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A hugely enjoyable movie, with human elements from a number of different angles. The "victims" which are a grieving family and the "Freak"...who has suffered at the hands of a brutish old woman. Jeff gets it the worst since he's the perpetrator of the grieving, and Babs is not letting him sow his oats, particularly since Babara Crampton, some ten years after From Beyond, is still a bit of a honey.Again, this is Lovecraftian, and the music like was mentioned in other comments is similar to Re-Animator; dark strings. The effects are excellent, and gruesome with the odd bit of twisted love, and the atmosphere is what I'd expect from a haunted castle ala H.P. Good acting all round particularly from Ms Crampton, great spooky, sets, and a grainy feel, like old grave dust, that reeks of cemeteries.Not as good as Dagon, but (in my humble opinion) better than From Beyond or Re-Animator.
It's hard for me to not enjoy something when Jeffery Combs & Stuart Gordon are working together & Castle Freak keeps that streak going. Shot on location in an amazing castle & with a truely disturbing freak this one from Full Moon won't disappoint. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Outsider".
Cool. But doesn't really go beyond that. Needs something more that I just can't put my finger on. Definitely not Stuart Gordon or Jeffrey Combs best (alas, I would go as far to say that Combs isn't even trying in this movie).
I really wanted to like Castle Freak. I absolutely loved the Re-Animator and From Beyond, Gordon's other horror films, but this one is very different. First off, viewers should know that this film is not a comedy - at all. The lighting is dark and drab, and it looks like it could easily have been filmed in black and white. The whole film looks dirty and gritty, and that may appeal to some, but I didn't think it made the movie any more interesting.
As a fan of Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, I enjoyed their acting abilities, but overall the film fell short. It's really more of a drama than a horror film, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, in this case it doesn't work.
I really wanted to like Castle Freak, but I couldn't. It was scarier seeing the broken family of protagonists become ever more distant than watching the monster kill people. That being said, don't let it be your first Stuart Gordon film.
Posted By: Necronatalusz at 10:18pm, February 22, 2009
Grim, nasty, and decidedly lacking in the humor department. A solid effort by Mr. Stuart Gordon and highly recommended to his fans and the fans of Jeffery Combs.
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