the audience applauded

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

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.

John (Jeffrey Combs) and Susan Reilly (Barbara Crampton) are a married couple going through some very dark times. She blames him for the fatal car crash that blinded their teen aged daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide) and killed their younger child J.J. (Alessandro Sebastian Satta). Now, years later, John learns that he has inherited a 12th century Italian castle. They come to do some inventory (John really just wants to sell the place) and do a little exploring. What they discover is that the castle also comes with a secret: a monster, Giorgio (Jonathan Fuller) residing in the lower levels.What gives "Castle Freak" an edge over similar horror product is the overwhelming feeling of tragedy. A pall hangs over this whole film; one has to wonder if this family is ever going to be happy again. Giorgio, too, comes with his own desperately unhappy back story. As is the case with many a movie monster, he's quite pitiable as well as hideous. Fuller is excellent in the role. As often as he creeps you out, he earns your sympathies.While Combs does tend to get his due as a truly talented actor, this viewer would have to point to "Castle Freak" as a solid example of just how good Crampton is as an actress. She's more than just a pretty face. The dramatic tension between John and Susan is palpable. Dollarhide, too, is very good, delivering a sensitive and vulnerable performance. It's somewhat wearying that Susan keeps automatically dismissing Rebeccas' insistence of the other presence in the castle. Stubborn characters can be hard to deal with in this or any other genre.Director Stuart Gordon and his largely Italian crew create vivid atmosphere. They mostly try to avoid bright colours. In fact, this is one of those instances where it feels like the filmmakers tried to create a slightly colourized version of a black & white movie. The makeup effects by Optic Nerve are impressive, and Richard Bands' music is excellent."Castle Freak" definitely deserves a wider audience. It's a serious, somber story where one does get emotionally invested in these characters.Inspired by, rather than officially based on, the H.P. Lovecraft tale "The Outsider".Seven out of 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!

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.