Il maniero

The Mansion is a French comedy horror that despite diving headfirst into the usual tropes and cliches actually manages to be fairly enjoyable.

It tells the story of 10 friends who rent out a mansion for the night to celebrate new years. But in traditional style people begin to get picked off one by one.

Comedy? Check, plenty of laughs are to be had. Sure a lot of it is "Stoner" humor but it works, in fact fans of Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2010) may well appreciate this as it's in a very similar vein.

Horror? Check, but not a vast amount. If this was a scale it would lean heavily towards comedy but there is enough horror to justify the tag. We have an antagonist, we have a couple of jump scares, but it's still light on the horror as a whole.

I laughed out loud a fair few times, I think not only were many of the jokes great but the delivery from this mostly unknown cast was done well.

This is a fantastic example of people needing to break out of their little mainstream Hollywood bubble and see what world cinema has to offer.

Plenty of flaws but nothing crippling, an enjoyable goofy comedy horror.

The Good:

Some great laughs

Decent character development

The Bad:

One needlessly grosse scene

Leave the pets alone for crying out loud

Stock scream