There’s a lot of body horror out there, but THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR belongs to the select subset that could be called appendage horror. The saga of a young man who literally can’t keep his hands to himself begins its theatrical release today, and RUE MORGUE spoke to its director, Glenn McQuaid.
Scripted by McQuaid (who previously made I SELL THE DEAD and is partnered with Larry Fessenden producing the ongoing TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE audio-horror series) and acclaimed horror author Clay McLeod Chapman, RESTORATION stars Chris Colfer as Boyd, the gay, hedonistic heir to the Grayson family legacy. His lifestyle infuriates his status-obsessed mother Jacqueline (SLEEPWALKERS’ Alice Krige), and their bitchy, catty relationship takes a horrific turn when Boyd loses his hands in an accident. Jacqueline has them replaced with robotic substitutes, which begin acting out Boyd’s darkest impulses, with gruesome results—even as Boyd finds a friend and potential love interest in male nurse Lee (Declan Reynolds). RESTORATION begins a theatrical tour with a week of showings beginning today at New York City’s Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan, and continues across the country this month, with appearances by McQuaid and Colfer at select screenings; go here for details.
I recall seeing the proof-of-concept short for THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR at the Fantasia festival’s Frontières Co-Production Market back in 2017. How did the project evolve from that time to the movie that’s coming out now?
Initially, it was part of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE. I wanted to collaborate with someone, namely Clay McLeod Chapman, on one of several ideas, and THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR started out as an idea for a TALE called “Transplant.” I threw Clay a bunch of outlines, and we both settled on that, and as we became a bit more serious about it, and really got stuck in, we decided it’s probably best to show killer hands in a killer hands story. We built it up into what it became, and when we were invited to Frontières, we put that proof-of-concept piece together.
Chris Colfer feels like the only person you could have cast as Boyd. Was he your sole choice, or did you look at anyone else for it?
Yeah, we had a sort of a broad outreach initially. Chris was somebody I’d really wanted to work with for quite some time. I really wanted to cast an out gay actor in the role of Boyd, and just had him in mind for the character. So when I eventually did get on a Zoom with Chris, which was pre-COVID, I was thrilled to learn that he loved the script, and also was a massive horror fan. He really knew his stuff, and I just had no idea. He was telling me, “Everybody thinks I’m this Broadway queen, you know, but I’m a horror queen. I’m a horror guy.” So we got on very, very well in the early conversations.
Then COVID hit us and shut down prep, and for a while potentially shut down the entire movie. But Chris and I stayed in touch, and he was a huge supporter of the project, and didn’t budge and wanted to do it and was ready when we were ready. I just got really lucky with him, and he was a very funny and collaborative person to have around on set.
Alice Krige similarly seems like the only person you could have cast in her role. So again, was she your number-one choice or one of many?
Initially, we had a bit of a broad outreach to a bunch of people. But I’d always wanted to work with Alice because I’m a huge STAR TREK fan, and also a GHOST STORY fan, and SLEEPWALKERS—there’s a long history of work I love from that woman. When we did eventually have a Zoom meeting, and this was after Chris had come on board, I found her to be such a warm, fun person as well. She really took Jacqueline to heart. Although we are a comedy and she was a little nervous about doing that, I felt I could reassure her and remind her of the deadpan nature of the work ahead. It was fun to reference <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/10/09/from-facebook-to-ftx-9-tech-movies-and-shows-to-watch-this-fall/” title=”From Facebook to FTX: 9 tech movies and shows to watch this fall”>movies like THE LION IN WINTER and THE WAR OF THE ROSES, and even Tennessee Williams in terms of wanting a very bitchy and nasty dynamic that was going to be enjoyable for the audience.
Was any of their interaction improvised?
Eventually. When I got rehearsal time with Alice and Chris, we did do some improvisation work, just to breathe some life into the characters and have fun getting to know each other in the space we shot in. During filming, we stuck pretty closely to the script, but usually, after the last take when I knew I had what I needed, I would have a little secret signal, which was to cough. And if the actors heard the cough and picked up on it, they could have as much fun as they wanted, and we could see what we could glean from that. I ended up using, I wouldn’t say quite a bit, but there are a couple of moments in the movie based on that improvisation.
Do you recall which moments those are?
Jacqueline looking at Boyd and saying, “And as for you, go shit on your mother” came out of us just having a laugh on set. I think Chris has a few lines that we kept in there. Just as an aside, one fun situation with Chris was, because he’s playing a sort of Anglophile West Brit in Ireland, he’s got a bit of a British accent, as do the mansion-owning, castle-owning set within Ireland. And I was always kind of riding him hard on it, because I wanted it just so. At one point, Chris was screaming his head off, and when I yelled “Cut,” he turned to me and said, “Well…how’s the accent?” Right then and there, I kind of fell in love with the guy, and thought, “OK, we’re going to have a lot of fun here.”
Where did you find that location? It feels like the perfect setting for this story to take place.
It was pretty close. We were running out of time, and we had lost a few castles and mansions to Tim Burton, who was prepping WEDNESDAY at the time. So there were quite a few locations we thought we had, and they were sort of pulled out from under us. So one of my producers, John McDonnell, recommended Stradbally Hall in Laois, which is somewhat famous in Ireland because it’s the home base of Electric Picnic, a really big music event. So with probably just six weeks to go, we raced down to Laois, and I ran straight into the stairwell to see what that was like, and we immediately signed off on it.
What I love about Stradbally Hall is that it already has a bit of a decaying elegance to it. It’s kept very well, but to the point where curtains that haven’t been changed in 100 years are still there and sort of falling apart. So thematically, it was perfect for Jacqueline’s world, which is all about maintaining the status quo, and keeping the family as traditional as her parents and grandparents did.
What went into creating all the varied effects with the hands?
It was mixed media. We had a couple of different ways of getting it done. One was a hand-glove performer who actually ended up co-composing the score with me, a guy called Reuben Harvey. We had some CGI in there, some robotics and a rubber hand that we were throwing about as well. I wanted to get as much practical work in there as possible, but at times we had to use CGI, which we’re pretty happy with.
There’s a very short history of severed-hand movies in the horror genre; was this intended as a homage to any of them?
It was intended as an homage to my father, I suppose. One of the first movies I ever watched with him was THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, and we had an awful lot of fun with that, and my dad playing up the killer hand. It’s a very fond, beautiful memory of horror and humor and escapism through both of those avenues. Since then, I’d always wanted to do a killer-hand movie, and tap into that world. I think HANDS OF ORLAC is probably closer to what we’ve done here. But I love these side avenues of horror. Like with I SELL THE DEAD, I kind of find it fascinating that there’s a little subgenre of graverobbing movies.
Can you talk about some of the themes that you wanted to explore in the movie?
I suppose the major one was, I wanted to reflect on what it is like as a gay man and a queer person growing up in a heteronormative society. I grew up in Ireland in the ’70s and ’80s, and there was really no representation. There was no talk of what it was to be different or to be queer. It was something I tried to pray away until I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, which was into my 20s. It was a very, very dark time, and I found strength through what I feel would be representation through genre work. I found strength through watching movies like FRIGHT NIGHT; Jerry Dandridge and Billy Cole just sparked something in me.
I also found a lot of much-needed escapism through Universal classics like FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. I was finding all of these crumbs of representation in horror, and I wanted to take the idea of these representations, these side characters or hints of queer characters, and put them front and center in my movie. The weight of heteronormative expectations from family can be crushing and detrimental to one’s soul, and in Boyd, I wanted a protagonist who is defiantly kicking back against that the entire way. He just won’t budge. So in a way, I think he’s a bit of a hero.
I also wanted to talk about a certain gay paranoia or queer paranoia of heterosexuals as well, particularly falling for a heterosexual. As wild and as vivacious as Boyd Grayson is, he’s terribly vulnerable when he meets Lee. I wanted to highlight that vulnerability, and there’s a moment when Boyd does realize he has fallen in love with a heterosexual, and it’s crushing to him. It’s a deeply raw space for a gay man to fall in love with a heterosexual man, and a very, very dangerous place as well. It can result in violence and often death. There are things like the gay-panic defense, which has essentially been legalized over the years. So I wanted to tap into those ideas while having a lot of escapist fun with a killer hand running around a mansion [laughs].
Getting back to TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, are there more of those coming up?
Well, we’re on season six right now, and I just wrote and directed the last episode, “Three Raps on the Buoy,” which stars Ron Perlman, Ashley Bell and Declan Reynolds, who plays Lee in GRAYSON MANOR [see details here]. And we have Graham Reznick’s piece coming up next week as well. I’m very excited and thankful for TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE; it’s a great platform for us to be able to get work out quickly. And I have a story by myself and Declan Reynolds called “Stay Out!” that I’m going to be doing live in New York in November [details to come—MG]. That’s very much based on a feature film script that I believe will be next for me.
TALES has been a launching pad for a few movies now. Do you foresee more features being developed out of those stories?
I’d love to. I mean, we have almost 60 at this point. When we first started TALES, it was part of the concept that myself and Larry and everyone else we invited had feature scripts lying around, and it might be a nice platform to get the content out there, give it some legs and move it on up to a feature film. The first person to do that was Larry with BLACKOUT, and I know April Snellings has a great TALE called “Food Chain” and has been working on a feature script version of that. Likewise, with “Stay Out!”, I really believe it’s important to get that story out, give it some legs and move forward with it.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR?
Just that it’s been such a wild, long journey, and I’m so thankful for the kindness and support I’ve being shown by all the people who have seen the movie, and those who are excited to see it as well.
