Laura is the responsible sibling caring for her ailing mother, while her negligent brother Chris has been shirking his duties. The last time she helped Chris pull off a job, it cratered into disaster, but she needs the money, so here she is. He also recruits his girlfriend Lisa, who everyone else can tell is pregnant and Andy, whose pickpocketing and hustling skills caught his eye in the bar.
According to vague rumors, there is some great treasure hidden in Lucas’s manor house. Supposedly, Chris conned him into thinking they are a documentary crew, so they can search for the loot, but instead it was Lucas who lured them to the manor house. He claimed he intended to warn them of the loop, but Laura had already opened the evil pandora’s box, letting loose whatever the evil entity might be. As a result, only she remembers each time Lucas stabs them to death for a restart. He also tries to give them helpful advice for dealing with the loop—so yes, you could describe their relationship as complicated and stormy.
Despite Ridder’s obvious budget constraints, he managed to serve up a relatively fresh take on the horror movie time loop that does not feel like a transparent rip-off of either Happy Death Day or Until Dawn. The rewinding gamesmanship works pretty well, especially since the 82-minute film does not have time for many go-rounds.
This is definitely an overachieving genre film, which are always encouraging to see. It certainly appears that Ridder and company had limited access to their tony location, but that necessarily led to a tightly disciplined approach, which turned out to be a positive rather than a negative. Recommended for fans who dig time-looping horror, Manor of Darkness releases today (12/9) on digital VOD.
