Review of Castle Freak (1996) by Al M — 11 Aug 2010

Despite being a direct to video release, Castle Freak is an amazingly creepy, disturbing, and twisted piece of horror that is another small gem in the Stuart Gordon ouevre. While not quite as spectactular as Re-Animator, From Beyond, or Dagon, Castle Freak manages to create a dark, gothic atmosphere filled with depravity.

Also, despite its rather unoriginal premise of a boy forced to grow up in a cell and becoming a monster, Gordon manages to create real characters with a tragic backstory who continue to experience their tragedy in the present.

Nine month before the film takes place, John (Jeffrey Combs from the Re-Animator films and From Beyond) killed his todler son and blinded in daughter in a drunk driving accident. Nine months later, John has quit drinking, no longer sleeps with his wife, and inherits a castle in Italy.

But the castle harbors a dark secret, and this secret man/monster begins to haunt the castle with his unsatiable desires. Slowly, John's bleak life begins to unravel even further. As a new tragedy dawns, the wounds of their previous tradedy begin to resurface.

Ultimately, Castle Freak is a film about tragedy and guilt and how they haunt and form our identies while also being an awesome haunted house film.