Director – Alexander Boyd Watson (Screams from the Dark, How to Be a Serial Killer: A Jack Myers Story)
Starring – Julie Cordell-Seamons (Silent Night, The Christmas Dragon), Paul Anthony Sonnier Jr. (Call of the Void, Star Wars: Dresca), and Walter Mecham (Hereditary, 4K Killer)
Release Date – 2023
Rating – 2/5
I’ve been lucky enough to review hundreds of indie horror productions over the decade or so that I’ve been with Horror Society. I’ve been a fan of indie and no budget horror films for as long as I can remember so when a filmmaker reaches out to me to review one, I immediately jump at the opportunity. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to review films that I fell in love with and had to immediately add to my collection. With that being said, not every filmmaker’s work resonates with me. That doesn’t mean they are bad films, or I didn’t enjoy myself.
As I said before, I love watching indie and no budget films even if the movie is one, I didn’t care for. I love seeing the effects, how the scene was set up, the cast acting out their dialogue, and so on. Every movie is truly an experience even if the movie just didn’t work for me. Sometime back I was contacted by filmmaker Alexander Watson to check out his horror film Bundy Manor. I wasn’t able to check it out right away, but I was able to work it into my schedule. I want to thank Alex for sending this one over.
**spoiler Alert** The film follows a family that moves into an estranged relative’s home after her death. They learn that one of the neighbors has an extreme haunt that he runs year-round. When the noises of the “tortured” keep them up all night, the father of the family confronts him. After an exchange of words, the haunt owner offers him a deal. If he can make it through the haunt without giving up, then he will shut it down. However, if he quits then the haunt can continue to operate. The father is unable to complete the haunt but in doing so he becomes suspicious of the owner and why the props look so real. **Spoiler Alert**
I went into this one thinking it was about infamous serial killer Ted Bundy but that was far from the truth. Instead, the movie was a torture porn approach to the new trend of turning extreme haunts into a horror film. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of haunted attractions and people that like extreme haunts have never been in an abusive relationship. Anyway, Bundy Manor could have been something very enjoyable and memorable, but it was extremely dull while failing to gain any traction.
The acting in this one is one of the few aspects of the film that I truly enjoyed. The casting in this one is great. The cast worked so well together and did a phenomenal job at bringing the characters to life. While some of the scenes were a bit slow and boring, I still found myself caught up in the acting.
The story for this one is very interesting in theory. The idea of an extreme haunt killing select patrons and using their body parts as props for the haunt is pretty fucking clever. A similar spin to some other films I’ve seen where a director cast actors for his movie and it’s actually a snuff film. I, honestly, loved this idea but the execution doesn’t work. We have way too much of the film’s run time dedicated to the family’s dynamic and not the horror next door. A good bit of the movie could be cut to reshape the story and make it more effective.
Finally, the film has some blood and some great props and prosthetics, but the death scenes are very underwhelming. I was expecting a lot more imagination in the film’s deaths over what we were actually given. Overall, Bundy Manor just didn’t do it for me. I loved the cast and the idea behind the film, but the long scenes and little horror made it one that I can’t recommend to genre fans.
