Castle Freak (1995)

A troubled couple and their blind daughter come to Italy to visit a 12th Century castle they've inherited. Soon they are plagued by unexplained noises, mysteriously broken objects, and the ... See full summary »

Director:

Stuart Gordon

Writers:

Stuart Gordon (story), H.P. Lovecraft (story),

Stars:

Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Jonathan Fuller

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeffrey Combs	...	John Reilly
Barbara Crampton	...	Susan Reilly
Jonathan Fuller	...	Giorgio
Jessica Dollarhide	...	Rebecca Reilly
Massimo Sarchielli	...	Giannetti
Elisabeth Kaza	...	Agnese
Luca Zingaretti	...	Forte
Helen Stirling	...	Duchess D'Orsino
Alessandro Sebastian Satta	...	JJ
Raffaella Offidani	...	Sylvana
Marco Stefanelli	...	Benedetti
Tunny Piras	...	Grimaldi
Rolando Cortegiani	...	Tonio
Carolyn Gordon	...	The Gelato People
Suzanna Gordon	...	The Gelato People

Storyline

A troubled couple and their blind daughter come to Italy to visit a 12th Century castle they've inherited. Soon they are plagued by unexplained noises, mysteriously broken objects, and the daughter's claims of an unknown nocturnal visitor to her bedroom. When the housekeeper and a local prostitute and are discovered savagely murdered in the castle's dungeon, John must unlock the castle's secret to save himself from jail and his family from the castle's secret inhabitant.

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Plot Keywords:

castle | prostitute | freak | voyeurism | hit in the crotch | 

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Taglines:

Hideous... hungry... and loose!

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong violence and gore, a scene of sexuality and some language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian Swedish

Release Date:

14 November 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak

Filming Locations:

Giove, Terni, Umbria, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Full Moon Enterprises, Full Moon Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 95 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The castle used in the film is an actual Italian castle owned by the president of Full Moon Pictures, the distribution company.

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Goofs

When the Duchess is taking bread and dried sausage to The Freak in the opening sequence the sliced bread has a gaping hole in it in the kitchen but is whole by the time it makes it to the dungeon.

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Quotes

Rebecca Reilly: There's somebody else here there's somebody in the castle!

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Crazy Credits

Special thanks to H.P. Lovecraft, Andrea Barzini, Giovanni Natalucci, Michla Gisotti, Kimi Yamada, and the wonderful people of Giove, Italy.

User Reviews

Surprisingly good

I really didn't expect much when I picked this movie up, considering its pedigree (a Full Moon low-budget picture shot in Italy). What a pleasure then that this turned out much better than expected. Good use is made of the Italian locations, especially the castle, and Stuart Gordon uses many cool angles to keep things interesting. Reputation has him as an over-the-top-gore director, but this doesn't do him full justice. He is also good in building atmosphere, and this is "Castle Freak"'s biggest asset. The gore is relatively minimal, and instead of indulging us with gore, he goes for a dark and tragic atmosphere, convincingly combining a traumatized family and a mistreated, misunderstood monster in the "Frankenstein"-tradition. This means that despite reuniting the Gordon-Combs-Crampton triumvirate "Re-Animator"-Fans should beware: this one is played strictly as drama/tragedy with not a single laugh in sight. The screenplay is well-developed with convincing characters and reasonably good dialogue. Nothing that is Academy Award-material, but who'd expect that from a movie called "Castle Freak"? Acting is also spot on, especially Jeffrey Combs in a straight man role (for once). While it would go to far to call this a lost genre classic, it deserves to be seen by more people than probably did. If you're a genre fan, give "Castle Freak" a chance. It might just win you over, like it did with me.