'Castle Freak' is another tiresome example of why all too many remakes remain such a questionable creative proposition in that they all too frequently tend to subtract from the original's uniqueness, very rarely adding anything worthwhile, which is very much the case with the clumsily 'reimagined' 'Castle Freak', yet another paltry, dully written, wholly unwarranted contemporary upgrade, thereby producing a lacklustre facsimile which has little interest to fans of the evilly atmospheric original cult classic! The major subtraction in this specific instance is in the glaring lack of sympathetic characters, with, perhaps, the exception of poor blind Rebecca (Clair Catherine), whereas one frequently felt enormous empathy for the original's increasingly beleaguered freak-haunted family, thereby giving an extra penetrating frisson of fear to the ill-tempered flesh-flaying castle dweller, whereas in 'Castle Freak' (2020) the entirely welcome slaughter of these irksomely insipid hedonists provide the film's sole satisfaction.
The film's mediocrity resides primarily in the episodic, uninspired screenplay, with its surfeit of disposable, vapid characters, wholly generic dialogue and a frustratingly fright-less climax, with the worthy contributions from maestro Fabio Frizzi's fine score and the remarkably vivid make up FX actively expressing any generosity of artistic spirit. And it takes far more than be-cowled stock B-movie characters monotonously disclaiming 'Yog-Sothoth is the gate!' to invoke genuinely chilling, Lovecraftian discords. Again, why write every character as an asinine, unlikeable imbecile? Unless it was to generate some additional pathos for the poor benighted, bedroom-peeping, catacomb-creeping creature? Perfunctory photography and poor set design failed to engender any tangible eldritch atmosphere, as the over manicured interior looked more like Jimmy Page's nookie parlour than the neglected mildewed nightmare that might suggest the malign presence of some sinisterly spawned wretch!
