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“Put your hands together for Lord Grayson!”
Hammer Horror Classics meet IDLE HANDS in the campy queer melodrama THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR – a film that’s outrageous, hilarious, and even strangely affecting. The film kicks off in a club, where the flamboyant Boyd Grayson (Chris Colfer) performs as a one-man band on keyboards before taking a man home for the night.
“Home” is a sprawling estate in various states of decay and restoration, and in the morning the two lovers find themselves confronted by Boyd’s mother, Jacqueline (played by the QUEEN, Alice Krige!). In the middle of their vicious sparring, a freak accident occurs that cuts off Lord Grayson’s hands, and his only hope of remaining a musician is an experimental treatment his mother is paying for, which involves a pair of sophisticated robot hands.
His private medical staff consists of a secretive doctor, and two nurses: one, an attractive young woman with a haunted past, and the other, a male nurse who acts as both caregiver and possible love interest. But Mother Grayson has another agenda, and as her secrets are revealed one-by-one, the hands strike out in vengeance before they’re even attached to the patient.
What unfolds is a delirious mix of genres with the story remaining tethered to mother and son at its core: the doomed pair locked in a toxic battle of control, duty, and inheritance. Betrayals, chains, and bloodshed follows with each murder building to a shocking climax.
While the film never takes itself too seriously, its queer romance subplot provides an unexpected sweetness, a reminder that beneath the chaos lies a beating, vulnerable heart (if only for a moment). Put your hands together for complicated family dynamics, Krige in full Psycho-Biddy form, and one hell of an ending.
With RESTORATION, Writer/Director Glenn McQuaid has crafted a bitingly clever and unapologetically over-the-top masterpiece. A must see!
THE RESTORATION AT GRASON MANOR is currently playing at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX.
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