good back-story, and good acting

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Jose Ramon Larraz was a Spanish director of horror pictures who was well known in the 1970s for his atmospheric, uniquely-shot movies like SYMPTOMS, DEVIATION, and VAMPYRES. However once his glory days were behind him he kept working through the 1980s, usually churning out cheap exploitation movies, and 1990's DEADLY MANOR is such a film. As with a number of Larraz's other productions, this one was made abroad, in New York in this instance.The plot is entirely undistinguished and completely clichéd. Your stereotypical group of teenagers end up in an old deserted manor house which they soon discover is occupied by someone or something decidedly deadly. What follows involves your usual slasher antics as the group turn up dead in gruesome ways, one at a time. In the end the survivors have to band together to try to unmask the villain in their midst.DEADLY MANOR is generic stuff indeed and the poor production values don't help it very much. The acting is pretty much the pits and the cinematography is very dark, inducing eye strain in the viewer. Larraz fails to bring much in the way of atmosphere to the picture and indeed he seems to have left his expertise at the door. There's a little gore and nudity on display here and I imagine most horror fans will find this film tests the patience more than anything else.

This came out when slasher genre has already been dead. Even in around mid 80s you couldn't be taken seriously if you made a slasher movie.So how does this little Spanish movie holds up? While it's one of your "group of teens go into abandoned house then get killed off one by one", it does not strictly follows it's American slasher counterparts. The European, more specifically Spanish school is presented there, so movie itself plays out more like a mystery then slasher movie. There's old car husk setup as shrine, coffins in the basement and pictures\photos of some girl all over the house. For about first hour of the movie, you are really not given anything, it's just characters walking around the "old doom mansion". It's the stuff we learned to endure during 80s movies, but at least they had some shock or jump scares (or few kills in between), but "Deadly Manor" simply does not have any of those. It's just characters (literally!) walking around the manor to pad out running time. While some might argue that movie is trying to setup atmosphere (which in fact does more or less), scenes are too dark to see anything. In some scenes, movie goes pitch-black dark which is quite a problem, which is a shame, since location isn't too terrible. Once movie finally get's it's "game", when the killing starts, they aren't too impressive: with some minor cuts it could easily play on late night TV. In fact, movies plays almost like TV movie. Another problem is that if you somehow "survive" first hour of the movie, you probably want be too interested in last 20 minutes and you'll just want it to be over. Acting is quite campy (it looks like it was post-production dub even tho movie was filmed in English to save few bucks). When the killer is finally revealed, it's one of those moments when over the top acting hits in. One or two sex scenes, otherwise, no other nudity.It's not too bad, final 20 minutes of the movie kinda made it more enjoyable, location is quite good and there's some atmosphere thanks to that, but it's really a movie about people walking around dark manor for first hour of the movie (and half of the time you'll have no idea who's where and what's going on on screen due to bad lightning). Characters are not annoying, which is kinda refreshing.

Three young couples and a hitch-hiker being sought by police seek refuge from a storm at a seemingly abandoned house.A wrecked car on a cemetery-like shrine in the yard signals that all is not well,and the youths are murdered one by one.A crazed,disfigured woman and her doting,equally psychotic husband are responsible,as they blame all young people for the car accident which stole her beauty."Deadly Manor" was actually shot in New York with a mostly unknown cast.There is only a little bit of gore and the pace is quite slow,but there are some atmospheric moments.The scene where Peter,an overweight motorcycle-rider with a sick sense of humor,has his throat slashed is actually the goriest bit.So if you enjoyed Larraz's "Edge of the Axe" give this slasher a look.However fans of the director's strikingly moody films of the 1970's will be disappointed.7 out of 10.

Something about this movie makes it highly watchable, although it's totally unoriginal and probably came in 5 years too late at best for the whole slasher movie phase. The plot: six friends and a hitchhiker end up stranded at a remote mansion while a mystery killer prowls around the group and slashes their throats one by one. If you can make it past the opening, where clues like an altar on the front porch, coffins in the basement and scalps on the mantle fail to warn these idiots to leave, then you can make it all the way through, and some surprising plot twists and shocks toward the end are what I'm recommending.