 Hello and welcome to another edition of Frightfully Forgotten Horror Movies, and today we're going to be talking about 1995's Castle Freak. This movie was directed by one of the masters himself, Stuart Gordon. He did The Reanimator and From Beyond. And Dolls. Oh, and Dolls, which we covered. That was one of our first fucking episodes. Yeah, yeah. Maybe don't watch it then. Jeffrey Combs is in this. He was in The Reanimator. Yeah. And From Beyond and Frightmare. And he was a mainstay in Star Trek DS9. He plays Wei Yun. He plays Liquidator Brunt. Then he was also in Star Trek Enterprise as Trant. So he's like a Star Trek legend. Yeah. As well as a horror legend. Yeah, that's right. So he's got those two niches covered. He really gets around. Yeah, man. He can make a living on cons alone. Yeah. Barbara Crampton is also in this. And she was also in Reanimator and also in From Beyond. It's a big family. Yeah. It's the Stuart Gordon family is what it is. They're happy family. So the movie starts off. We see this old lady preparing all this shitty food. Rotten sausage and everything that she's cutting and all this like moldy bread. We see her open the door to something that's in this cage. And she starts whipping this thing, this person that's in this holding cell and just whipping that shit out of him too. Like sounds that the thing makes. Oh yeah. Like Jesus during the whipping. She kind of gets a little winded makes her way back downstairs and lays on the bed. And I guess the whipping was too much for the old bag and she just dies. She got whipped out. We suddenly get introduced to the Riley family and they're being driven up to the castle that John Riley is inherited from his dead aunt. Hard to believe I inherited a castle. Yes, it is. Hard to believe I inherited a castle. But he doesn't really want to keep the castle. He just wants to liquidate the assets and sell it, which I don't blame him because that's a huge bill. How much does it cost to keep a fucking castle? There's also a bit of tension between John and his wife. Months before John was drinking and he was driving his kids and he got into a car accident. His son ended up dying and his daughter was blinded at glass in her eyes. His wife will not forgive him. John's trying to stay sober. Hard thing to do, especially when you stumble upon a wine cellar of all this vintage wine. It just goes on and on. He gets up late at night and he runs into the housekeeper. She proceeds to tell him a story of his aunt. The aunt was married and he left her for another woman and they had a son and the son died. Rumor has it that she actually killed the son to punish the husband for leaving. We suddenly see this being that's been locked in this cage and he starts going wild. He starts going nuts and he starts tugging at the chains he wants out. He breaks his thumb, pulls the shackle off of his wrist. His thumb comes right off in the process too. Comes upon the daughter who's sleeping. She can't see him, but she can hear that he's there. John goes to go check the house and he's going through this one room with all the furniture covering his white sheets. And well, Castle Freak is there in the white sheet and gets up in the white sheet. And now he's kind of like in this weird shroud walking around the house. It looks very creepy. So they think maybe someone's in the house and they call the cops. The cops don't believe anything. They even refuse to search the castle. Like, you know how big this castle is? We don't have the manpower resources to search the whole castle. So John's had enough with his wife kind of giving him the cold shoulder. Are you punishing me for what I did? She says yes, because God didn't. So he's like, I'm fucked. I'm in this. I'm never getting out. Never getting the poon tang again. So he goes to the local bar and starts drinking hard, right? He gets cut off, actually. But this woman comes and he's like, Takes her back to the castle. Going down on her big time and like just getting right in there. And Castle Freak's kind of watching. He's like, he's getting a little bit. He's getting excited. She didn't realize she was across the tube. Castle Freak kidnaps her before she even makes it out of the castle. The cops show up at the castle the next day and say, this woman is missing. She was last seen with you at the bar. His wife is all, He sees his lawyer and the lawyer kind of like blackmailes him and everything. You're blackmailing me? Poor bastard. He has no luck in this movie at all. So Castle Freak has this prostitute, kept captive, saw what was going on before and he wants some two puts her hands down here. But he's just his ball. Just his balls hanging there. He's got no way fighting off her breasts and everything. It goes wild and basically kind of eats her. Housekeeper comes in and catches him going down on her. But literally eating her though. Then he kills a housekeeper too. So the cops go and search the castle and they find the dead bodies and of course instantly arrest John pleading. No, it's not me. There's someone losing the castle. I know who it is because he's done some research and he kind of figured out who this Castle Freak is. In the meantime, his wife and daughter are left at the castle by themselves at the Castle Freak's mercy. And he has a real liking for the daughter. Yeah. And that's where we're going to end the plot. If you want to see how Castle Freak ends, watch the movie because it's fantastic. He's got a nonexistent heart on for the daughter. Cut a phantom boner. This movie is just simply and utterly a cool movie. Hey, why are you calling me? I just finished Castle Freak. Man, what a great pic. Fantastic movie. Yeah, but why are you calling me about it? Just a phony and tell you how great it was. Yeah, but why are you calling me? Why are you being such an asshole? I just wanted to tell you that it was a great pic. Yeah, but why are you calling me? The origin for the movie is even interesting. That's right. So before there was even a movie, they just had a poster made up with some kind of woman whipping some sort of like Quasimodo type figure and I guess Stuart Gordon goes into Charles Band's office and sees a poster and is like, what's that? A movie you want to make? Maybe I can direct it? Sure. Just make sure it has a castle in it and a freak in it. And that's it. That's Castle Freak. And they shot it at Charles Band's own castle, which boggles my brain. Like, how does like Charles Band, who just makes these cheesy, direct-to-video movies, have enough money to buy a fucking castle? That's crazy, yeah. I want a castle. So do I. I want that wine cellar. The story is cool too, right? And it's done really well. Like, it's kind of neat how you have this monster that's locked up in this castle, in this tower, managed to weave an interesting story around all of that, right? That still manages to keep you captivated enough to want to continue watching the movie, right? And it keeps unfolding and you keep learning more and more about this family and why the Castle Freak was kept there. There's so many layers to this movie. It's actually pretty deep for a movie that's just called Castle Freak. It's pretty deep for a movie with the Phantom Wayne. That's right, yeah. There's a lot going on in this movie, way more going on in this movie than most straight-to-video horror movies. Yeah, it sort of doesn't get the credit that it deserves. No, I don't think so at all. The characters in this movie are great. All has to do with their backstory, because they come in with all this baggage. This whole family that's going to the castle has so much baggage from this accident that happened. You know, it's great. And even that, you don't learn all about right away. That even unfolds throughout the movie. So you're always learning more. Even the Castle Freak has baggage, right? He's got the most amount of baggage at Four Bastards. You also sympathize with the Castle Freak, right? You do. You understand his side of things. You've been kept up in that room for so long, it's only natural that you're going to lash out. And you feel sorry for the blind daughter, too, because they're both been fucked over by their parents. And she's a neat character, too, because she can hear all the stuff that happens. She can hear the Castle Freak in the room, but she can't see it. So no one really believes her. And the movie keeps a serious tone pretty much throughout, which I really like. Like, this movie could easily go comedic. You could go to a comedic group, but I don't think it would be as effective. No, and it being directed by Stuart Gordon, being part of the whole Charles Band umbrella, you'd think horror comedy. Yeah, and Full Moon, too, right? Yeah, and it's not a horror comedy. It's just straight horror. And there is some comedy in this, but it's very subtle. It's not in your face and not oaky, campy comedy. The comedy basically is Jeffrey Combs just being Jeffrey Combs, especially when he's at the bar drunk. It's fantastic. Things just get worse for him throughout the whole movie. Like, how can anything get any worse while it does? Yeah. And the acting, too, is great, right? Jeffrey Combs carries the movie. The wife is great as a grieving mother. She's more out for revenge, it seems, right? You really get that anger in her. And I love that that she's staying with him to punish him. She can easily divorce him saying, I don't want to be with you anymore. You killed my kid. You're a fuck-up and a drunk. But she stays with him just to say, fuck you. Her ruin is, or wreck his life. Just to wreck his life. Fantastic. Not only Castle Freak is in chains, but so is he. Yeah, exactly, yeah. There's a lot of cool little, like, parallels in this movie like that, you know? Yeah, it's kind of like the Castle Freak is sort of the suffering that everyone has. Everybody is going through. Well, the setting is fantastic. Can you get any better than this creepy old castle? Yeah. Huge castle where, like the cop said, it's too big to even search. So if there's some weird thing walking around in there, you're not going to find it because it can evade you so easily. Yeah, you can hide anywhere. Hide anywhere. And not just the castle itself, but the way they dress the castle up. You know, all the paintings and the walls are all really bizarre and macabre and creepy. And even the chairs, like, they always have those old chairs which look so uncomfortable. Yeah. The straight back. Yeah. And it's all wood. No wood, like all this uncomfortable furniture. Like, it just makes you feel uncomfortable. The pacing of this movie is fantastic because they don't blow their load. They really tease you with the Castle Freak. You don't even really see them full on until three quarters into the movie. Always in shadows. Gets that shroud and he puts that on and you see him full on, but he's in the shroud so you don't see him. I kind of wish actually that they didn't really show him at all. Yeah. I wish they would have kept the shroud and just left it at that. When you do see him without the shroud, you see the full on makeup effect. It's a great makeup effect. Like, it doesn't look cheesy or cheap. They look like real fingernails. They don't look like that rubber shit. Like, as soon as he touches something, it's going to bend. It's all moving. Yeah. Like, it looks like real fingernails and he looks like a real person has gone through some awful suffering. Yeah, exactly. Just balls. That's it. The noises he makes, too. The screams and the screeching, whimpering and stuff that he does is fucking creepy. It's like, it's unsettling. The sounds he makes are sounds like sorrow. So you more feel sorry for the guy than you are scared of him. Because he is the victim. Doesn't know any better for one thing. Yeah. And for another... He's hungry. Yeah, yeah, he's on the loose now. He's on the loose. He wants to do things that he wasn't able to do being locked in that fucking cell. Like, have sex with the phantom way. Yeah. And eat. Because he's starving and everything. He doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong. The kills are good, too, that what he does is just brute force shit. Which actually kind of... How is he so strong? Being weak in all these years. So malnourished and everything and not eating anything. He's all super strong. The themes of this movie are really fucking heavy. Like, really heavy for a straight-to-video full-of-moon production. Philosophy child and how you deal with that and alcoholism, blackmail and, like, sexual tension. There's a lot of, like, sexual tension in this. Like, Castle Freak is kind of always horny and so is Jeffrey Combs' character. And it's like, all these cool themes shoved into this what you'd think is a schlocky movie, but it isn't at all. Yeah. And the themes is what makes it not a schlocky movie. Yeah, it's a fucking smart movie. Yeah. I wonder if maybe it would have been taken a lot more seriously if it wasn't called Castle Freak. And the showdown at the end between Castle Freak and Jeffrey Combs' character is fantastic. Yeah. It's worth the watch. The movie doesn't blow its load right away and it's just a nice ramp up all the way. Yeah. And then you get a good payoff at the end. And you feel sorry for everyone involved. Exactly. Like, the movie kind of comes full circle. This movie was remade recently. Started off not bad. I'm like, OK, it's a little bit more modern. And of course, all these young kids, they get to the castle. I was like, OK, you got to get a cool-looking castle, neat atmosphere, twist everything around. The Castle Freak is a female in this. And I was kind of digging it a little bit until the Necronomicon shows up for no reason at all. And this kid's like, oh, it's a Necronomicon. And it has to do with all this like devil worship and like sacrifice and like, what is the Necronomicon doing in Castle Freak? And after that, it just took a major downhill. It just took a shit in the biggest way. Castle Freak did not need a remake at all. No. Why would you remake this movie? It nailed it. If you haven't seen Castle Freak, we urge you to go check it out ASAP because it's probably one of the best full moon production movies out there ever. Yeah, and pretty much one of the last really good ones. Yeah. After this, it starts to go a little downhill. Yeah, head of the family. Not quite up there with Castle Freak. No. Demonic toys, spinoffs, baby, oopsie. Yeah, yeah. It's all shit. Like the production value is all shitty. Looks like somebody just filmed it with a camcorder and all that like, ah, you guys. So if you want to watch your favorite Vorta go down on a hooker, I urge you to watch Castle Freak. And until next time, keep drinking.