Castle Freak (1995) ***
You gotta love movies that don't false advertise. In Castle Freak (1995) there is literally a freak that lives (well, is imprisoned, most of the time) in a castle. And the girl on the theatrical poster actually looks like the actress in the film and she does in fact wear that outfit.
When it coms to a film with a title like this one, and with it being direct-to-video and a Full Moon production, one would expect a schlocky low budget affair and—make no mistake—this is one, but because it's a Stuart Gordon film, there's a little more below the surface to enjoy. There's plenty of gore, gross-out special FX and sleazy material here, but there's also a pretty decent (if melodramatic) family drama at the core.
Jeffrey Combs hams it up in spectacular fashion as an alcoholic philanderer and Barbara Crampton does her best pious mother figure to mixed results. As with Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986) (my review here)—both of which paired Combs and Crampton—Freak is also loosely based on an H.P. Lovecraft story (in this case very loosely based on his 1926 short The Outsider). There isn't any Frankenstein-level of sympathy aimed at the monster (portrayed by Jonathan Fuller)—he's mostly just there to terrorize the Reilly family. As a matter of fact, none of the characters in this film are particularly well-written or deeply explored but that's OK.
Castle Freak never comes close to achieving the greatness of either of the two aforementioned Gordon classics, but it's still better than I was expecting. It's essentially a really twisted comedy with some gothic leanings, and while I'm not sure quite how intentional the former aspect was, I had fun with it.
You can find my Stuart Gordon Feature Films Ranked list here.
When it coms to a film with a title like this one, and with it being direct-to-video and a Full Moon production, one would expect a schlocky low budget affair and—make no mistake—this is one, but because it's a Stuart Gordon film, there's a little more below the surface to enjoy. There's plenty of gore, gross-out special FX and sleazy material here, but there's also a pretty decent (if melodramatic) family drama at the core.
Jeffrey Combs hams it up in spectacular fashion as an alcoholic philanderer and Barbara Crampton does her best pious mother figure to mixed results. As with Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986) (my review here)—both of which paired Combs and Crampton—Freak is also loosely based on an H.P. Lovecraft story (in this case very loosely based on his 1926 short The Outsider). There isn't any Frankenstein-level of sympathy aimed at the monster (portrayed by Jonathan Fuller)—he's mostly just there to terrorize the Reilly family. As a matter of fact, none of the characters in this film are particularly well-written or deeply explored but that's OK.
Castle Freak never comes close to achieving the greatness of either of the two aforementioned Gordon classics, but it's still better than I was expecting. It's essentially a really twisted comedy with some gothic leanings, and while I'm not sure quite how intentional the former aspect was, I had fun with it.
You can find my Stuart Gordon Feature Films Ranked list here.
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