Judith (Hershey) is celebrating her 70th birthday, and the cruel world has dealt her a blow. The car drives to a fun tourist destination, but one where you don’t want to live. A retirement home in a stone house with a large castle tower, which may be full of bats and millipedes and bird nests. Her 17-year-old grandson Josh (Nicholas Alexander) believes he is fully capable of taking care of himself. And this seems so obvious it will break the cessation of our disbelief.
But Judith will only see one from now on.
Her health is deteriorating, and she doesn’t want to burden her. Her or her daughter (Katie Amanda Keane). And she decides to do a gruesome inspection of the nursing home. She’s about to move to because the first thing that happens. When her family leaves is that nurse Badvibes snatches her cell phone from her, and she on her phone alerts. The free policy on the phone was written directly on the contract he signed.
Judith sat next to her not-so-well roommate and said she saw a man hiding at night. A woman in the hallway was screaming as if she was fighting Seymour again for an inflatable bath pillow. The sisters tend to be very condescending, telling residents when it is night and when it is night and what is not. On the other hand, one of the nurses seemed a little more sensitive and didn’t let Judith take sedatives every night.
They even took a pleasant walk in the forest, past the Ominous Dead Bird.
They have ballet practice too, which is excellent – Judith dances and teaches ballet. He even makes some cute friends, led by Roland (Bruce Davison), who invites him to play bridge, and they don’t budge when he walks past his bottle to give him a little coffee nudge.
So maybe that’s not so bad. Apart from her roommate missing more of her bullshit and what exactly is that weird shadow in the room at night that wakes Judith up and calls her Nurse Badvibes who shows up and whatnot but tells her it’s an old bag is who lost her mind? Nobody here kills someone with kindness. And then – this is a rude, insulting thing, so wait a minute – a black catwalk around the room, and you know what that means. Not really. You know. Not that I would describe it as a complete spoiler or anything.
Yes, cheers to The Mansion for putting an older woman in the role of a powerful heroine:
She says, “Oh, hell” and does her best to fight her oppressors of the natural and supernatural kind — instead of clinging to them. To the stereotype of the weak and powerless. Blumhouse productions do this regularly, placing their emphasis on actual performance, and we notice the effort. It’s fantastic, and Hershey is a heavyweight vet who can carry the ball.
But beyond that, a bit of reality, please: this film is ridiculous and amateurish, Scooby-Doo-ed is near death, giving Hershey funny things to do and say without a trace of the tongue on his cheek. There’s no clear sign, though, as The Mansion isn’t sure if he wants us to take his portrayal of adult violence seriously or laugh at a ridiculous plot mix that’s little more than a series of hastily written, increasingly clichéd ones.
Pointless cruel lighting, searching through secret files, hiding under the bed, a villain explaining everything in a big climax, etc. There’s a resemblance to the character. When Judas Hershey is portrayed as a wily woman. Who guesses herself but ends up guessing herself finding guessing. Because her conclusions are annoyingly stupid to pull the rug in its most manipulative form. Is this a treatise on fighting ageing or something to be ridiculed? Who knows.
