Castle Freak

Stuart Gordon's "Castle Freak" of 1995 is a creepy, gory, sad and quite original little horror flick and yet another proof that the man is a more than gifted director. It is certainly not Gordon's best movie (his absolute masterpiece is "Re-Animator", with "From Beyond" as a close second), but it nevertheless is a highly atmospheric and unusual Horror film, and especially worth watching as the 1990s were a more than poor decade for Horror in which good horror films, such as this one, were rare.

The film takes place in the homeland of great Horror, namely Bella Italia, where it is excellently set in an eerie old castle. John and Susan Reilly, a troubled married couple, have inherited the castle, and come to Italy with their blind daughter in order to take a look at their inheritance. The Reillys soon have to realize that their marital disputes are not their only trouble in their creepy new home... Gordon's regular star, the great Jeffrey Combs who is without doubt one of the greatest Horror actors of his generation, stars as John Reilly, the family father, and he is great in the role. His fellow "Re-Animator" cast member, the beautiful Barbara Crampton is very good as the wife. Jonathan Fuller is also very good. The film is creepy and highly atmospheric throughout and has many highly intense moments. Castles are always a great setting for Horror films, in my opinion, and this one is particularly eerie. This certainly isn't one of Stuart Gordon's best, but there is no doubt that it outshines most other Horror productions from the mid 90s. As far as I am concerned, "Castle Freak" doesn't reach the brilliance of "Re-Animator", but it is definitely a creepy, highly atmospheric and original, above average example of good 90s Horror. Recommended!

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.

Couple (Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton) moves into an old castle with their blind daughter (Jessica Dollarhide), but are plagued by weird noises, unexplained visitors, and a series of murders that are taking place in the castle. In order to clear his name of the killings, Combs sets out to find out what is lurking about the house. Scary, atmospheric thriller with some good death scenes and creative make-up is a welcomed comeback by horror director Stuart Gordan.

Unrated; Graphic Violence, Sexual Situations, Nudity, and Profanity.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.