Castle Freak

READ THE WHOLE REVIEW!
FIRST OFF, YES I KNOW, I TOOK THE TITLE FROM CAPTAIN INSANITY'S REVIEW OF "MACHINE GIRL". Captain, if you're reading this, that's kind of my way of a tribute to you. =)
BUT ANYWAY, "Castle Freak" is A TERRIBLE WASTE OF TIME! HOW DID THIS MOVIE WIN AN AWARD FROM FANGORIA? I GUESS YOU CAN TELL THAT HORROR WAS A DYING BREED IN THE '90s.
Anyway, this movie was so bad I had to shut it off 31 minutes into it. THAT'S RIGHT, I COULDN'T EVEN GET THROUGH THE WHOLE THING!!!

All right, I'm gonna be level-headed for a minute and explain where I'm coming from:
"Castle Freak" is a RIPOFF OF THE SHINING:
In Castle Freak, a messed-up father, a quiet and worrysome mother, and their innocent offspring, in this case, a blind teenage girl, inherit a castle when they find out the father is the heir to the deceased dutchess.
In The Shining, a messed-up father, a quiet and worrysome mother, and their innocent offspring, in this case, a seven-year-old boy with an imaginary friend in his mouth, take care of a hotel the size of a castle.
CASTLE FREAK...NOT THE MOST ORIGINAL FLICK, IS IT?
Besides THAT, this movie is more like a rejected idea for Scooby-Doo. It's like Dennis Paoli and Stuart Gordon were using their body weight in illegal drugs and wanted to make a 90-minute Scooby-Doo episode.
Actually, I take that back, BECAUSE SCOOBY-DOO WOULD NEVER MAKE SOMETHING AS AWFUL AS CASTLE FREAK!!!

First off, next to the events, what's the most important thing in a horror movie? THE CHARACTERS. And YA KNOW WHAT?! These characters made the one-third of this movie BORING. Actually, all 31 minutes of this movie are BORING.
And here's the root of all my ANGER:
STUART GORDON IS A HYPOCRITE. I read that he protested the Vietnam War to protect innocent lives. SO WHY DOES HE LET SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN TO AN INNOCENT CAT IN "CASTLE FREAK"? WHY NOT JUST WRITE A MOVIE WHERE A MANIAC STALKS CHILDREN?!?!
And furthermore, lemme throw THIS out into the briny open:
WHAT IS IT WITH THESE DIRECTORS AND CATS? WHY DO HORROR MAKERS HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST CATS? ANIMALS IN GENERAL?!?!
Yes, I AM an animal lover, SO SUE ME!!! THIS travesty is the STRAW THAT BROKE MY BACK. I have seen an animal as a victim ONE TIME TOO MANY. And then you go and put it in a BORING MOVIE THAT I HAD TO SHUT OFF THIRTY-ONE MINUTES INTO IT.

OK, if you're still reading, I'm sorry if I sounded angry. But honestly, this WAS the straw that broke my back. PEOPLE, IF YOU'RE GONNA WRITE A HORROR MOVIE, LEAVE THE PETS OUT OF IT, A'ITE?
You can call me whatever names you want. Make fun of me for complaining about what I did. FINE! But that's MY reason for disliking, no, HATING, this movie. But please be a little thoughtful in regards to what you write, what you watch, and how you feel about this review.
But if you read all my movie reviews, PLEASE don't click "No" under this one. PLEASE check out my other reviews such as the ones I did for such classics as "Dawn of the Dead", "Friday the 13th", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and my all-time favorite horror movie, the Italian Masterpiece, Dario Argento's very own "Suspiria" !!!

To close my review, if you want fantasy-horror, check out "In The Mouth of Madness", The Evil Dead Trilogy, Hellraiser and things of the sort. If you want quality monster horror, check out all four "Tremors" movies, because they rock all the way along!!!
So if you were this patient, I give you MY SINCERE THANKS. PLEASE stick with another movie, DO NOT watch this, not even a few minutes of it. Thanks for the time, and peace.

Well, the freak isn't actually a "freak". He's more the product of poor parenting (that's putting it mildly). I haven't seen everything Stewart Gordon has done, but I've seen enough to know he always had the potential to make a less than stellar film. "Castle Freak" is the evidence. The title of this film conjures up so many ghoulishly delightful images in ones mind. My imagination had all kinds of demented scenarios for this film. None of them were quite as lifeless as this. While trying to figure out why this film fizzled, the only honest reason I could come up with is that Stewart Gordon got sloppy and/or lazy. All the elements for a fun horror film were at his disposal and he muffed it. Let's break down what he had and what he did with it:

-CREEPY ENVIRONMENT
Apparently this was shot on the same setting as "Pit and the Pendulum". Even the exterior looks just unkempt enough to garner doubt about its security. Much of "Freak" takes place in the sufficiently dank dark corners of the cellar. Nearly the rest takes place in a pub, the rustic kitchen, a bedroom and the "Castle" ramparts (topside). This is limited but sufficient if used properly.

-GRUESOME CREATURE EFFECTS
Yea, this "Freak" is a glorious mess. They used full body makeup for reasons an explanation would spoil. Gordon never had bad makeup and prosthetic people in any film I've seen. Plenty of blood gets smeared around too.

-TRIED AND TRUE CAST
Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton are Gordon veterans by the time this gets made. They both proved highly enjoyable in their previously campy, but convincing roles. Nobody else hurt this film with bad acting.

-A FAIR CONCEPT
The results of life long neglect and abuse on the loose; what more could you ask for.

-THE RESULTS (some mild spoilers, no plot conveyed)
I think the first problem I had with this film is that it's played too straight. Because of this, Combs is completely out of his element. He's not good enough an actor to pull of a leading man role in a straight horror film without looking incapable. Everyone else did a fair job considering they were given nothing to do. Another unwelcome result of playing it straight; it got a little boring. Despite some nasty sexual situations (in one, Combs looks porno bad) and an adequate body count, none of it was unique or particularly well staged. The pacing just languished in the attempt at a deep, emotional story. There were some thought provoking psychological situations here, but not enough to keep it going. With the lack of humor, the copious blood was simply gratuitous where in other Gordon films it heightened the fun gross-out factor.

I like horror played straight, but Stewart Gordon just didn't do a good job of it here. The actual "Freak" was an abomination. Though you should feel sympathy, you simply want him dead to end his demented suffering and horrific acts. The chases were clumsy, the action mediocre and fairly unimaginative and the mistakes glaring. Check out Combs running up the castles tower staircase. As the stone steps turns to wood, his foot-falls still sound like stone. Check out the blind daughter falling down into the cellar. When she reaches the bottom, her cane falls wildly behind her. She cusses at her violent tumble and scrapes, then quickly turns and reaches for her cane; BULLS EYE!! In a film played for camp, this is forgivable and actually funny. In this attempt, it came off as inept. Of course, many films make mistakes; but I don't usually notice them so easily. I like Stewart Gordon's "bite me" attitude, and I love his more campy efforts; they are gruesome, shocking, imaginative and fun. I think he discovered playing it straight is not his strength. I can't say this film is all that fun, scary or enjoyable on any level, though disturbing it can be. For the curious, a rental will do. I can't recommend you buy it though.

-Concept....3.5 stars
-Players.....3 stars
-Creature...3.5 stars
-Script.......2 stars
-Effort......2 stars

2.8 Stars.

Castle Freak is one of my favorite horror movies.
of it's type..
It's not a slasher but some slashing occurs.
I think I like it so much because the Castle Freak is so realistic looking and scary.As I mentioned about the creature in my
review of "The Funhouse"..no matter how hideous The monster is, he is still humanized enough in the story for you to feel sorry for him at times..He has the same needs and desires as other men do but is a product of his deformity and environment.
It has one of the most macabre sex scenes in horror history"in my opinion"..Hold on to your Areolas ladies..YEEK.
The fact that the daughter brought to live in the castle with her parents is blind lends well to the storyline too. Plus you have Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, Two of Lovecrafts favorite actors as the leading characters.
It's quite an intresting well written and well executed little movie..
My advice is buy it.

'Castle Freak' is a 1995 straight-to-video movie directed by Stuart Gordon and is adapted from H.P.Lovecraft's short story 'The Outsider'. It stars Jeffery Combs, Barbara Crampton, Jessica Dollarhide, and Johnathan Fuller.

Out story starts out in an isolated 12th century castle in Italy, we see the resident, and elderly dutchess who seems to be somewhat senile, preparing some food in the kitchen/pantery. She then takes a plate of bread across the castle grounds to another wing and into the lower levels. She opens a locked door to a room that has a deformed pethetic looking thing chained to a wall. she then picks up a leather whip of sorts with jaged edges and begins beating the 'Freak'(Fuller). After the episode, we see her walk into her room in a somewhat disoriented state, and suddenly collapse on the bed. As the movie cuts to later in the evening we see that the dutchess has suffered a heart attack and has died with her being the only one who knows of the existance of the 'Castle Freak'.
After the credits, we are introduced to the Reilys, John(Combs), Susan(Crampton), and their blind daughter Rebbeca(Dollarhide)who seem to be a very troubled family. Being distantly related, John has inherited the castle from the dutchess, and they have traveled to inspect the castle for the possiblity of selling. After the family settles in(and some exposition) Rebbeca wanders the castle. The freak becomes aware of Rebbeca's presence, and driven by hunger and the exitement of new contact, the freak breaks loose(gory scene)and slowly begins to terrorize the occupants of the castle.

This is the 3rd movie to feature the Gordon/Combs/Crampton team and, with a few flaws, is a solid effort. This movie is very dark and serious; It's a departure of the somewhat campy, dark comedy style of 'Re-Animator' and 'From Beyond'

The plot is not specificaly 'based' on 'The Outsider' but is adapted from it, with Gordon writing the screen-play. Gordon is definetly sucsessful in capturing the dark, isolated atmosphere of the story, and is one of the movies strong points. There is alot more to this story than a 'monster' on the loose. There are unerlying themes of abuse, neglect, isolation, hopelessness, and addiction. It veguely reminded me of Metallica's 'The Unforgiven' song and video(which is also influenced by 'The Outsider').

The acting and dialoge is spot-on. Combs and Crampton deliver a great performance(as ususal). After the first few minutes, you'll learn that a tragedy of John's fault took their infant son and resulted in their daughter losing her vision. Combs and Crampton(being a vet of daytime T.V)handle the disfuction and tension that would naturally follow an event of that scale. Dollarhide is convicing, and is able to 'keep up' with the veteran actors, impressive for her first film. Fuller had to go through six-hour make-up sessions to achieve the look. He is able to pull of the physical acting required of the 'freak'.

The editing and cinematography are solid. the movie is 95 min. and moves a little slow at times, but scenes don't overstay their welcome. The way Gordon shot the castle echos 'The Shining'. Being shot in rural Italy, you get a sence of isolation right away. their are tracking shots of the castle that make the castle itself become a character. This really helps bring a sence of what life was like for the 'freak' locked up in the dungeon.

There are only a few flaws with this movie;
1st, It's obviously a low-budjet, straight-to-video movie, but that shouldn't stop any fan of Gordon's movies(they're all like that).
2nd, It can be a little slow at times, but doesn't stray to far.
3rd, there are a few continuity flaws. For example; The Reily's would have to have recieved notice of the inheritance, and organized a trip to the castle before the 'freak' died of dehydration and starvation, so that's stretching it a bit, but is not a huge plot hole.
I would rank this 3rd behind 'From Beyond'(my favorite)and 'Re-animator', but if you're a fan of those, 'Castle Freak' is worth the time.

Stuart Gordon's "Castle Freak" is a fun and creepy classic. I personally love this flick. The acting is well done, the story is quite a chiller and the "Freak" has got to be one of the most ghastly, realistc & underrated monsters within the world of horror films. There is a sprinkle of cheese on top of what is mostly a solid substance filled scary movie. I also enjoy the straight fowardness of it. What I mean is with Re-Animator we get zombies(not real) and with From Beyond we get fantasy horror(again not real) but with Castle Freak, although it has some illogical cheesy-ness mixed in, it also is very believable/conceivable that the going's on in this movie could really happen. A truly underrated fright flick!