterial over-spill might prove disappointing. Maestro Larraz's increasingly menacing, unpredictably loopy-Lou shocker includes a number of disturbingly off-kilter set-pieces. The macabre chiller's dearth of explicit gore eerily replaced with ominous oodles of doomy, spine-fingeringly Gothic atmosphere, and lashings of enjoyably glib pre-kill repartee. And last, but no means least, the wickedly voluptuous firebrand, Amanda (Jennifer Delora) makes for a memorably mental, horrifically disfigured, mentally twisted, teen slaying despot!!!!

'While physical beauty is a divinely fleeting affair, Amanda's eternal hate is far beyond the macabre mysteries of death itself!'

Something about this movie makes it highly watchable, although it's totally unoriginal and probably came in 5 years too late at best for the whole slasher movie phase. The plot: six friends and a hitchhiker end up stranded at a remote mansion while a mystery killer prowls around the group and slashes their throats one by one. If you can make it past the opening, where clues like an altar on the front porch, coffins in the basement and scalps on the mantle fail to warn these idiots to leave, then you can make it all the way through, and some surprising plot twists and shocks toward the end are what I'm recommending.

This came out when slasher genre has already been dead. Even in around mid 80s you couldn't be taken seriously if you made a slasher movie.

So how does this little Spanish movie holds up? While it's one of your "group of teens go into abandoned house then get killed off one by one", it does not strictly follows it's American slasher counterparts. The European, more specifically Spanish school is presented there, so movie itself plays out more like a mystery then slasher movie. There's old car husk setup as shrine, coffins in the basement and pictures\photos of some girl all over the house.

For about first hour of the movie, you are really not given anything, it's just characters walking around the "old doom mansion". It's the stuff we learned to endure during 80s movies, but at least they had some shock or jump scares (or few kills in between), but "Deadly Manor" simply does not have any of those. It's just characters (literally!) walking around the manor to pad out running time. While some might argue that movie is trying to setup atmosphere (which in fact does more or less), scenes are too dark to see anything. In some scenes, movie goes pitch-black dark which is quite a problem, which is a shame, since location isn't too terrible.

Once movie finally get's it's "game", when the killing starts, they aren't too impressive: with some minor cuts it could easily play on late night TV. In fact, movies plays almost like TV movie. Another problem is that if you somehow "survive" first hour of the movie, you probably want be too interested in last 20 minutes and you'll just want it to be over. Acting is quite campy (it looks like it was post-production dub even tho movie was filmed in English to save few bucks). When the killer is finally revealed, it's one of those moments when over the top acting hits in. One or two sex scenes, otherwise, no other nudity.

It's not too bad, final 20 minutes of the movie kinda made it more enjoyable, location is quite good and there's some atmosphere thanks to that, but it's really a movie about people walking around dark manor for first hour of the movie (and half of the time you'll have no idea who's where and what's going on on screen due to bad lightning). Characters are not annoying, which is kinda refreshing.

A bunch of people well into their twenties wearing the world's ugliest clothes break into a house that isn't even decent looking. The furniture is such a disappointment. The house has about as much personality as an old barn, and it's plastered with photographs of the same woman that are also unconvincing in their age despite their black and white color, they were obviously taken in the 1980s.

There are much better horror flicks based around this rag-tag bunch of loser prototypes (the scary bad boy, the all-American preppy and his blonde girlfriend, the fat guy with an offensive sense of humor) that take place in an old house.

Deadly Manor is like what Night of the Demons would have been if it were really stupid and horribly acted.