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Try ‘Pathologic’ Before Its Remake Arrives in 2016
Something wicked this way comes, courtesy of the fine folks at Russian developer Ice-Pick Lodge. Pathologic Classic HD rolls out on PC today to help prepare us for the remake that’s expected to arrive in 2016. I know it’s not easy getting excited for a remaster these days, but I suspect this one will find a spot among the best of them. If any remaster is going to do its source material justice, it’ll be the one that comes from the team that made the original game.
In addition to the added support for cloud saves and achievements, Pathologic Classic HD features “updated graphics and effects while addressing the most prominent criticisms of the original game with a newly translated script, and new voice-overs including reinstated dialogue.”
Unlike the remaster, the Pathologic remake is considerably more ambitious in what it will change.
“While being a critical success in some markets and having the status of a “cult classic”, the original game still had many evocative ideas to explore—and we set to do just that,” explains Ice-Pick Lodge. “However, during the production of the Pathologic Remake we’ve come to realize that some of the ideas and plans we have for the new game have strayed rather far from the original.
It’s inevitable that some aspects of the remake will not be embraced by everyone. There’s no getting around it, and that’s why we’re getting two Pathologic games.
“This way, the original Pathologic will always be available to you even if you come to disagree with the changes made in the Remake. And if you haven’t played it at all, you’ll have a chance to get to know the game that has defined us as a studio in a definitive way.”
Pathologic Classic HD releases today exclusively for PC.
Before we go, I’ve noticed some confusion regarding what differentiates a remaster from a remake, so let’s go ahead and tackle that real quick.
A remaster is a minor to moderate update of a game, old or new, that tends to focus on improving the original without introducing any fundamental changes to how it looks or plays. A remake takes that idea and runs with it by re-building its source material from the ground up in a new engine, often with new features and content.
For example, when Resident Evil released on the GameCube in 2003, that was a remake of the 1996 original, while the Resident Evil we got back in January was a remaster of that remake. Are your ears bleeding yet? Don’t be alarmed, brains do that sometimes.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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