Chris Colfer is trading storybooks for something considerably more sinister with his return to the big screen in the gothic horror comedy The Restoration at Grayson Manor, a wonderfully twisted new film that sounds like it was designed to make family dysfunction look downright charming.
Set against the crumbling grandeur of an Irish Gothic estate, the film follows Boyd Grayson, a hedonistic heir whose complicated relationship with his legacy-obsessed mother takes a spectacularly gruesome turn.
And yes, things get hands-on. Literally.
Welcome to Grayson Manor
Directed by Glenn McQuaid, known for I Sell the Dead and V/H/S, The Restoration at Grayson Manor was co-written by McQuaid and Clay McLeod Chapman, whose credits include Wendell & Wild.
Colfer plays Boyd, while genre favorite Alice Krige steps into the role of his formidable mother. Krige is particularly familiar territory for sci-fi and fantasy fans, having appeared as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.
The setup is deliciously unsettling. After an accident leaves Boyd without his hands, his mother attempts to restore him using prosthetics connected to his subconscious, the premise reads. Unfortunately for everyone involved, those hands appear to have access to Boyd’s darkest and most violent impulses.
Inside the decaying Grayson Manor, that little medical miracle quickly becomes a nightmare.
Officially trailer for The Restoration at Grayson Manor!! Can’t wait to see this !!! pic.twitter.com/u4tKClXNTX
— ⚡️Daleen⚡️ (@lestersbonnet) September 1, 2026
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From Glee to Gothic Horror
For fans who first knew Colfer as Kurt Hummel on Glee, this is a particularly fun departure.
Since his television breakout, Colfer has increasingly built his career as a writer and author. He created The Land of Stories, the bestselling children’s fantasy franchise that began with The Wishing Spell in 2012 and eventually expanded into a six-book main series, companion books, graphic novels, and picture books.
His publishing career has continued well beyond that original fantasy world. Colfer has written the A Tale of Magic… trilogy, the standalone novel Struck by Lightning: The Carson Philips Journal, Stranger Than Fanfiction, and the Roswell Johnson sci-fi adventures, among other projects.
So, after years of giving readers magical kingdoms, fantastical adventures, and plenty of fairy-tale escapism, perhaps it was inevitable that Colfer would eventually wander into a haunted mansion where his own hands become the problem.
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Things Are About to Get Hands-On
The Restoration at Grayson Manor promises a very different kind of screen return for Colfer, blending gothic atmosphere, horror, dark comedy, and family dysfunction into one gloriously strange package.
And honestly, if there is one thing horror has taught us, it is that restoring an old family estate and experimenting with mysterious prosthetics are probably not the best ways to achieve a peaceful weekend.
The Restoration at Grayson Manor arrives in theaters this October and will be available to watch at home beginning December 1.