Alicia I love this movie so much

Wordiezett So much average

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Gabriel Batista Giorgio, the villain of "Castle Freak", is a man who has been mistreated by his own mother since childhood, after it was abandoned by the subject's father. It's not like those disposable characters we see in most horror movies. His only knowledge is darkness and pain. He does not seem prepared for the world, and therefore behaves and feels like an animal. The dark sequences were very well filmed, and the soundtrack is shivering. On the other hand, the script is well written, though the argument seems cliché. A castle is inherited by a family, who decides to spend time in the place. But there is more to it. It's a family that's going through a serious problem. John made decisions in his life that end up shaking the people he loves. There is tension inside that castle before Giorgio's appearance. We see a family drama mixed with horror, and these two genres walk so well that it becomes uncomfortable! If it were not for some "dumb-bells" of certain characters, this movie would be a masterpiece, of that no doubt!

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.

kclipper Not only is this one of the final films of Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures of the 1990s, but it is the last of the moderately budgeted horror genre's collaborations with the Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, and Barbara Crampton trio. This is considered by many to be a complete failure on many levels, but good delivery of bad material and some very gory moments give fans a run for their money.Combs and Crampton are grieving parents after a car accident leaves their son killed and their daughter blinded. She can't seem to forgive the distraught dad for being intoxicated behind the wheel when it happened, which leaves the plot open for Comb's inevitable redemption. Sooner if not later, the family inherits a castle in Rome, and unfortunately, they also inherit the hideously deformed and tortured man chained up in the basement. After eating a cat, the freak gains enough strength to break his chains and go on a rampage after anyone found in the castle. Its pretty tasteless stuff as the completely naked creature bites a prostitute to death, tears out the throats of policemen and other sorts of gory mayhem, meanwhile the blind daughter and Combs are the only people convinced that there is someone else in the castle.This is a dingy looking movie that fails to provide mood or ambiance short of trying pretty hard. Combs and Crampton are now pros at what they do considering the material that they're given. The creature is more amusing than scary, but gore fans will be pleased with the overall gruesomeness. Too bad Full Moon Pictures didn't end their stay with a better bad movie, but left audiences in the rain with just plain bad instead.

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.