Underplayed Gems

Castle Freak (1995)

Castle Freak poster
Directed by
Stuart Gordon
Genre
horror film, B movie, monster film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 35m
Rated
R
Rating
6.1 of 10 from 242 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A man inherits a castle in Italy and moves there with his wife and blind daughter. A monster that was chained in the basement escapes and starts killing people.

tensegrimybleakgoryclaustrophobicunsettlingvisceralmelancholic

What happens

Castle Freak is a 1995 direct-to-video horror film directed by Stuart Gordon. The film stars Jeffrey Combs as John Reilly, an American recovering alcoholic who inherits an Italian castle when a distant relative passes away. John stays at the castle with his estranged wife Susan (Barbara Crampton) and blind daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide), but a freakish monster locked away in the basement (Jonathan Fuller) escapes and commits a series of murders. An American-Italian co-production, Castle Freak went into production in 1994 after Gordon noticed art for the film in producer Charles Band's office. Gordon agreed to develop the film on Band's condition that the film take place in a castle, contain a freak, and would be shot on a very low budget. Gordon obliged as he would be able to cast who he wanted in the film and would get the final cut. The film was shot in 1994 in a castle owned by Band in Italy, where Gordon had previously shot The Pit and the Pendulum. The film was shot during a period when Full Moon Features was having financial issues and was released to little press on home video in November 1995. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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