Castle Freak
| release date | December 16 1997 |
| studio | Full Moon |
| director | Stuart Gordon |
| writer | Stuart Gordon |
| starring | Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Jonathan Fuller, Jessica Dollarhide, Massimo Sarchielli |
| rating | R |
| tagline | Hideous... hungry... and loose! |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
3 Comments
Grim, nasty, and decidedly lacking in the humor department. A solid effort by Mr. Stuart Gordon and highly recommended to his fans and the fans of Jeffery Combs.
Great movie.
I really wanted to like Castle Freak. I absolutely loved the Re-Animator and From Beyond, Gordon’s other horror films, but this one is very different. First off, viewers should know that this film is not a comedy – at all. The lighting is dark and drab, and it looks like it could easily have been filmed in black and white. The whole film looks dirty and gritty, and that may appeal to some, but I didn’t think it made the movie any more interesting.
As a fan of Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, I enjoyed their acting abilities, but overall the film fell short. It’s really more of a drama than a horror film, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, in this case it doesn’t work.
I really wanted to like Castle Freak, but I couldn’t. It was scarier seeing the broken family of protagonists become ever more distant than watching the monster kill people. That being said, don’t let it be your first Stuart Gordon film.
Cool. But doesn’t really go beyond that. Needs something more that I just can’t put my finger on. Definitely not Stuart Gordon or Jeffrey Combs best (alas, I would go as far to say that Combs isn’t even trying in this movie).
Still enjoyable nonetheless.
It’s hard for me to not enjoy something when Jeffery Combs & Stuart Gordon are working together & Castle Freak keeps that streak going. Shot on location in an amazing castle & with a truely disturbing freak this one from Full Moon won’t disappoint. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Outsider”.
A hugely enjoyable movie, with human elements from a number of different angles. The “victims” which are a grieving family and the “Freak”…who has suffered at the hands of a brutish old woman. Jeff gets it the worst since he’s the perpetrator of the grieving, and Babs is not letting him sow his oats, particularly since Babara Crampton, some ten years after From Beyond, is still a bit of a honey.Again, this is Lovecraftian, and the music like was mentioned in other comments is similar to Re-Animator; dark strings. The effects are excellent, and gruesome with the odd bit of twisted love, and the atmosphere is what I’d expect from a haunted castle ala H.P. Good acting all round particularly from Ms Crampton, great spooky, sets, and a grainy feel, like old grave dust, that reeks of cemeteries.Not as good as Dagon, but (in my humble opinion) better than From Beyond or Re-Animator.
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.
I was thinking that the movie was dragging because of the muted appearances of the monster in the first half, but a more-is-less approach definitely paid off in the 2nd half. The storyline is good, the monster is cool, Combs is good, and there are some good horror scenes….the Freak has a heck of a bite. Dropping the humor for a serious tone worked well in this, I think. I did find it kind of funny in one scene where the blind daughter and her mother are running away from the Freak, and the blind daughter turns to “look back” at the monster chasing them oops/lol. This turned out much better than I thought it would, and I like it.
This is another great horror film from Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs. They’re like the horror version of Scorsese and DeNiro.
This is one f’d up movie, even by Stuart Gordon’s standards.
Slasher Diva is not kidding about this movie possessing THE most macabre sex scene in horror history. It’s messed UP.
This one’s not for the faint of heart. I give it five skulls. Check into Stuart Gordon, he’s the real deal. Never anything half-assed from this dude, or Jeffrey Combs for that matter.
This is an ok movie. It’s a bit creepy, and even brutal at times, but the pace is slow and the story isn’t that interesting. Not my favorite Stuart Gordon project.
Whilst on the whole I enjoyed this movie there were certain parts that didn’t sit well with me.
The cinematography was sub standard, almost TV like with a slight ‘soft focus’ to it, reminded me of a bad soap. Also,the extras were worse than woeful, it really took away form the fine work of the leads(genre favourites Coombs & Crampton). Finally the soundtrack was an often ‘hokey’ sounding keyboard trying to fill in for an orchestra, works well in some films…not this one though.
The good parts?
As mentioned previously, the leads really elevated this movie, Coombs is always at his best with this kind of material, very underrated actor in my opinion, but destined to be forever typecast.
The story was well written for mine and the gore was excellent when onscreen. Make-up did a great job with the ‘freak’ of the title, esp the ‘cleft palette’.
A very entertaining B movie from when Fullmoon still put out good B movies.
One of my absolute FAVORITE horror movies. Just brilliant!
“Castle Freak” is a really strong but sadly extremely underrated gothic horror film, loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Outsider”. It’s brilliantly written and paced, and filled with loads of incredible suspense and super-creepy atmosphere (check out the amazing opening!).
The Italian castle looks just beautiful: it’s full of eerie-looking rooms, dark corridors and sinister cellars, all wonderfully filmed and shot. We also get an excellents score from the great Richard Band, some surprisingly awesome acting performances (most notably Jeffrey Combs who has outdone himself here), some neat dialogue an outstanding-looking creature and a few fabulously gruesome kills (bitten off tits, bitten off faces, a skinned cat…).
It’s a mystery to me why this movie is not more popular. It’s a lost genre classic that definitely deserves to be rediscovered!