REVIEW: JOSÉ RAMÓN LARRAZ DEADLY MANOR
by Lin Carbajales (*)
DEADLY MANOR is a 1990 slasher movie by Spanish director José Ramón Larraz, an interesting artist who also worked as a comic book illustrator and a fashion photographer. His career as a movie director and writer started in England with WHIRLPOOL, a British production released in 1970, and lasted until the beginning of the 90s. He mostly directed horror and erotic English films, but he worked with Spanish producers too and directed a few comedies in Spain. Among his most relevant movies, we can mention VAMPYRES or SYMPTOMS, both from 1974. DEADLY MANOR is his last horror movie, which was released in the US under the title SAVAGE LUST.
Like previous Larraz’s slashers REST IN PIECES (1987) and EDGE OF THE AXE (1988), this one doesn’t exactly follow the typical structure of the genre, neither try to replicate all common tropes. The three of these are each their own thing and are considered among fans as a thematic trilogy of the director. In DEADLY MANOR, we find a collage of slasher movies and gothic horror elements.
We follow a typical group of young American friends who are planning to camp near a lake, but they get lost and end up seeking shelter for the night in an old, isolated, seemingly abandoned house in the woods. The campers are played by mostly unknown actors. Still, you can find worse acting in this kind of low-budget movies. A couple of them have later come to appear in high-profile TV shows: Jerry Kernion (THE GOOD FIGHT, LAW & ORDER: SVU) and Mark Irish (NURSE JACKIE). The actress credited as Liz Hitchler worked later in KNIGHT MOVES with Daniel Baldwin, who she married. Now divorced, she still keeps the name, Elizabeth Baldwin. Jennifer Delora, the mysterious woman in DEADLY MANOR, also worked in movies like FRANKENHOOKER and SUBURBAN COMMANDO.
For the “deadly manor” scenario, they used a real house from upstate New York which was set to be demolished. The place and the way it’s shown and decorated make for a great ambiance. The kids soon find the walls of the house are full of pictures of Jennifer Delora’s character as if it were a shrine dedicated to her. There is more weird stuff, like a wrecked car set up in some kind of altar, and classy coffins in the basement, which wouldn’t be out of place in a Roger Corman and Vincent Price movie. The spooky elements are well used, making the mystery of the house compelling.
The movie entertains us with strange situations, creepy findings, and a ghostly sex scene while the slasher aspect takes its time to crystallize. Then, when it’s around half an hour left, characters start falling like flies. The deaths, although bloody, are pretty similar one to another and feel bland. The movie does have a bit of the gross spectacularity we slasher fans usually love from the genre, but it’s not much compared to other movies of its kind. The death scenes from Larraz’s earlier slashers were too more macabre or imaginative than the ones in DEADLY MANOR. They’re just ok, not one of its stronger points.
The killer character is pretty cool and creepy. The backstory, when uncovered, mostly fits what we’ve seen, but don’t expect it to be very original or mind-blowing, neither super-tight. You’ll have to put your own imagination to work for all the elements to make sense. Still, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing at all.
DEADLY MANOR is a hybrid slasher filled with haunted house shenanigans, which makes for a very halloweenesque piece of entertainment and an interesting combination of styles. The bloody murders of young, stereotypical American characters are a very recognizable fruit of the USA 80s horror tradition. Meanwhile, the gothic elements mixed with some erotism feel more akin to 70s Euro-horror, like what we can see in the own Larraz’s VAMPYRES (1974). Both sides seem to compete for the protagonism sometimes, but it all works out in the end. The impactful final showdown includes a cool visual payoff which had a great, secondary setup during the movie, and which I feel that really helps to tie both styles of the story together.
Arrow Video released last year a 2k restored Blu-ray edition. The movie can also be watched online through Arrow’s streaming service, Tubi and Prime Video, and can be rented on Google Play or iTunes.
___________________________________
Lin Carbajales writes about video games, movies, and books for Spanish sites Todas Gamers and Libros Prohibidos, focusing on the horror genre. Besides that, they are a fiction writer and artist and have developed their own short, text-based, horror video games, which are available on itch. A few of their short stories can be found online or in anthologies from indie Spanish publishers, spanning fantasy, horror, and soft science-fiction.
