Prime Time: Castle Freak (2020)

I'm not going to try to tell you that the original Castle Freak was any kind of classic. Nor am I going to try and tell you that it was tasteful and full of effective scares. It was a fun time though, helped by performances from a couple of well-known leads and the fine directorial instincts of Stuart Gordon. This remake, in comparison, is a bit shambolic.

Rebecca (Clair Catherine) and John (Jake Horowitz) are the young couple who move into the castle with a dark secret. Rebecca is blind, John is struggling to live a clean life. Their relationship is strained, and it's about to be strained further by the secrets contained within the castle. Some other people join our leads, a creature creeps around and kills some of them, and the whole thing leads to a very silly finale, and tiresome post-credits sting that references another Gordon horror movie.

This is only the second feature from director Tate Steinsiek, who has spent years working in the art and special effects departments. The lack of experience shines through, with almost every scene highlighting the low budget and the weak cast. Unsurprisingly, there are some decent effects here and there, to be expected from someone who knows that side of things so well, but I defy anyone to watch this and actually care about any of the characters or the storyline.

Kathy Charles may or may not have been pleased to have this as her first feature writing credit (she would do much better in collaboration with others on her next project, Jakob's Wife), but this feels like more of an assignment than any passion project. Every item on the list must be checked off (Lovecraft references - check, gratuitous nudity - check, clumsy exposition - check, people being oblivious to the real danger until it's ready to disembowel them - check, etc) and it would be laughable if it didn't feel so lazy.

Neither Catherine nor Horowitz do a very good job, sadly, and there's nobody else to help distract from their relatively poor performances. Emily Sweet seems to be there for her willingness to be involved in the main nude scene, Chris Galust is frankly appalling in a role that was crying out to be performed by a genre legend cameo, and the only other person I want to mention is Kika Magalhães, who at least tries her best to carry the movie with the many scenes revolving around her character.

It just goes to show you that people can make very different things with the same sets of ingredients. Some may view this and think it's on a par with the original film, considering how schlocky and grubby that one seemed at times. Others, like myself, will simply point to it as a prime example of what happens when you provide a fairly low budget to people who don't have the experience to rise above it. 

3/10

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Suitable Flesh (2023)

No Netflix and chill on the blog this week, mainly because I had the opportunity to cram some of the latest horror movies at a local cinema.

Loosely based on "The Thing On The Doorstep", a short story from H.P. Lovecraft I read many years ago now, Suitable Flesh is a horror film written by Dennis Paoli that feels very much like a new film from director Stuart Gordon, despite it actually being directed by Joe Lynch. I don't say that to unfairly compare the film to past glories. I say it as a very deliberate compliment.

The framing of the main narrative involves Heather Graham as Dr. Elizabeth Derby, a therapist who is locked up and being interviewed by a friend and colleague, Dr. Daniella Upton (Barbara Crampton). It turns out that Dr. Derby has been going a bit off the rails, to put it mildly, since her first encounter with a patient named Asa Waite (Judah Lewis). Asa kept making claims about out of body experiences, a problem that he kept linking to his father, Ephraim (Bruce Davison). Although it's easy to believe that Asa has mental health issues, it soon becomes easier for Dr. Derby to believe that there's something to his feeling of being taken over by another entity.

Made with what seems to be fairly limited resources (I would imagine that the budget went mainly on the cast and a couple of very impressive practical effects moments), Suitable Flesh won't necessarily draw people in from the opening moments. It takes a while to really settle in to what it wants to deliver, with that time laying groundwork that helps to acclimatise viewers to the wild ideas at the heart of the script. Paoli has adapated many Lovecraft tales before this one, of course, but he does some of his best work here when it comes to translating a head-scratching concept from page to screen in a way that doesn't lead to complete confusion and unintentional comedy.

Lynch does a very good job of working with everyone in a way that feels in line with the material. The emphasis here is on macabre fun, and the tone is perfect throughout, although it's just a shame that this is a film that has received comments for the amount of sexual content when it still feels rather tame compare to the films it is otherwise successfully emulating. Lynch keeps a lot of humour and transgressiveness onscreen, but there's a sense that he remains slightly restrained, trying to balance things out between the potential craziness and the ability to have the film be a marketable commodity.

Graham has a lot of fun in her lead role, going wonderfully over the top when playing the wilder incarnation of her character, I'd be tempted to even say that it is her best role in years, and Crampton is as good as she always is alongside her. Lewis moves between understandable nerviness and unnerving cool confidence, Davison makes a strong impression with his few scenes, and Johnathon Schaech is the confused husband of Graham's character, and someone who proves to be surprisingly easily seduced by some of the new ways in which his wife wants to fool around. Graham Skipper has a small role, a lot of fun as the kind of pathologist who eats his lunch over a corpse on the slab, and Hunter Womack is a likeable security guard who gets caught up in the escalating madness of a satisfying third act that pulls out all the stops.

Weird, wild, and brilliant, Suitable Flesh is a real treat for horror fans. The pairing of Lynch and Paoli is a rewarding one, I hope this isn't their only collaboration, and if they make any more vehicles for some of my favourite actresses then all the better.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Castle Freak (1995)

In a stroke of typical bad luck for characters who may not realise they are in a horror movie, Castle Freak shows a family unit inheriting a spacious castle that happens to house a dangerous creature inside, hence the title. The family aren't in the happiest place to start with, and things may get a lot worse as the full horror of their situation becomes apparent.

Directed by Stuart Gordon, who once again decided to work with Dennis Paoli on a loose adaptation of a story from H. P. Lovecraft (a well they revisited, with varying degrees of success, numerous times throughout their careers), Castle Freak may not be the best work from all those involved, both cast and crew, but it's a wonderfully unpretentious and nasty little horror movie.

Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton play John and Susan Reilly, temporarily moving into the castle with their blind daughter, Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide), and the backstory delivered shows that John caused a car accident, while drunk, that caused Rebecca's blindness. That would be bad enough in itself, but Susan cannot forgive her husband for also causing the death of their son in the same accident. John is trying to stay sober now, obviously, but it might be too late for him to make a change that will change how his wife views him. Meanwhile, the creature that was once being secretly cared for in the castle is about to start making noises in the night that put the new occupants on edge, And it's getting hungry.

Moving between old-fashioned standard horror (dark castle corridors, rattling chains, unknown sounds occurring at night), blood-drenched nastiness (there are one or two bodies that eventually get munched on by the hungry creature), and entertaining melodrama (Combs struggles to maintain sobriety until he opts to fall off the wagon with a vengeance), Castle Freak is a strange blend of elements that somehow all works, mainly thanks to the safe hands of Gordon and Paoli. Both men know how to get just the right tone in the horror works that they also mine for humour, and they're helped by a couple of genre stars who can deliver exactly what is asked of them.

Combs is the star who gets to have the most fun here, whether he is being rebuffed by his wife or getting himself as drunk as possible at a local bar, and he has a number of entertaining confrontations, be it with the local police, a prostitute, or the dangerous presence viewers know will eventually show itself to everyone in the third act. Crampton, as much as I love her, has much less to do, but she still feels right in the role (perhaps because she pairs up so well with Combs, perhaps because she's just a genuinely great scream queen when the time comes for her to be placed in peril). Dollarhide does okay, and Elisabeth Kaza plays a maid, Agnese, who occasionally has more than a slight air of Frau Blücher (*insert horse whinny sound here*) about her. It's also vital to mention Jonathan Fuller, playing Giorgio AKA the creature, who gives an excellent physical performance under a hefty amount of makeup.

If you're a fan of Stuart Gordon, especially if you have enjoyed his other films starring Combs and Crampton, then you should find a lot to enjoy here. It's not on the same level as his best work, but it's still worth your time, especially when things start to get ramped up in the second half.

7/10

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Color Out Of Space (2019)

A quite brilliant cinematic interpretation of the classic H. P. Lovecraft tale by director Richard Stanley, who also wrote the screenplay with Scarlett Amaris, Color Out Of Space was best summed up by a friend of mine (and podcast co-host, Craig). I cannot recall his exact phrasing, but he basically said that, considering how Stanley's career has panned out, it's easy to view this film as one that has both the assured touch of an experienced craftsman and also the hunger and energy of a first-time director looking to make a big impact. He wasn't wrong.

A strange meteorite lands near a remote farmhouse, which leads to the local ecosystem being gradually overcome and transformed by, well, the color out of space (or colour, for us Brits). Pinks and purples start to fill up the environment, in mist form, insects, foliage, and more. Meanwhile, the Gardner family (headed up by Nicolas Cage, playing the patriarch, Nathan) are directly suffering from the effects of the meteorite. Will a visiting hydrologist (Ward, played by Elliot Knight) be able to help, or is the whole thing so unbelievable that the full danger won't be noticed until it's just too late?

Almost perfect from start to finish, Color Out Of Space should please both fans of Lovecraft and fans of the film-making skills of Stanley. Despite a runtime of 111 minutes, it doesn't feel overlong, and despite a number of moments that will remind horror movie fans of The Thing and The Mist, it manages to feel interesting and unique. This is all thanks to the gorgeous style of the whole piece, both visually and tonally.

Pinks and purples bleed into every frame, as you would expect, and Stanley manages to make everything seem like a threat to human life, due to the way it is shown to be growing and encroaching on what was there before, and the impressive score from Colin Stetson (sometimes more like an aggressive audio assault) also helps.

Some people will always accuse Nicolas Cage of often being too . . . Nicolas Cage, and there are moments of it here, but he's pretty good in one of the main roles, for the most part. Even when he's on about the alpacas that are housed in the barn, or sampling a selection of rotten foods while he rages about them. Joely Richardson is his wife, Theresa, and the two have a nice rapport between them. Richardson also does very well when shown to be in a fugue state. Of the three children, Madeleine Arthur feels like the one focused on, playing Lavinia, a girl interested in Wiccan ways, and she's great, but Brendan Meyer, as the older son (Benny), and Julian Hilliard (as young Jack) both also do well. Knight is a very likeable potential hero, and there's a nice little role for Tommy Chong.

It may be more of a mood piece than anything else, but what a mood piece. With an abundance of impressive practical FX work, gorgeous cinematography throughout, and the development of the obvious colour palette, this ranks as Stanley's best, and I am optimistic that the positive reception to it can help to boost him up at this stage of his career, leading to a well-deserved renaissance for him.

9/10

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Dead By Dawn 2016: From Beyond (1986)

This review first appeared, in a very similar form, on Flickfeast.

Director Stuart Gordon reunites a few cast members from Re-Animator (Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs) in another movie based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft and while it may not quite reach the giddy highs that the exploits of Herbert West did, it’s a solid horror that holds up surprisingly well.

Starting off with a very similar short, sharp shock sequence a la Re-Animator, we get to encounter Crawford Tillinghast (played by Combs) as he escapes from an experiment gone awry that has resulted in the death of Dr Pretorius (Ted Sorel). Pretorius was working on an invention known as a resonator that would help to stimulate the pineal gland and show more of that which normally remains unseen all around us. It worked too well, unfortunately, and while seeing amazing sights those using the resonator also attract bigger problems. Barbara Crampton plays Dr. Katherine McMichaels, a misguided professional who thinks that the way to help Tillinghast (now staying in a ward for those with mental problems) is to take him back to the scene of the carnage, accompanied by a large security presence in the shape of Ken Foree, and to re-enact the experiment. Of course that should be a good idea. I’m sure nothing at all will go wrong with that progressive method of helping a person many have already assumed mentally unbalanced. Quelle surprise, things start to go bad and then go from bad to worse.

This movie is a whole lot of fun for fans of horror and fans of any of the lead actors. Taking a very slight Lovecraft tale as its basis, it does very well in using the central concept (and let’s not overlook the great Brian Yuzna’s influence in the writing department here) and expanding upon it to create something truly memorable and entertaining. The special effects vary throughout the movie but many of them are very well done indeed, and there are certainly one or two moments that will make you queasy if you’re not already TOO hardened to everything the genre can throw at you.

Gordon paces things perfectly with that great intro then a nice build-up interspersed by a few quick fright/shock moments until we get to an all-out insanely entertaining final reel that feels more like a Frank Henenlotter movie at times but is all the more fun for it. Revisit this film if you have not seen it in a while and, like me, you may be pleasantly surprised at how well it stands up. And newcomers? Give it a try, you may end up liking it too. Although, do be warned, it also feels very much of the '80s (which remains a big plus point for me, although some don't view things the same way).

One final note . . . . . for one scene alone, seared on my memory at a tender age, this remains the lovely Barbara Crampton’s finest hour. Fans will already be smiling in acknowledgement while all other red-blooded males should definitely check it out just to fall in lust with the woman. What a gal.

From Beyond was followed up in this late late Dead By Dawn 2016 show by the superb Dead & Buried. I admit that my eyelids didn't allow me to stick it out until the end, but here is my review from my last viewing of that particular slice of horror greatness.

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8/10