The Restoration at Grayson Manor
Musician Boyd Grayson has the looks, the talent and above all the attitude, the last learned from his mother, Jacqueline, with whom he resides at the ancestral home of Grayson Manor, their relationship one of competition and mutual loathing, she furious that she will be denied a grandchild to continue the family, the Grayson name dying with this generation, and he given no reason to forgive a mother “who always made it difficult to make friends.”
Recounting to John, companion for the evening and the following hung-over morning, her traditional welcome to his transitory lovers of “look what the faggot dragged in,” the introductions are frosty but Boyd surprises even himself with his instinctive reaction when a shocking accident occurs, pushing his mother to safety without conscious thought as the mirror tumbles from the balcony but paying for that momentary lapse of judgement with his own injury, while John is killed instantly.
An awkward scandal to tarnish the legacy, The Restoration at Grayson Manor sees the walls painted with blood and bile, directed by Glenn McQuaid and co-written with Clay McLeod Chapman, a vicious body horror satire starring Glee’s Chris Colfer as the scion who learned early in life that his mother prizes duty, obligation and appearances over warmth and affection and She Will’s Alice Krige as Jacqueline, a bottomless well of icy regal vitriol and scheming.
Boyd confined to home during his recovery, Jacqueline employs her own private medical staff to oversee his treatment, ensuring she remains in control of every aspect and that he is beholden to her, disgraced surgeon Doctor Jeffrey Tannock (Daniel Adegboyega), an expert in nanotechnology and neuroprosthetics who moves discussions of clinical approach to her bedroom, aided by nurses Claudia and Lee (Gabriela Garcia Vargas and Declan Reynolds), while the decaying body of John (Matthew McMahon) lies under the leaf pile on the estate.
No skeletons or anything else in the closet, except perhaps Lee, the physicians are as damaged as the patient, the emphasis less on healing than helping others only for gain, the friction of the close quarters slowly rubbing the sharp edges off the characters but any rapprochement short-lived as the experiments progress, therapy requiring tough love which Jacqueline is only too eager to provide, and as emotions run high there is a loss of control in the carefully calibrated tests, years of resentment and bitterness boiling over where calm focus is required.
Boyd defiant and unwilling to capitulate, isolated and forced to be self-sufficient his whole life and not interested in making friends now, contemplating suicide only as a means to spite his mother, and Jacqueline the malevolent matriarch freshly dressed in couture in every scene, The Restoration at Grayson Manor is The Beast with Five Fingers extending its middle digit, the horror movie John Waters never made, the true legacy of the Grayson family to be hailed as a camp classic of the twisted ties of family which cannot be broken despite fervent attempts.
Glasgow Film Festival continues until Sunday 8th March
