After losing her eyesight to a car accident, and her estranged mother to an over-enthusiastic self-flagellation, Rebecca (Clair Catherine) inherits a castle in small-town Albania. Moving in with boyfriend John (Jake Horowitz), the pair set about packing up and selling on. What neither accounts for is the basement-dwelling ‘freak’ slinking about in the dark.
This re-imagining of Stuart Gordon’s cult favourite returns the story to its cosmic roots as an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider. Those tuning in purely for the freak show certainly won’t be disappointed, but there’s more of an emphasis on the wider Lovecraft mythos here. Director Tate Steinsiek’s take is about as faithful to Lovecraft’s text as Gordon ever was (which is to say: not very), but he throws the toy box wide open – the first stage of Full Moon’s Lovecraft Cinematic Universe. As such, be sure to keep an eye open throughout the credits for an exciting stinger, and hopefully a promise of more to come from the creative team.
But first, Steinsiek has big shoes to fill. Castle Freak is relatively obscure when compared to Gordon’s Re-Animator, or even From Beyond, but it remains one of the director’s most distinctive pictures. Visually, Steinsiek has nothing to worry about. This is a lavish work of Gothic horror, not skimping either on the castle or the freak. In visuals, gore and nudity, it plays like a lost ‘80s/’90s erotic horror, fully in keeping with the previous Lovecraft adaptations from Full Moon and Stuart Gordon. As is to be expected, with original star Barbara Crampton serving as producer behind the scenes.
It is jarring, however, to see the likes of Crampton and Jeffrey Combs traded in for younger models – a cast of mixed talent, not always served well by the writing or their own wooden performances. Catherine tries her best to elevate a paper-thin role, but Rebecca is a disappointingly passive heroine. The film has a great human villain in Jake Horowitz though – the most slappable horror movie boyfriend this side of Midsommar.
Castle Freak is a smart, stylish re-imagining of an underrated horror property. Like much of Lovecraft’s work, it’s lacking in the human element, but makes up for it with its cosmic streak.
