“Mansion of the Doomed” marked the first horror production that was done by Full Moon Features’ Charles Band. When looking at the cast and crew list, this boast some names from past films like Richard Basehart (Moby Dick), Gloria Grahame (Oklahoma!) and people who would go on to bigger things like Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Director of Photography Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) and award winning effects artist Stan Winston.
The film’s follow an eye surgeon who gets into a car accident with his daughter. The accident left his daughter blind. This leads him down a dark road, as he becomes obsessed in trying to help his daughter see again. This leads him to do the unthinkable as he kidnaps his victims, takes their eyes out and locked them away in his dungeon. As his number of people in the dungeon rise, they seek revenge against their captor.
Besides the fact that “Mansion of the Doomed” featured people that were would go on to bigger things, I was interested in this because this was Charles Band’s first horror production. When watching it, I was hoping to enjoy this film. Sadly, there were things that prevented me from enjoying this film.
First, I’ll start off with the positives since there were some things that I liked about this film. First, I thought the direction was good. Director Michael Pataki does a good job making sure the film has a dark and eerie tone. Whether it was the way that the film was shot to how he approaches some of the film’s key scenes, everything had a dark and dreary tone to them. It helped make some of horrific action feel shocking and horrifying. The other thing that Paraki does well is the way that he directs his cast. He makes sure that performances fit the film’s tone, as that helped me get though the film’s muddled screenplay.
Speaking of the screenplay, this was one that should’ve been good considering I liked the first and third acts but it wasn’t. That hurt my enjoyment of this film. The main reason for that was its second act. Frank Ray Perilli’s screenplay focuses way too much on the various eye procedures that the main character does during that second act. It became repetitive after the second time which put the story to a standstill. It hurt any chance with the development of any of the secondary characters. It would’ve been interesting, if it focused a little more the main character’s family. The other thing that I didn’t like about this was the fact it felt bland at times. The film has the right kind of tone to make the story interesting, but at times I was bored with the story due to it feeling like a standstill. The reason for this was the fact that the story didn’t have any moments that made me interested until near the end. If Perilli spend time developing its characters, it would’ve made it more interesting and better screenplay.
“Mansion of the Doomed” has good direction and acting but its screenplay hurts this film from being enjoyable.
Review Rating: Two and a Half Stars
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