Castle Freak

I just had the opportunity to sit down and revisit the 1995 "Castle Freak" movie; a movie that I have seen three or four times since it was originally released.

This 1995 movie titled "Castle Freak" is still a very enjoyable movie, even now in 2021. And that is also applicable even with the 2020 remake that they put out there. But truth be told Stuart Gordon's 1995 movie is just a tad better than the remake. Plus, the 1995 version has both Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton on the cast list, so what is there not to like?

The storyline, which is based on a H. P. Lovecraft story, is entertaining and enjoyable, despite of it being somewhat clichéd for a mid-1990s horror movie. But writers Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli did good jobs with constructing the storyline for "Castle Freak".

"Castle Freak" has good special effects, and they still hold up even now in 2021, 26 years after the movie was released.

Needless to say that it is because of Jeffrey Combs that I initially watched "Castle Freak" back in 1995, and it is still a treat to sit down and watch it this many years after.

My rating of "Castle Freak" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Ok this movie is good don't pay attention to the 4.8 rating or any of that this is a good movie. It is scary, disturbing, violent and horrific with a great performance from Jeffery Combs. The end was a very suspenseful scene one of the few that literally had me on the edge of my seat and the prostitute scene Well lets just say when I watch this again I'm going to fast forward through that part.

It is about a man and his wife and blind daughter who inherit a house but unbeknownst to them a relative is still living in the basement.

Stuart Gordon outdoes himself gone is the campy comedy of Re-Animator this time Gordon is out to scare the Living Sh*t out of you and I say he succeeded.

This is raw horror at its best!!

I really didn't expect much when I picked this movie up, considering its pedigree (a Full Moon low-budget picture shot in Italy). What a pleasure then that this turned out much better than expected. Good use is made of the Italian locations, especially the castle, and Stuart Gordon uses many cool angles to keep things interesting. Reputation has him as an over-the-top-gore director, but this doesn't do him full justice. He is also good in building atmosphere, and this is "Castle Freak"'s biggest asset. The gore is relatively minimal, and instead of indulging us with gore, he goes for a dark and tragic atmosphere, convincingly combining a traumatized family and a mistreated, misunderstood monster in the "Frankenstein"-tradition. This means that despite reuniting the Gordon-Combs-Crampton triumvirate "Re-Animator"-Fans should beware: this one is played strictly as drama/tragedy with not a single laugh in sight. The screenplay is well-developed with convincing characters and reasonably good dialogue. Nothing that is Academy Award-material, but who'd expect that from a movie called "Castle Freak"? Acting is also spot on, especially Jeffrey Combs in a straight man role (for once). While it would go to far to call this a lost genre classic, it deserves to be seen by more people than probably did. If you're a genre fan, give "Castle Freak" a chance. It might just win you over, like it did with me.

I didn't have high expectations for this movie and it started off slow, but this turned into a pretty messed up movie. Not messed up in a Deliverance or Vulgar type of homosexual rape way but messed up as far as how the creature in the film is created, how come the creature is created, and how the creature kills others. Some pretty gory scenes featuring nudity with gore, dismemberment and mutilation for those who are into that sort of thing.

The movie had a low budget feel to it, which many horror/gore fans are into, but regardless, the creature looked pretty realistic and disfigured. My complaint with the creature is that when you are disfigured, handicapped and starved nearly to death, that would weaken you. It seemed to make this a superhuman disfigured person who can jump out of second story windows and still run to catch up to it's victim. He wouldn't be so quiet either, at least in his case.

It took nearly an hour for the movie to fully get going with the horror after the build up, but it turned into a pretty decent effort. I didn't even rent this movie, it came as a special feature to Deathbed on the DVD, and felt this movie was far better than the one they actually featured. I give this movie 7 of 10 stars.

I've been holding this DVD now for about a month and a half, and I kept putting it off. For the sole reason, I hear so much "It sucks", and "It's great" talk. Well, I'm going with the latter. I didn't think it was great...but I did find it to be pretty damn good.

Movie is about a family that inherits a castle that has a secret. That secret being a Castle Freak. A Castle Freak you say? Yup. After his "caretaker" sh!ts the bed, poor ole C.F. is left alone. Luckily for him, Jeffrey Coombs and his family (hot mom and hot blind daughter, by the way, say no more) inherit this mammoth castle. Eventually C.F. gets loose and unfortunately he doesn't know how to control himself. You tend to feel bad for C.F. in the movie, so when he does kill (spoiler maybe?....shut up!) you really don't care. But I connected and cared for him most was when he had trouble with members of the opposite sex. Definitely the top scenes of this flick. The acting was surprisingly efficient. You have B movie actor extrodinaire Jeffrey Coombs play the dad in a really great role. I was expecting his trademark expressions, but instead of the close ups, they focused more on his tone of voice and the scene. Which really helped the film and acting. The others all played the roles very well, no complaints. If you're complaining about this movie's acting you need your head checked....it's a Direct-to-Video film. It was definitely a surprise to me....and most likely it'll be a surprise to you....the horror fan.

I give it around a 7 1/2.....like I said it wasn't great. But damn, the movie was unique, fun, sometimes creepy and overall a welcome edition to the land of HORROR! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!