Castle Freak

A mix of classic Lovecraft elements, combined with characters that you could care less about, in an overlong movie where everyone makes stupid decisions leading to dire consequences: equals another remake that failed overall. Watch the original instead.

If you have low expectations, are you allowed to be disappointed? On the plus side locations scout is incredible! Hats off to you sir.

Nothing happens for at least an hour twenty minutes in. Very boring. I don't think they thought this one out. Maybe something will happen in the last 19 minutes

Initially I was not particularly thrilled to learn about this 2020 remake of a classic 1995 horror movie based on a H.P. Lovecraft story. Why? Well, let's just face it, fact is that the majority of Hollywood remakes tend to be abominable results.

But still, I sat down to watch the 2020 remake from writer Kathy Charles and director Tate Steinsiek, fearing the worst, but hoping for the best. Even when the movie didn't have neither Jeffrey Combs or Barbara Crampton on the cast list.

Turns out that the 2020 movie "Castle Freak" was actually surprisingly good for a remake. Heck, I would go as far as saying even if you aren't familiar with the 1995 movie or the H.P. Lovecraft story, then "Castle Freak" is a rather enjoyable and entertaining horror movie.

Now, a movie based on a H.P. Lovecraft story has some pretty high stakes to live up to, and I will say that director Tate Steinsiek actually rose up to the occasion and delivered a movie that was entertaining, but also at the same time managed to bring to the screen a sense of cosmic dread that H.P. Lovecraft was known for. So in that sense, then the remake is actually a worthy movie of bringing such an iconic horror tale to life on the screen.

The acting in the movie was adequate for most parts. Some of the people, though, felt like they were just wrongly cast for the movie, as it felt like they were out of place in the movie, not really bringing any soul or spirit to the character.

The special effects in "Castle Freak" were good, and there was even enough gore and mayhem to keep a seasoned gorehound like myself entertained.

There were also a lot of nice small details in the scenes and sets of the movie, lots of nods towards the Cthulhu Mythos, which was definitely interesting.

One thing that I didn't really enjoy about the movie, was the sex scenes and nudity. Now, I am not a prude or anything, but it just brought a whole mid-1980s horror feel to the movie, unnecessarily I might add. The movie would have been more impactful and outstanding if director Tate Steinsiek had opted to leave that sleaze out of the movie.

The 2020 remake is a worth addition to the horror genre, just as it is an entertaining horror movie of cosmic dread, and it is a rather enjoyable remake. I am rating it a solid six out of ten stars. And the stars are right...

'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!