Movie Review: Castle Freak (1995)

Stuart Gordon’s Castle Freak is a pretty balls-to-the-wall horror movie. It plays it straight, which might be surprising if you’re familiar with Re-Animator.

The story is a slow burn with plenty of tension. The Reilly family — John (Jeffrey Combs), his wife Susan (Barbara Crampton), and their daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide) — inherits a castle from a relative who passed away suddenly. Of course, there is a titular freak, played by Jonathan Fuller, who had been kept chained up and tortured.

The freak is truly disturbing, and all the more so because he’s somewhat sympathetic. We can see that he’s not just out there killing people, but that he has some motivation in the form of sexual frustration.

Combs and Crampton do nice jobs here, in surprisingly dramatic roles. It kind of amazes me that this movie was direct-to-video, not only due to its fairly high quality, but for the focus of the script. It’s not exploitation. It’s not just violence. There is some nice character stuff.

If you’re just here for the gore, you won’t be disappointed. But the actors and director definitely elevate the material.

Rating: 6/10