The story of how “Castle Freak” came to be is a funny one. Director Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator" "From Beyond") was supposedly in horror producer Charles Band's office and noticed a poster with the title “Castle Freak.” Band had no script at that point, just the concept and the artwork. He offered to let Gordon develop the idea on two conditions: it had to have a castle, and it had to have a freak. With some inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's story “The Outsider,” Gordon and his longtime collaborator Dennis Paoli came up with a script.
Jeffrey Combs plays John Reilly, who inherits an Italian castle. He, his wife Susan (Barbara Crampton), and daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide) travel to stay at John's new demesnes and take inventory, only to find that the castle hides a horrible secret. It isn't only the castle that is haunted. John, a recovering alcoholic, turns out to have crashed the family car months earlier, killing their son and blinding Rebecca. The estranged husband and wife deal with their grief and anger, Rebecca deals with her disability, and all of them are stalked by a horrible presence.
When it comes to Stuart Gordon, I am used to black comedies, although in truth, “Re-Animator” and “From Beyond” are not truly comedies; the stories are played straight, they are just so campy and over-the-top that they are hilarious. “Castle Freak” is a more serious horror drama, and really a better story than those other films. On a ridiculously low budget of $500K, Gordon puts together a pretty decent family drama/horror flick, exploring some interesting themes. There is the marital discord between John and Susan, and the question of whether it is possible for her to forgive him after his drunk driving cost their family so much. Rebecca HAS forgiven her father, and as she learns to live with her blindness, she provides some pretty decent film representation for disabled people.
Finally, there is the titular Freak. I don't want to give too much away, but he turns out to be a much more sympathetic character than you would expect, even as he does revolting things. In fact, I think the film can be summed up by pronouncing the title two different ways. If you put the emphasis on the second word, “Castle FREAK,” then it is a typical, gory horror film about a haunted castle. If you emphasize the first word, “CASTLE Freak,” then it's a different story entirely.
3.5 stars out of 5
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