Main cast: Shawn Roberts (Theodore Russell), Jason London (Jack Lasitz), Kenneth Welsh (Lord Lawrence Campton), Julian Richings (Edward), John Boylan (Douglas), Walter Borden (Carrick), Marcia Bennett (Ethel), Siobhan Bolton (Miss Danner), John White (Jerry), and Genevieve DeGraves (Zoe)
Director: Cat Hostick
Campton Manor plays out like a paranormal game of Clue.
The manor in question was once the site of a mysterious tragedy on Christmas eve, 1922: 28 guests of a party held at that place died, all of them apparently having a heart attack at the same time. One would suspect that they were poisoned, but no traces of poison were found on the bodies.
A century later, we have Theodore Russell, a detective that also writes horror novels when he’s not keeping his buff body in tip-top condition. Brains and brawns, you know… well, and a little help from his ability to see and communicate with dead people.
A man, Jack, shows up and asks Teddy to investigate into the deaths at Campton Manor. Teddy is like, well, I’d rather be jogging in the snow and showing off my muscles to the audience, but when a mysterious invitation to that very party in 1922 showed up at Teddy’s office, he assumes that Jack is up to something. He visits the manor along with Jack insisting on tagging along… and lo, is sent back to the past, right when the party is happening.
While this movie is classified as horror, don’t expect much in terms of that unless you count some eye-rolling fake jump scares. It’s more of a paranormal thriller, but even then, the most paranormal thing about it is how all those twists and turns are somehow expected to fit together when the execution is too intent on misleading the viewer to the point that it kind of plays itself in the end instead.
The annoying thing here is that these characters keep babbling to and around Teddy without saying anything much, so much so that a big chunk of the movie feels more like filler than anything else. The twist itself isn’t bad, but the movie doesn’t seem to know what to do with itself and just drags things out until they finally reach the right spot to drop the twist.
Just take out most of the circular rambling chatter, pointless scenes of people walking in hallways, and jump scares, and the result would be a much tighter movie that would also be less meandering and dull.
On the bright side, Shawn Roberts looks very handsome in here, and Jason London looks like a dish with beard and neat hair. I admit looking at Mr Roberts helps a lot in helping me sit through this otherwise super dull movie!
Anyway, kudos to the people behind this movie for pulling off an obviously low budget film without making it look cheap, but the movie itself is too dull for words.
