Prime Time: Castle Freak (2020)

I'm not going to try to tell you that the original Castle Freak was any kind of classic. Nor am I going to try and tell you that it was tasteful and full of effective scares. It was a fun time though, helped by performances from a couple of well-known leads and the fine directorial instincts of Stuart Gordon. This remake, in comparison, is a bit shambolic.

Rebecca (Clair Catherine) and John (Jake Horowitz) are the young couple who move into the castle with a dark secret. Rebecca is blind, John is struggling to live a clean life. Their relationship is strained, and it's about to be strained further by the secrets contained within the castle. Some other people join our leads, a creature creeps around and kills some of them, and the whole thing leads to a very silly finale, and tiresome post-credits sting that references another Gordon horror movie.

This is only the second feature from director Tate Steinsiek, who has spent years working in the art and special effects departments. The lack of experience shines through, with almost every scene highlighting the low budget and the weak cast. Unsurprisingly, there are some decent effects here and there, to be expected from someone who knows that side of things so well, but I defy anyone to watch this and actually care about any of the characters or the storyline.

Kathy Charles may or may not have been pleased to have this as her first feature writing credit (she would do much better in collaboration with others on her next project, Jakob's Wife), but this feels like more of an assignment than any passion project. Every item on the list must be checked off (Lovecraft references - check, gratuitous nudity - check, clumsy exposition - check, people being oblivious to the real danger until it's ready to disembowel them - check, etc) and it would be laughable if it didn't feel so lazy.

Neither Catherine nor Horowitz do a very good job, sadly, and there's nobody else to help distract from their relatively poor performances. Emily Sweet seems to be there for her willingness to be involved in the main nude scene, Chris Galust is frankly appalling in a role that was crying out to be performed by a genre legend cameo, and the only other person I want to mention is Kika Magalhães, who at least tries her best to carry the movie with the many scenes revolving around her character.

It just goes to show you that people can make very different things with the same sets of ingredients. Some may view this and think it's on a par with the original film, considering how schlocky and grubby that one seemed at times. Others, like myself, will simply point to it as a prime example of what happens when you provide a fairly low budget to people who don't have the experience to rise above it. 

3/10

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Prime Time: The Vast Of Night (2019)

If there's one way to damn The Vast Of Night with faint praise, it's by telling everyone that for a movie it makes one hell of a radio play. I'm not sure how much I really WANT to damn it with that sentence, but I know that it's true. This feels very much like something that was created for an audio format, and then had visuals layered over the top, with room left at about the 30-minute mark for an unnecessary, but impressive, tracking shot that should guarantee director Andrew Patterson some bigger gigs in his immediate future.

The story is a simple one, although it's framed as an episode from a TV show very similar to The Twilight Zone (and the featured radio station being WOTW is another unsubtle clue of where the influences are coming from). Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) is a switchboard operator who hears a strange noise, which she then passes along to local radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz). Everett talks about it on the air, leading to a phone call from someone who has past experience with the sound, in turn leading to someone else who knows even more about it. As our two leads investigate the matter further, most of the townsfolk are oblivious, all attending a local big basketball game.

The directorial debut from Patterson, and the first filmed script written by him and Craig W. Sanger, The Vast Of Night certainly has a lot to appreciate. The small-town Americana feel is perfect throughout, the cast do a decent job of rattling off dialogue that feels very much in line with 1950s sci-fi movies, and there's an ending that makes good use of every resource to reward patient viewers.

Unfortunately, there's also a few elements that work against it, although you wouldn't necessarily know that from the impressive amount of praise it has been getting over the past two or three weeks. First of all, the script feels padded out. The film may come in at just under the 90-minute mark, but it feels like something that should have only been an hour long. Secondly, it's far too derivative, both in terms of the root source of inspiration for it and also the many TV shows and movies that have since travelled through the same territory. It's also, as mentioned at the very start, more of an audio work than anything else. That tracking shot feels like something created when someone said "I like this, but WHY is it a movie?"

McCormick is very good in her role, the better of the two leads, and Horowitz is fine as the DJ, although he never seems quite as good or charismatic as he should be for his position. Gail Cronauer also does well in a small role, and Bruce Davis voices a caller who starts the leads off on their more in-depth investigation. A few other people crop up here and there, but nobody else stands out.

This is a solid little slice of sci-fi drama, and the quality throughout is all the more impressive as it is coming from someone with nothing else on his filmography. But it's nothing essential, and ultimately just an enjoyable distraction that feels like it should have been an episode of some TV show that may have done things slightly better.

5/10

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