Rating: **1/2
Starring: Clair Catherine, Kika Magalhães, Jake Horowitz
The H.P. Lovecraft short The Outsider details its protagonist's escape from what appears to be a decaying castle, leading to their heartbreaking dismay upon realizing that they're hideously malformed upon looking through a mirror, thus forever to be detested as an outsider. When director Stuart Gordon wrote and directed his 1995 film Castle Freak, the horror drama took inspiration from the short, mainly from the fact that the monster of the movie is a maddened man deformed through years of maltreatment, having to escape a castle's dungeons to terrorize its new modern day occupants.
Years later in 2020, SFX and prosthetic makeup artist Bryan "Tate" Steinsiek makes his directorial debut and treats us horror fans with a more Lovecraftian remodel for Castle Freak. Like, really Lovecraftian. Dunwich Horror Lovecraftian.
Here we follow a blind Rebecca Riley learning from an estate agent that she just inherited her mother's Albanian castle and, being an adopted child since her infancy, she is rather eager to learn more about this castle seeing she knows nothing of her biological mother. John, her boyfriend, unfortunately doesn't share her enthusiasm and greatly suggests to sell the estate instead and get on with their lives. Considering John was the one responsible for blinding Rebecca through a car accident he caused whilst high and drunk, it's easy to figure out that their relationship is starting to stumble down a rocky slope the more they stay and bicker about their situation. It also doesn't help that John would soon invite his friends over to help out with his scheme or just to simply get wasted, but that trouble is little in comparison to the murderous intent brewing within the walls or the maddening otherworldly terror that's starting outside the castle...
Calling Castle Freak (2020) a slasher is only correct for a few good parts as we do still get stalk-and-stab action, only it's halfway down its hundred minute or so running time that focuses more on horror drama and, later, Lovecraftian cosmic nightmare. If anything, this re-imagined Castle Freak is an exploitation tribute to Lovecraft's works, taking in themes of isolation, grief and madness that are common among the writer's literary pieces and crafting them into a movie with gratuitous (and, for one scene, disturbing) sleaze, monsters with gruesome body horror and a swift dash of gory murders. With this direction, it does fairly well being a separate in-name companion piece to the original 1995 title, standing on its own ground and exploring new angles for an intriguing plot while still keeping and playing around with familiar key points from the Stuart Gordon movie.
I'm very much down with this new, more lore-heavy Castle Freak as the mythos it introduced works well with its take of the story, but with its unlikable characters outweighing the likable ones, the acting having their far from memorable moments and the pacing being too drawn out, I personally can't say I enjoyed it from start to finish. I do understand this might have been needed to build layers within its casts and further intensify the impending doom and dread, but it's a tough flow to sit and follow and I am simply glad the payoff at the near end was grandeur in its own modestly crazy way; we get monstrous fornications, a lot of clawed throats and guts, gooey tentacles, a cult re-awakening and a major Lovecraftian deity making a surprisingly welcome appearance, basically a real off-the-wall treat of a finale that's well worth the wait, sleaze and miserable characters to get by, even if it is a bit crammed.
Looking at the scale of the production, the film has an adequate look to it; the lighting and set design are good albeit a few cheap looking props. Camera shots and editing did a swell enough job emphasizing and utilizing the deserted state of the castle and the hidden dangers lurking through its hidden passages, as well as bring out the creep and gross-out factor whenever it lingers at the inhuman condition of our creature and other bodily oddities.
Though I can't say I see myself watching it all over again soon, Castle Freak (2020) is still a fair stride of an effort, one that needs a few tweaking and elbow grease to get itself rolling more satisfyingly. If you like your horror films freaky and weird, boasting good effects and a final act that rewards you for your patience, then, outsider, this Castle Freak's for you!
Bodycount:
1 female found murdered
1 male injected in the chest with heroin, stabbed to death with syringes
1 female had her neck snapped, internally beheaded
1 male had his throat lacerated with a flail
1 male disemboweled with a flail, cannibalized
1 elderly male dies from a ritual (flashback)
1 male thumbed in the eyes, throat bitten off
1 male bashed on the head with a mace
Total: 8
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