Before going into production on Space Truckers (1996), Stuart Gordon directed Castle Freak (1995) for Charles Band’s Full Moon Features. Gordon was obliged to shoot Castle Freak on a low budget in Band’s castle in Italy for a direct to video release. Gordon, as always, made the most of the resources given him, even improving on the earlier The Pit & The Pendulum (1991). As the title suggests Castle Freak is about a monstrous freak who lives in a castle.
John (Jeffrey Combs) has recently inherited a castle in Italy from a long forgotten aunt. He moves there with his wife Susan (Barbara Crampton) and his daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide). Unknown to them, living in the dungeon is John’s half-brother Giorgio (Jonathan Fuller); a man beaten and twisted into a monster by his scornful mother. Soon Giorgio is on the loose and stalking Rebecca.
The design for Giorgio is visceral and disturbing. His appearance, even when robed, is a highly affecting piece of horror. Stuart Gordon takes great care in the scenes with his monster to balance gore with suspense. In these scenes Gordon employs dolly shots and rapid cuts to condense space and imbue the action with urgency. By contrast the scenes without Giorgio that focus on John, Susan and Rebecca feel as though they were shot for an after-school special.
Castle Freak‘s subplot regarding John’s alcoholism is what gives the film its dramatic edge, even though it lacks a cohesive visual style. It’s revealed that John and Susan are essentially separated; they simply stay together to take care of their blind daughter. In a flashback it is established that John, driving home drunk, crashed the family car, blinding Rebecca and killing his son J.J.
Rebecca’s recent disability prompts her parents, who are overcome with guilt, to infantilize her. They treat her as the constant victim. Yet they inadvertently use their daughter as a pawn in their emotional games. The tragedy is not only that Rebecca isn’t helpless but that John and Susan can’t communicate with one another without using their daughter as a conduit for emotional abuse. At the heart of a film that’s otherwise a pretty standard horror flick is this very honest portrait of a family undone by tragedy.
Castle Freak is an above-average Full Moon production and probably Gordon’s second best feature after Re-Animator (1985). Castle Freak is lurid, grotesque, macabre and emotionally engaging at every turn. Despite it’s straight to video status Castle Freak remains one of the more innovative American horror films of the nineties.
