Fantastic Fest 2025 Interview: Glenn McQuaid & Alice Krige Discuss THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR
- creepykingdom
- Oct 1
- 5 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR, Boyd Grayson (Chris Colfer) delights in bringing men home to his sprawling family estate for sex, taunting his legacy-obsessed mother with the cruel reminder she’ll never have the grandchildren she craves. When a freak accident leaves him handless and helpless, Jacqueline (Alice Krige) seizes the opportunity to mold him into the heir she always wanted, outfitting her son with experimental prosthetics wired directly to his subconscious, a gift that comes with a terrible cost for all who enter Grayson Manor.
For THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR’s World Premiere at Fantastic Fest, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with director Glenn McQuaid (V/H/S, I Sell the Dead) and actor Alice Krige (Gretel & Hansel, Silent Hill), who portrays Jacqueline. During their chat, they discussed everything from the film's origins and casting to the queer themes at the heart of the story.
Thank you both so much for speaking with me today. THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR was written by Clay McLeod Chapman, whose work I’ve admired for some time. Could you discuss the origins of the project?
Glenn McQuaid: I know Clay through my audio drama show “Tales from Beyond the Pale,” which I run with Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix. I was drumming up some ideas for a new season, and I came up with this idea of a play on the killer hand genre. I invited Clay to work with it on me, and pretty quickly, we realized there’s more here than a half-hour audio play. So we leaned into the actual script. I basically wrote a treatment called Transplant at the time, and Clay ran with it, having a lot of fun with the barbed nature, wit, and melodrama. I could tell he was having a lot of fun with it as well, certainly the sharpness and the loving aggression between Boyd and Jacqueline. Really, a lot of that comes from Clay.
Alice, when you first read Jacqueline on the page, what stood out to you and made you want to take on the role?
Alice Krige: It wasn’t just about Jacqueline; it was about the movie as a whole and the relationship with Boyd. Upon reading [the script], you soon realized that you had no idea what was going to happen next, and it went from one emotion to the opposite, to the antithesis of that emotion. You went from savagery to tenderness, to heartbreak, to something wild and hilarious. You really had no idea where this was going to take you or where it would end.
Glenn, what was the process of getting Alice and Chris involved in the project?
Glenn McQuaid: We almost made the movie before the pandemic. We were gearing up for it, and we were getting tight enough for me to reach out for the role of Boyd. Chris is quite charming and funny, and I didn’t realize he’s such a horror fan. He really responded to the script, and we had a nice back-and-forth. As the months turned into a year or two, we kept in touch because he really wanted to play Boyd.
Colin Jones, who is Alice’s casting agent, reached out and asked if we wanted to chat. I was like, Oh my god, but I tried to play it pretty cool with Alice. We were having a lovely Zoom call, and by the end of it, I just said, 'I have to tell you, I love you, and I really want this to happen. Is that okay?' [Laughs]. We were getting to know one another and kind of scoping each other out, and I was like, I don’t know how much they’ve told you, but I really want to work with you on this project [Laughs]. The idea of Chris Coffer and Alice Krige together was just like, oh my god, it’s really coming to life now.
Alice, what was it like working with Chris? The chemistry and banter between you two on screen feel so effortless. Did that connection start before filming, or did it develop once you were on set together?
Alice Krige: There wasn’t time [prior] because of several factors, largely a book tour that Chris had. We actually started without Chris; he came a couple of days later, so we didn’t really have much in the way of prep time, did we, Glenn?
Glenn McQuaid: Before shooting, we had maybe two weeks. We had two days of just Alice, Chris, and me in the mansion. It was magical to see them on set. I felt like I was a third character in a way [Laughs]. I was often whispering in Jacqueline’s ear and then saying the opposite in Boyd’s ear to make sure they were having fun with what the character’s contrary expectation might be going into a scene, and throwing a few spanners into the works, but always being the safety net for the actors. It was the time of my life in production.
This film is such a fun watch, but it also puts a queer story front and center. With that in mind, what do you hope audiences take away from it?
Glenn McQuaid: Growing up, the escapism of horror probably saved my life. If that’s all that’s on offer here, it’s a lot to go in and to perhaps have fun with the idea of a little fear in a safe environment, but to walk away having just escaped from whatever’s going on is very important to me. On top of that, I did want to make a piece about the weight of heteronormative expectations on queer, rebellious shoulders and how that’s bullshit.
Alice Krige: When it’s over, I want them to have been on a journey that they weren’t expecting and to have maybe experienced stuff that they’d never thought about before, like what Glenn just said about the heteronormative weight on queer shoulders. I also think that weight is just as heavy on straight people. I think the structures of society, which, I have a feeling at this particular moment in time, are disintegrating rather rapidly, and it’s a really good thing. The old guard is clinging on, but I don’t think they’re going to make it. I think it’s all coming apart at the seams because it’s not based in truth. But that weight is as much a trap for those who are beneath it, not on top, controlling it. If you are on the receiving end of those constraining structures, it’s a damaging weight.
THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR had its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 21, 2025.
