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The Castle Freak episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw was Written by Cody Hamman, Narrated by Jason Hewlett, Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Stuart Gordon directed some of the best, most popular H.P. Lovecraft adaptations ever made, starting with the 1985 classic Re-Animator. Ten years after he made that film, he returned Lovecraft to tell an even darker and more gruesome story. The story of an evil man who has spent his life in confinement and torture. When he escapes a bloodbath follows. It’s the story of a man known as the Castle Freak – and it’s The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Stuart Gordon and producer Charles Band established their working relationship during the filming of Re-Animator. The project was able to benefit from the production facilities provided by Band’s Empire Pictures and Empire Pictures was the distributor. Some people claim that Band had no influence on the final product. He was only responsible for the release. But Re-Animator wouldn’t have been exactly what it was if not for his influence. He fired the cinematographer a week into the filming and replaced him with one of his collaborators. Band also selected the artists who provided the memorable effects. His brother Richard provided the film with its Psycho-esque score. It has been reported that their father Albert took notes during the editing process, as an hour’s worth of subplots was trimmed from the running time. If it weren’t for the Bands, Re-Animator would have looked and sounded very different.

Re-Animator was a success for Empire, and Gordon was clearly appreciative of Charles Band’s contributions. They continued to work together. At Empire, they made From Beyond – which was another Lovecraft movie – Dolls, and Robot Jox. Full Moon was the company that Band founded after leaving Empire. Gordon’s The Pendulum and the Pit was one of their first productions. Band will often come up with titles, and then have poster art created to match them. Then he asks writers and directors to make a movie that goes along with the title. Gordon noticed the poster Castle freak while visiting Band’s offices one day. The artwork depicted a woman whipping an deformed man chained to a brick wall. Gordon asked Band to explain the story behind the poster. Band replied simply, “Well, it’s about a castle, and a freak.” Since there wasn’t yet a writer assigned to the project, Gordon could make Castle Freak by himself if he was interested. You can watch the video HERE. Gordon jumped at the opportunity. Gordon jumped at the opportunity.To craft a story to go with the title

Castle Freak, Gordon teamed up with Dennis Paoli. Who had written Re-Animator,From Beyond , and The Pit and the Pendulum. They turned to Lovecraft’s source material again and took inspiration from a tale called The Outsider. This one is short and simple. It’s told from the perspective a man who was trapped in a castle since he can recall. He finally escapes and comes across a party… the people at the party flee in terror. When he sees his monstrous reflection in a mirrored, he realizes why. This is the setup for a hideous person escaping from a castle. When people see him, they are scared. A scene where he looks at himself in the mirror. The rest of the script was written by Gordon and Paoli. According to Fangoria, a part of the story is based on a true incident that occurred in Europe.The movie centers around an American family called the Reillys. John, Susan, and Rebecca, their teenage daughter, are the main characters. John inherits an Italian castle from a Duchess that he did not know he was related. He takes his wife and daughters to the castle to inspect it while making plans to dispose of it. They begin to suspect that someone else is in the castle, besides the housekeeper. The viewer knows that there’s someone in the castle because they saw the Duchess whip a man in a cell. The Duchess is far from the other living areas. She died from the strain of this particular whipping. Since she died, that man, the Castle Freak has been locked up in his cell, without food. He’s hungry…and he’s alone.

We will eventually learn that the Castle Freak was the Duchess’s son Giorgio. Her husband left the family when Giorgio a young child and went to America with her sister. The Duchess claimed that Giorgio had died shortly after. She actually locked him up in a cell. He was whipped, mutilated, and tortured for the humiliation and heartbreak his father caused her. Giorgio is shackled in that cell since over forty years. When the Reillys move into his cell, he breaks and gnaws off his thumb to escape his shackles. He would have had a much better life if he’d done that forty years earlier. It’s always better to look back than forward. He becomes obsessed with Rebecca when he emerges from his cell. She doesn’t reciprocate, of course. It’s a good thing that the Castle Freak is her uncle. John is indeed the son of her sister and ex-husband. He was unaware of the sordid past of his parents. And definitely didn’t know he had a half-brother chained up in a castle in Italy.

Giorgio brings plenty of horror with him when he escapes from his cell. He does some horrible things. The scenes of the Reillys interacting with each other are also not very pleasant. John is a recovering alcoholic. He was driving under the influences of alcohol with his children, Rebecca and her younger sibling J.J., in the car. When the car crashed, Rebecca lost her sight and J.J. died. Susan can’t forgive John what happened. She can’t stand him anymore… yet she hasn’t left him. Rebecca doesn’t think she should. She knows that her father is in a difficult situation. He needs their assistance. But all John and Susan seem to do is have intense arguments.

It’s a story that allows for strong dramatic scenes and repulsive scenes of gore. This has all the makings of an excellent horror film. Gordon cast his

Re-Animator and From Beyond stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton as John and Susan. Jessica Dollarhide, a relative newcomer, was cast as Rebecca. Her biggest role, and the last screen role she has had to date. Helen Stirling appears briefly as the Duchess. Elisabeth Kaza, the housekeeper, is familiar with the family history. Massimo Sarchielli, her lawyer brother, plays the role of Elisabeth Kaza. Luca Zingaretti is a local policeman. Raffaella Ofidani is a prostitute that has a disturbing encounter with Giorgio. Fuller spent six hours a day in the makeup chair to play Giorgio. Fuller was adorned with full body devices by John Vulich’s Optic Nerve effects crew to transform him into the tortured character. But he wasn’t the only one who endured this. Castle Freak

is a very different style and tone than Gordon’s previous Lovecraft adaptions. It’s darker, nastier. Combs, and Crampton felt the difference. In the earlier films, they had said that Gordon’s motto was “More Is Not Enough”. He wanted more blood, more slime and for the film to be more outrageous. He wanted this one to be more realistic. He wanted realistic performances and relationships. He wanted realistic performances and relationships.As Crampton told Fangoria magazine, “Castle Freak

preys on human weaknesses in a crude, realistic way.” During the Video Zone making of documentary, Combs said, “Sometimes when there is humor to be had in scripts, Stuart has a way of keeping the set kind of light. He wanted everyone to feel comfortable. He joked, laid back and relaxed. This wasn’t the case with this film. Combs was particularly tormented by his character’s mentality. He couldn’t relax and have fun on set. He told Fangoria that he could never let go of the horrible things his character felt guilty about. Charles Band owned the castle at the time. The castle was used as a location for many of Gordon’s productions, including his own The Pendulum and the Pit. The filming of

Castle Fright went smoothly despite the disturbing subject matter. The last day was a 22-hour scramble to leave the castle before Band’s friends and family moved in. The real trouble arose in post-production, as that’s when Full Moon’s distribution deal with Paramount Pictures fell apart.Paramount was deeply involved with the workings of Full Moon during the years of their deal, which started in 1989. Ten to twenty people were involved in each decision. Band had to meet marketing, PR and distribution people several times a week. He had started production on Castle Freak before telling Paramount. He had promised Gordon final cut and that the movie could be unrated like Re-Animator. Gordon hoped for a theatrical release… but even Combs questioned whether the movie would be accepted in many theatres, if not any. The road to

Castle Fright was bumpier than Band had anticipated. Viacom merged with Blockbuster, and Paramount was purchased for ten billion dollar by Viacom. Band’s former colleagues were replaced. Full Moon was not a priority for the new Paramount regime. The company was behind in film deliveries, had money problems, and who the hell is Castle FREAK? Band and Paramount parted, with Band keeping the Full Moon title and Castle Freaker. Which still needed post-production to be completed. Full Moon was having financial problems, so the American actors weren’t paid for the overtime they were due. Fuller revealed to Fangoria in its pages that the actors refused recording additional dialogue until they received their backpay. Full Moon and the actors were at a standoff for months. Gordon finally got the actors to agree on a payment plan, and the recording of the dialogue was completed. Fuller was also informed that another producer owed the Italian actors between fifty and seventy five percent of their salaries. Hope that money was given out when Castle Freakwas released on straight-to-video, in November 1995. Gordon did get his unrated cut, and there’s an R-rated cut that’s about 54 seconds shorter.Castle Freak wasn’t as well-received as Re-Animator and From Beyond

were… But it was never going to be. A film this disturbing and gross couldn’t be accepted by a large audience. It deservedly gained a cult following. When Joe Bob Briggs, the movie host on Shudder, got a new show in 2018, Castle Freak became one of the first movies shown at The last drive-in. Barbara Crampton was there to discuss it.Before beginning production on Castle Freak Gordon showed the cast members and crew the 1963 movie The Haunting. Gordon showed the cast and crew a 1963 film called The Haunting

to get an idea of the dark, creepy atmosphere that he was trying to create for their movie. They succeeded in capturing the dark, creepy atmosphere they wanted for their movie. At times, Castle FREAK is like a haunted-house movie. Locals believe that the castle is haunted, by the spirit Giorgio who they were told had died at the age of five. John is moved by this idea… and breaks down when he sees the picture of Giorgio as a child. The performances of the actors and the dramatic story Gordon & Paoli wrote for each character are the most powerful elements of the film. This film has a lot more emotional depth than what you might expect from a movie called Castle freak and the actors did incredibly well in bringing their high spirited characters to life. Roaming around the castle. He’s dangerous. We’re not scared of anything supernatural happening as the characters walk through the castle’s dark corridors and rooms. We’re afraid the Freak will come out of the darkness and brutalize the characters. We feel sympathy for the Freak because it is not his fault he is this way. The real monster in this situation is the Duchess.Giorgio’s mother even went so far as to castrate him during his decades of torture. It is important to remember this when we see him mutilate a female. The Freak captures a woman after watching John get frisky and bringing a prostitute back to the castle. He tries to imitate what he saw John doing with her. He can’t have sexual relations with her, and he doesn’t understand why you shouldn’t bite someone’s nipple. There’s a famous moment when we see the Freak with his face buried between the prostitute’s legs… And if you don’t understand what he’s doing there, Joe Bob explained it well on the Castle Freak episode of The Last Drive-In.

Castle Freak

is a movie that disturbs and disgusts in equal measure. This is not a movie you should watch if you want to feel good. It’s worth watching if you’re willing to sit through 90 minutes of depression and gore. Gordon thought he’d stumbled into a franchise when he made this film. He thought that there could be Castle Freak-sequels and that Giorgio would join Freddy and Jason in the genre as an icon. It wasn’t meant to be. While Gordon would go on to tell more Lovecraft stories – Dagon

and Dreams in the Witch-House

– he never did make a Castle Freak 2. The Freak did return, in a sense. Crampton revisited the concept in 2020 to produce a remake Castle FREAK. Or, as Crampton described it, “a reimagining”, as that film took a different approach to the subject and dug deeper into Lovecraftian mysticism. It’s obvious that Castle Fright has stayed with her, as she returned to it after so many decades. Below are a couple of previous episodes from the Best horror movie you never saw series. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlsIUZBSTI8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWMbsiUBHmQ

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