Halloween Horror Watch #21: Castle Freak

Castle Freak -- Stuart Gordon



My expectations were high for Castle Freak. It reunites Stuart Gordon, Barbara Crampton, and Jeffrey Combs who together made the fantastic movies Re-Animator and From Beyond (I'd like to not that I no longer view From Beyond as "high quality cheese." It's stone-cold awesome). The VHS cover for Castle Freak literally haunted my nightmares when I was a kid. I should know better.

In the ten years between From Beyond and Castle Freak it seems like Gordon lost his ability to go batshit crazy. The filmmaking here feels like some middle of the road journeyman who thinks a dutch angle is a daring choice. Combs and Crampton are completely wasted playing nothings of characters who have marital problems because he drunk drove their kids home and wrecked, killing one and blinding the other. There isn't even any good use of the blind daughter and how she experiences what is happening. It's a shame as there is lots of potential and very little followthrough.

Castle Freak does some good things. The freak is a great monster and should be minimally as iconic as Pumpkinhead (which is a far worse movie), but I bet he's not because this movie went straight to video.  The actor, Jonathan Fuller, uses his body masterfully. The final pursuit through the castle where the freak is chasing the wife and blind daughter is solid. Lots of suspense and one legitimately awesome, if unlikely, moment.

A letdown, no doubt, but Castle Freak will still hold a special place in my heart if only for the VHS cover.

As a side note, I will always love the "I can't believe we inherited _____ from our long lost _____" as a trope in horror movies. But if you're going to use it, your movie shouldn't take itself so seriously.

Halloween Horror Watch #17: Re-Animator

Re-Animator -- Stuart Gordon



What a lovely bit of insanity Re-Animator is. I saw it once years ago, but I had yet to develop the appropriate appreciation for Jeffrey Combs' skill set, meaning everything he does is awesome. It's bizarre because he's literally the face of the movie, but Combs doesn't get top billing and isn't featured as much as one would expect. This is because we need the requisite love story between a Talking Heads loving (you'll get it later) med student and the dean's daughter. It's not that these parts are bad. Barbara Crampton is great in everything and always willing to do anything for the movie it seems, but the leading man, Bruce Abbott just can't hold a candle to Combs. There's a scene where Crampton is breaking down and Abbott looks as though he's trying to force back laughter. Maybe he was trying to act sad?

Things go suitably bat-shit in the end and I love that the dean and the doctor, two upstanding men, wind up bloody and insane by the end. There's something very satisfying about seeing their starched collars come undone. Between this and From Beyond, it feels like Stuart Gordon should have had a far more impressive career than he did.

Thought the title bills it as "H.P. Lovecraft's," it's in a name only. While the movie is great, it loses my favorite aspect of the short story. Herbert West's creation escapes and West lives in constant dread that it will come back to murder him. But that's not the West in the movie. It's just as well. I kind of like living in a world where I can have both versions of the man.

Weekly Film Rec: From Beyond

I was going to apologize for yet another horror film, but A) one should never have to apologize for recommending horror films and B) I haven't really recommended that many. So while The Bad Sleep Well would have looked good for diversity and done much for my film geek street cred, I'm going to go with Stuart Gordon's From Beyond (though The Bad Sleep Well is pretty awesome).

Taken from a story by H.P. Lovecraft (much like Gordon's Re-Animator), From Beyond is about scientists who unlock access to a sixth sense by using a machine to stimulate the pineal gland thereby gaining access to a new plane of existence (and allowing those things within this plane access to you). I'm not entirely sure about the science of all of this (or the existence of a "pineal gland"), but if this is what it takes to play with some fantastic practical effects, then I'm more than willing to go for the ride.

Mainstay of Gordon's films, Jeffrey Combs, is the lead and even though he can sometimes be a bit too over-the-top (I'm looking at you, The Frighteners), I always love watching him. He's got this great manic energy that's perfect for a mad scientist type. Of course, he's not the mad scientist in this one, or at least not the maddest. There's at least two other that are more insane than he. One who gets to turn into a wicked beasty and Barbara Crampton, most notable because she was in Chopping Mall the same year.

I'd be completely remiss if I didn't mention genre all-star Ken Foree. He plays the comic relief here and does it quite well. It does feel a bit cliched having the sole black person being the funny one, but dammit, it's Ken Foree! Dawn of the Dead!

The film is by no means great, but it's a bit of fun with some disturbing effects. Great for a night of high quality cheese.