Horrors are in most cases complete failure, cause they are either too lousy or too ridiculous to be scary. And as their goal is exactly to scare the audience, authors most often neglect other aspects of the movie. This movie does not deserve rating I gave it. Although it is considered to be Lovecraft adaptation, most certainly it is not. It could maybe be loosely inspired by him. The story isn't original or too complex, it's linear and, with exception of monster's mask and acting, this movie doesn't have much to offer. But it has what is the most important for a horror movie and what most of much higher rated horrors don't have - eerie and tense atmosphere. Horror movies are to me mostly either stupid and ridiculous or stupid and plain boring, but this one made me nervously jig on the edge of the chair. It may be mediocre or even bad in other aspects, but it achieves the effect that is the essence of the genre, and if only because of that I have to rate it above average.7/10

Stuart Gordon's "Castle Freak" was about what I expected. Of course, it's a pretty fun movie to watch, if you're into deliberately gross stuff. Or, it's a movie that you might like if you ever want to go to Italy, as a family inherits a castle in a small town in Umbria, only to find out that they're not alone there, and that it relates to the husband's family history. Ignoring the plot, the movie makes Italy look like one fine place (I've been there, so I can vouch for this).The star is Jeffrey Combs. I had seen him in "The Frighteners", "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" and "House on Haunted Hill", but had to read about "Castle Freak" to learn that Stuart Gordon frequently casts him. I enjoyed "Castle Freak", but I don't mind watching these sorts of movies. They're definitely not for everyone.

I have high regard for Gordon's brand of film-making, and CF doesn't disappoint. Although it lacks the gore and special effects of Gordon's other films like Dagon and Herbert West - Reanimator. In fact, I thought that this too was based on a Lovecraft story, but came to know from the credits that this Gothic plot was penned by Gordon himself.Its difficult to decide whether CF was the oppressor or the oppressed. An individual who is manacled, castrated and left to rot in a dungeon since childhood, coupled with frequent lashing with a cat-o-nine tails, cannot hope to grow up into a normal human being. And when such a person breaks free, he is bound to create havoc, since his alienation is total, because he has no sense of right or wrong. And so it happened with CF in the film.As usual, Combs rocks, and the female characters: the prostitute, the mother and the daughter, all display their hot bodies with aplomb. The yelling of the mother got on my nerves after a while, and my only regret is that she was not ripped apart by CF.A point of confusion: Just how long was CF in the dungeon after his crazed mother died? How did he survive without food and water for so long, till Combs' family arrived? I know that its futile to search for logic in a horror film, but still..Watchable, at least once, but certainly not a collectible. And yeah, the irritating, selfish mother, most definitely deserved to be messed up a bit by CF..

This was simply an offer I couldn't refuse, basically the dish was served and I just took it, I mean when Halloween is near you can find at certain stores you can find a shelf with only horror films on special offer, certainly that low price is only during the days of Halloween. Then more than a week ago I was at my local store and I decided to get some horror DVDs, I found 3 movies (each one for about $2): Subspecies, Trancers and Castle Freak. So especially with Castle Freak I found that offer I couldn't refuse, after all it is a film directed by Stuart Gordon and the cover art is just amazing. However I' still a "beginner" with the work of Gordon, in other words I haven't' seen yet Re-Animator and actually I have seen just 2 other films by Gordon which are Dagon and H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House (actually this is a Masters of Horror episode), both came from stories by H.P. Lovecraft just like Castle Freak and both are films that I found terrific just like Castle Freak. I watched it with a couple of friends last night and we more or less knew what to expect from it but actually this was still a really pleasant surprise for me since Castle Freak have certain elements that really surprised me and that I really liked. This has a simple story, we have that John Reilly (Jeffrey Combs) has inherited a castle that is located in Italy. The castle belonged to a duchess, in the very first sequence of the movie we see her and we see a certain action, we know that someone named Giorgio is also in the castle and John together with his ex-wife and his daughter (Barbara Crampton and Jessica Dollarhide) soon will see Giorgio. So we learn certain things, we learn that now John and his wife doesn't have a good relationship, a terrible chapter in the past marked their lives, John was an alcoholic and one night he was driving, his companions were his daughter and his son, his daughter is now blind and his son died that night. Then there's nothing to say when we see that John's wife is now away from him. John has been sober for a long time (I think he says that for 9 months) but during his stay in Italy he will drink again, he will not return to home. Giorgio is certainly the most important character, some kind of monster that at first was thought to be just part of the imagination of Rebecca (John's blind daughter). "There's someone else in the castle" will repeat Rebecca, his father will think that also however that chapter will be back and as I wrote he will drink again, he will take a prostitute to the castle, that his ex-wife and daughter are there is not an impediment once drunk mainly because the castle is an immense place with hundreds of rooms. Castle Freak has certain scenes that I wasn't expecting and certainly are graphic enough to can make that some persons cover their eyes. Of course Giorgio is the protagonist of those scenes, one that I like is when he loses some of his fingers while trying to be free again but is when he start to kill when those scenes happens. Giorgio is witness when drunken John is doing certain, obvious, things to the Italian prostitute. "I didn't kill her, I fu***d her, Okay?" will say later John to the police and certainly he was saying the truth however he "teach" Giorgio to do those certain things however Giorgio boy did something more. Giorgio is one hell of a disgusting character however is story is a tragic one, he is the son of the duchess and of the father of John who ran away with the sister of the duchess (mother of John). Then the duchess did her "revenge", she made of her son some kind of monster, she forgot that Giorgio was also her son. Now Giorgio can't be, the very last scene is really great. Then I had my third pleasant time with a Stuart Gordon movie, if you come across with the DVD of Castle Freak or you find it on TV don't think twice, watch it, is amazingly entertaining, watch it with your friends and have a really good time!