It's a shame, movies like this are generally what I'm looking for, but `Castle of Evil' doesn't even manage the level of suspense of a `Dark Shadows' episode - and is about as talky and stagy as that series. On the whole, this movie is down there somewhere with the Philippino `Blood Island' series, and the more than competent cast gives some of the most wooden performances of their careers. It is easy to see that Hugh Marlowe was just about ready to begin his interminable run on `Another World' because this is about as close to the Soaps as horror ever comes.
The plot is a tried-and-true midnight will reading preceding the six people locked in a house knowing one of them is a murderer routine. Fair enough, but the movie betrays what interest the audience might have in trying to resolve the mystery by showing us the murderer in the first few minutes, then even going so far as to demonstrate the means used for the slayings before the mystery is even fully underway. What could have been an interesting group of characters, each suspecting the others and forming alliances and theories degenerates into a group of non-entities being stalked by a Slasher-type disfigured killer (with minimal gore). The contrived ending seems far, far too long in coming.
Natives of Nassau will be offended by the racism of the script and hispanics of all backgrounds will no doubt take issue with the pronunciation of the character Lupe's name (sounds like `Loopy'). Scott Brady seems to be dating one of his daughter's friends, and poor Hugh Marlowe just looks confused as Virginia Mayo's tramp character (`just call me Sable, dear') comes onto him. Overall, one gets the feeling everyone in the cast just wanted to get their check and forget about the whole ordeal. Perhaps we should do them a favor and do the same.
