Campton Manor (2024) - Horror Film Review

A big admission before starting this review of Campton Manor in that I often do other small admin jobs while sat in my office watching films occasionally. The task I set out to do on my second monitor ended up taking me nearly an hour, so I was only able to give this movie my full attention from that point onwards. Directed by Cat Hostick and written by Stephen Wallis, this supernatural horror told its story in an intriguing fashion, making for something that little bit more different.

Teddy (Shawn Roberts - Here for Blood, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter) is a horror author and someone who also has the special ability to both see and interact with dead people. At the behest of a mysterious client named Jack (Jason London - The Rage: Carrie 2), he is asked to visit the long derelict titular Campton Manor, a place that during a party many decades back had an unsolved mass incident in which the guests all died, seemingly of heart attacks. Together Teddy and Jack head to the mansion, where Teddy finds himself supernaturally back in time, conversing with the many ghosts of the partygoers and staff, in order to finally solve the mystery of what happened that fateful night. But things are not exactly as they may appear to be...

The meat of the film here is conversations between various characters, with a slight vibe of The Shining. Not so much the horror side of things, more conversing with people from the past who seem amused to be dead. I really liked that the majority of the characters are not only ghosts, but they seem delightfully aware of that fact. They are doomed to repeat the events of the fateful night for eternity, but seem aware they are playing out their roles time and time again. It leads to a lot of fun conversations where they state things while having a hidden twinkle in their eyes. Best of these characters was Walter Borden as the bartender and Kenneth Welsh (The Void, Survival of the Dead) as Lawrence, the owner of the mansion. It was nice to see Julian Richings (Hall, Blood Hunters) in a side role. Teddy and Jack were both decent leads, and I liked the Shutter Island style direction the plot went into for its third act, was most unexpected for me.

While there are ghosts-a-plenty, the horror is kept to a minimum, the ghosts here aren't some terrifying evil, but act more like normal people, some good, some selfish, others angry, but all acting like humans rather than monsters. The core part of the plot, discovering how everyone came to die that night, wasn't that interesting. The story became focussed on the catalyst for the terror that was to come, and when that was revealed it was very underwhelming. I did enjoy the time period, with the ghostly party taking place in the 1920's, so a real period feel to the piece. There are small moments of action, with a couple of decent enough fight scenes mixed in, and an ever present constant transition between the present day the film takes place in (I believe the 1950's) and the 1920's, which looked effective on screen.

Campton Manor was well made, and it told an enjoyable story. It may have not really hit the landing in terms of telling something completely unexpected, but the idea of having most the cast be ghosts was pretty cool. The award winning Campton Manor is set for Vudu TVOD release on May 7th.

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