Castle Freak (1996)

Pretty Good

Nice effects though.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

John (Combs) and Susan (Crampton) Reilly are at odds with each other due to a family tragedy that John caused. While driving drunk, John wrecks the car and kills his five year old son and blinds his teenage daughter Rebecca (Dollarhide). Susan isn't ready to forgive him yet but goes to Italy where John has just inherited a castle. The family struggles to adjust, but what they don't know is deep in the bowels of the castle is the title freak. A deformed man that was beaten, abused, and chained up since he was a small boy. Shortly after the family arrives the freak (Fuller) chews off his thumb to escape his chains and is loose in the castle observing the family. With her other senses heightened, Rebecca can feel his presence even though she can't see him. This makes for an eerie scene when the freak roams into her room to get a closer look. The family doesn't believe her claim after the police turn nothing up during a half-hearted exploration of the castle. John falls of the wagon one night and brings a prostitute (Raffaella Offidani) home and has sex with her as the freak watches. Once John leaves, the freak attacks her and kills her in gruesome fashion. The police suspect John when the prostitute doesn't show up anywhere and John is arrested. Two cops are sent to watch over Susan and Rebecca and they are quickly killed off as the girls try to fight off the freak during a rain storm in the finale. This is the third time stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton have teamed up with Director Stuart Gordon. Gordon manages to draw sympathy for the freak from the audience because the freak is like that due to years of cruelty. The castle provides some solid atmosphere as you might suspect and the lighting helps as well. The make up for the freak is ghastly and very effective and actor Jonathan Fuller does a good job in this difficult role. The freak is used much like the classic monsters of yesterday. He does graphic and terrible things but in ways it really isn't his fault. Like a lot of Stuart Gordon's movies, 'Castle Freak' doesn't skimp on graphic gore and blood and supplies it in good measure. Some of Gordon's normal dark humor is missing in this one, but it is stronger on atmosphere and mood. Set in Italy, this movie has a very Italian cinema feel to it, almost like a cross between Fulci and Argento. The thrilling ending in the rain storm is effective and suspenseful and the scenes where the freak is observing the blind Rebecca is the best of what this has to offer. Going down a slightly different path here, Gordon has a mild success with 'Castle Freak'.

"Castle Freak" is a genuinely good movie. Loosely inspired by "The Outsider," probably my favorite H.P. Lovecraft story, the film is also probably my favorite Stuart Gordon film and, bar none, the classiest thing Charles Band ever pushed out of his studio. (Somewhat ironically, since the original Full Moon Entertainment was slowly decomposing at the time.) "Castle Freak," despite its exploitive title, actually has its roots in deep themes of family, forgiveness, childhood, responsibility, cruelty, and love. A family inherits a castle in Italy. Deep in the bowels of the castle is a man kept imprisoned for forty years, starved, castrated, and routinely tortured by his mother. But the castle isn't the only thing with a secret. The Reily family is slowly coming apart, after alcoholic father John wrecked the family car, killing their youngest son, and blinding their teenage daughter. Mother Susan has never been able to forgive him and, it's made clear quickly, John has never quite forgiven himself. The two story lines slowly come together, the emaciated, twisted Giorgio a shadow mirror, reflecting back the family's darkest impulses.The film is far more serious affair then the previous Gordon/Combs/Crampton/Lovecraft collaboration. "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond" are certainly great in their own ways but "Castle Freak" is a much richer, deeper film. It's also far scarier. Gordon had previously displayed a strong handle of atmosphere on "Dolls." Here, he graduates to full shadows expert. The final act, where Giorgio stalks mother and daughter throughout the castle, each hiding in deep shadows, is intense and sustained. The blind daughter is an inventive device, as it allows the villain to creep around her undetected several times. The castle is an excellent location, of course, which helps. It's definitely the most frightening film on the director's resume.It also delivers on the gross-outs. Gordon had, perhaps unfairly, received a reputation for a goremeister following "Re-Animator." There's also more to his films then that but, honestly, "Castle Freak" delivers some nauseating gore effects. A cat being pulled back through a trap door is an early, unnerving moment. Bones crack and flesh rips as a thumb is gnawed off. The most notorious moment involves the titular freak's encounter with a prostitute. In what is probably a homage to extreme Italian filmmakers like Lucio Fulci, deranged Giorgio attempts to recreate an earlier rendezvous. It's a disturbing, memorable moment that skillfully combines twisted gore and protracted thrills. The make-up design for Giorgio is impressively unnerving as well. He looks truly starved and tortured. Odds are this movie will show you far more eunuch bits then you desired to see.The performances truly anchor the film. Jeffrey Combs frequently trots out his Herbert West personality without acting much while Barbara Crampton is usually confined to indistinct scream queen roles. Combs shows no ego as the alcoholic John. He sweats and cries, frantic, a man at the end of his rope. He is pulled between his frustrated libido, his persisting guilt over his son's death, and his own guilt over refusing to take responsibility for it. It's a career-best performance for Combs. Similarly, Crampton blows the roofs off. She marks a strong figure against Jeffrey, her grief translating as anger, not self-pity. Her own path to forgiveness is also wrought. As the blind Rebecca, Jessica Dollarhide conveys the blindness well, if not the character's panic. It is disappointing that she would disappear from acting after this. Jonathan Fuller no doubt had the most difficult performance, under extensive make-up and without his voice. He makes Giorgio far more then just a hideous villain but a sympathetic being. "Castle Freak" is a world where monsters aren't born, they're made.For once, the fisticuff endings doesn't feel awkward, a natural evolution of the characters and themes. The final scene, powered by Richard Band's typically excellent, mournful score, conveys a poetic sense of sadness and resolution. "Castle Freak" is fantastic all around, a true hidden gem. If you're a Combs or Gordon fan, you've probably already seen it but I think it's essential viewing for any horror fan.

I've known about this movie for some time and am a casual fan of Gordon's work, but this one came out at a time when things were changing in the low-rent movie biz...more and more a B-film was meaning a "DIY" film, any old hack could put something out and call it a movie and Full Moon, Troma or SOMEONE would try to sell it as a legit feature. I just didn't believe it could be worth the effort, I was tired of being burned by early-90's low-rent horror sludge."Castle Freak" is a legit feature...sorta. It's shot on film, it has real actors and locations, but still suffers the trappings of a low budget...the sets are underwhelming and nothing much happens. And that's one of two major beefs I had with this movie.1) Nothing much happens, and what does transpire is old news...there's a Thing in the cellar and before we dispatch with it there's a modicum of bloodletting and screaming. Meanwhile we have to sit through a healthy heap of tedium concerning the domestic problems of a small family. Despite the presence of some good B-movie actors these scenes seem superfluous to the action...which we never quite get to, except...2) When it does happen, it's outrageously repulsive. Not the most offensive thing you've ever seen it's just...this movie is just really icky! Out of nowhere there are a couple of things that transpire that include naughty bits that are just...unpleasant, and not in the fun way. I wasn't so much offended or caught in that so-gross-it's-fun mode as just...well, sorry I had to bear witness to it--and the effects weren't even that well done. It's just...the sight of the Freak and what he does to his victim is just...blecchy! And it's so completely out of touch with the rest of the movie, which is very "USA Up All Night," back when that show was on. It's really weird to see an average little quirky B-film with this kind of grue in it. I'm glad they went there, actually, I just wish the film would've either sustained/accelerated it (as Gordon did so well in "Re-Animator") or not even gone there to begin with.It's not bad, really it isn't...what's good about it is great--the castle, the final fight, the mysterious Italian village aura and the compelling idea of what exactly the Freak is all about. But the combo of this not being quite bad enough to be really bad or good enough to be really good left me ambivalent, and left me stuck with the sickening images of Freak's mutilated crotch and the prostitute's mutilated boobs. If that's what you want stuck in your head, see this film immediately.

A family of three (Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Jessica Dollarhide) have inherited a castle, but have no plans to stay on. So they take inventory in order to sell off the property. But they aren't the only living relatives -- in the basement is the "castle freak", a deformed cannibal chained to the dungeon. If he gets loose, the family's heritage may become one of pure carnage.Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator") directs this film with a cast consisting of Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator") and Barbra Crampton ("Re-Animator"), produced by Charles Band ("Re-Animator"). Maybe you've caught on, but this is something of a "Re-Animator" reunion... with a few people missing. And a much lower production value (the film quality looks like 1970s issue or something from PBS during British comedy hour). For the most part, this is pretty solid film.Combs is quite good, and one wonders why he's not given leading roles more often. Crampton is also good, and the blind girl (Jessica Dollarhide, in her only feature film) was remarkable. The freak? I have to say the makeup, effects and even the mannerisms were impressive. There's a scene where a prostitute meets her end... and they really went out of their way to show how horrific the freak could be.The story isn't fast-paced or action-packed, so if you need to be constantly entertained, this may not be for you. But if you like a good development in your plot, I think you'd appreciate this lost treasure (definitely one of the lesser-seen Gordon horror films). I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been, because I was half in the bag from drinking Scoresby Scotch (it's the connoisseur's Scotch)... but it kept me feeling pretty good. Thanks, Full Moon Features, for one of your better offerings.