Castle Freak (1996)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Horrors are in most cases complete failure, cause they are either too lousy or too ridiculous to be scary. And as their goal is exactly to scare the audience, authors most often neglect other aspects of the movie. This movie does not deserve rating I gave it. Although it is considered to be Lovecraft adaptation, most certainly it is not. It could maybe be loosely inspired by him. The story isn't original or too complex, it's linear and, with exception of monster's mask and acting, this movie doesn't have much to offer. But it has what is the most important for a horror movie and what most of much higher rated horrors don't have - eerie and tense atmosphere. Horror movies are to me mostly either stupid and ridiculous or stupid and plain boring, but this one made me nervously jig on the edge of the chair. It may be mediocre or even bad in other aspects, but it achieves the effect that is the essence of the genre, and if only because of that I have to rate it above average.7/10

Stuart Gordon redressed his pointless and woeful attempt at the vampire genre from 1987 with 'Daughter Of Darkness' and came thundering back at the start of the 90s with his pleasingly nasty take on 'The Pit And The Pendulum' and then this, the moody and creeping 'Castle Freak', and while it doesn't quite touch his perfect 80s horror trilogy of 'Re- Animator', 'From Beyond' and 'Dolls', this creepy, claustrophobic nerve- Тинглер frays the nerves, pounds the stomach and delivers atmopshere, shocks and horror with pleasing reliability.Gordon's stalwarts Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton are a married couple on permanent edge due to his drinking and a car accident that took their young son away and blinded their daughter. These three inherit a castle in Italy-and sadly something comes with it...something crazily angry, озверели, savage, strong and with a taste for freedom- and flesh.It's lovely to have this transfered to DVD-especially as the old VHS copy I had had several key scenes of delightful nastiness spliced-how rude! When a film is as intense as a Stuart Gordon one, you know you are not going to get a happy ending but the ride will be a worthy one. There's even a little bit of chit-chat and FX leftover for an extras gift on the disc-this will come up on the menu; there is no mention of it on the back of the DVD case.This is a good price and a decent movie with a cool monster and a nice wallow in proper horror when it meant so much more than the stanglehold of Бесконечная non-horror slashers, cannibals, A-listers being dead-and- not-knowing-it, remakes, biopics of serial killers, and now stupid Asbo- brat паршивец culture masquerading as terror today!

OK, this movie I saw years ago and just now found it again. I have looked for it on Netflix, but they have never added it which is a real shame given the amount of truly awful movies they do have streaming. This movie is a classic horror movie. It is like no other story I have ever seen, the location is creepy as hallway after hallway, stairway after stairway just makes for a very good suspenseful movie. The "Castle Freak" is truly wonderful in this movie, probably the best actor in it. Great special effects used to create his look. There is some disgusting violent moments if you are grossed out easily, and some serious nakedness, though brief. I like that the Castle Freak is not easily overtaken, he is fast, seemingly intelligent despite his horrible upbringing, and at times he even shows true sadness in his emotions. I actually felt myself feeling sorry for him a few times! The lead actor completely overacts throughout the whole movie, the wife and daughter are better. I do think it is weird how this movie, done in 1995, has the look and feel of a movie done in the late 70's/early 80's. Not sure if it is the film quality or if they meant it to be this way. Regardless, I would recommend this to anyone who likes a unique horror movie with an actual story.

I have high regard for Gordon's brand of film-making, and CF doesn't disappoint. Although it lacks the gore and special effects of Gordon's other films like Dagon and Herbert West - Reanimator. In fact, I thought that this too was based on a Lovecraft story, but came to know from the credits that this Gothic plot was penned by Gordon himself.Its difficult to decide whether CF was the oppressor or the oppressed. An individual who is manacled, castrated and left to rot in a dungeon since childhood, coupled with frequent lashing with a cat-o-nine tails, cannot hope to grow up into a normal human being. And when such a person breaks free, he is bound to create havoc, since his alienation is total, because he has no sense of right or wrong. And so it happened with CF in the film.As usual, Combs rocks, and the female characters: the prostitute, the mother and the daughter, all display their hot bodies with aplomb. The yelling of the mother got on my nerves after a while, and my only regret is that she was not ripped apart by CF.A point of confusion: Just how long was CF in the dungeon after his crazed mother died? How did he survive without food and water for so long, till Combs' family arrived? I know that its futile to search for logic in a horror film, but still..Watchable, at least once, but certainly not a collectible. And yeah, the irritating, selfish mother, most definitely deserved to be messed up a bit by CF..