Matrixston
Wow! Such a good movie.
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Salubfoto
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
paulclaassen
I rather enjoyed this 90s cult classic. Horror legends Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton deliver great performances. The acting in general was very good, and the effects were great, as well. I also enjoyed the castle setting, which added greatly to the film's foreboding atmosphere.
Foreverisacastironmess
I always enjoyed this film from the first I saw it, I found it to be a well acted and solidly directed effort all around, it had a nice atmosphere to it that was very eerie at points, and it had one of the best kinds of monsters - the sympathetic one. It might be directed by the from my experience consistently entertaining Stuart Gordon but it's nothing at all like the gruesome manic splatter fun of Re-Animator or From Beyond, but is a little less fantastical and more slow burning and character driven, although it certainly does have some violent gory scenes in it where it counts. I was surprised when I saw that it was made in 1995 I really thought it had a more eighties vibe to it. I love all the sparse Gothic grandeur of the Italian castle where most of the story takes place, it's gorgeous and brings a lot of atmosphere to the movie and the setting makes for such a distinctive tone. The film does have something of a mystery element to it, even though thanks to the DVD cover art and the opening prologue there's no question about who the killer is.. I thought Jeffrey Combs gives a good performance, it was nice to see him play something a little more dramatic and normal instead of an eccentric type, and he's effective as a tortured father and alcoholic who's inadvertently responsible for the death of his young son and the blinding of his daughter, and who yearns to redeem himself in some way, which in the worst way he ultimately does.. And another Gordon regular, Barbara Crampton is good as well, she and Combs have a certain well-established old chemistry together as actors, and they both really kind of come full circle in this movie, having gone from playing enemies, to people that were close, and finally a couple that were once in love but now genuinely seem to hate each other! Jonathan Fuller was fantastic as the craven, repulsive and quite impotently lustful freak, he's terrifying yet pitiable. I love the scene where the kindly old housekeeper tells the tale of poor monstrous Georgio, it's such an unimaginably cruel fate to suffer when you think about it. He was once a regular human being who, through complete isolation and his only human contact being decades of horrific abuse and torture at the hands of his own insane mother, who took a cold hearted and evil lifelong revenge on her own innocent child for the sins of his father, became a virtually mindless subhuman beast who on some twisted level remains that child, he's a most tragic monster. The most disturbing and vicious scene is when the freak does some awful things to a prostitute, ladies of the audience take note, this part of the movie is likely to make you squirm.. So I like this pretty grim violent horror flick a lot, it has a scary human monster in it and is a tense creepy and very underrated gem of the Full Moon back catalogue and is well worth checking out, you may be quite surprised by it.
TonyDood
I've known about this movie for some time and am a casual fan of Gordon's work, but this one came out at a time when things were changing in the low-rent movie biz...more and more a B-film was meaning a "DIY" film, any old hack could put something out and call it a movie and Full Moon, Troma or SOMEONE would try to sell it as a legit feature. I just didn't believe it could be worth the effort, I was tired of being burned by early-90's low-rent horror sludge."Castle Freak" is a legit feature...sorta. It's shot on film, it has real actors and locations, but still suffers the trappings of a low budget...the sets are underwhelming and nothing much happens. And that's one of two major beefs I had with this movie.1) Nothing much happens, and what does transpire is old news...there's a Thing in the cellar and before we dispatch with it there's a modicum of bloodletting and screaming. Meanwhile we have to sit through a healthy heap of tedium concerning the domestic problems of a small family. Despite the presence of some good B-movie actors these scenes seem superfluous to the action...which we never quite get to, except...2) When it does happen, it's outrageously repulsive. Not the most offensive thing you've ever seen it's just...this movie is just really icky! Out of nowhere there are a couple of things that transpire that include naughty bits that are just...unpleasant, and not in the fun way. I wasn't so much offended or caught in that so-gross-it's-fun mode as just...well, sorry I had to bear witness to it--and the effects weren't even that well done. It's just...the sight of the Freak and what he does to his victim is just...blecchy! And it's so completely out of touch with the rest of the movie, which is very "USA Up All Night," back when that show was on. It's really weird to see an average little quirky B-film with this kind of grue in it. I'm glad they went there, actually, I just wish the film would've either sustained/accelerated it (as Gordon did so well in "Re-Animator") or not even gone there to begin with.It's not bad, really it isn't...what's good about it is great--the castle, the final fight, the mysterious Italian village aura and the compelling idea of what exactly the Freak is all about. But the combo of this not being quite bad enough to be really bad or good enough to be really good left me ambivalent, and left me stuck with the sickening images of Freak's mutilated crotch and the prostitute's mutilated boobs. If that's what you want stuck in your head, see this film immediately.
gavin6942
A family of three (Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Jessica Dollarhide) have inherited a castle, but have no plans to stay on. So they take inventory in order to sell off the property. But they aren't the only living relatives -- in the basement is the "castle freak", a deformed cannibal chained to the dungeon. If he gets loose, the family's heritage may become one of pure carnage.Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator") directs this film with a cast consisting of Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator") and Barbra Crampton ("Re-Animator"), produced by Charles Band ("Re-Animator"). Maybe you've caught on, but this is something of a "Re-Animator" reunion... with a few people missing. And a much lower production value (the film quality looks like 1970s issue or something from PBS during British comedy hour). For the most part, this is pretty solid film.Combs is quite good, and one wonders why he's not given leading roles more often. Crampton is also good, and the blind girl (Jessica Dollarhide, in her only feature film) was remarkable. The freak? I have to say the makeup, effects and even the mannerisms were impressive. There's a scene where a prostitute meets her end... and they really went out of their way to show how horrific the freak could be.The story isn't fast-paced or action-packed, so if you need to be constantly entertained, this may not be for you. But if you like a good development in your plot, I think you'd appreciate this lost treasure (definitely one of the lesser-seen Gordon horror films). I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been, because I was half in the bag from drinking Scoresby Scotch (it's the connoisseur's Scotch)... but it kept me feeling pretty good. Thanks, Full Moon Features, for one of your better offerings.
